Having discovered that one can indeed import a plan from an online flight planner into the BBS MCDU (as long as the plan is FS9 format and placed into the Company Routes folder), I decided to have a go at a full IFR flight with a complex Airbus add-on and I was very pleased. No doubt you Aerosoft and FSLabs guys are giggling away at the back, but hey, I've never used anything apart from a freeware Airbus before... and it works for me. 🍻

Imagine a fantasy of flight... A certain brightly coloured A330 owned by Etihad (A6-EYE) has been brought back out of storage for a trip to Porto - one of the opponents of a certain football (soccer) team in 2021 apparently.

Therefore here's a reconnaissance mission, not without its pitfalls..

Blue Moon Rising preparing to leave Liverpool John Lennon, bound for Porto in Portugal. Stanlow Oil Refinery in the background. (FSX NOTAM: Eh? Liverpool? Well it's smaller than EGCC so I'd hoped there was less chance of an OOM whilst I was faffing about !)

 

Taxiing out to RWY27

 

OK. Lined up. Spool up the engines, listen for the "KER-LACK" as the throttles hit the detent for a flex takeoff (I just fudged a number into the MCDU just to try a "flex" takeoff). See that the notification comes up in the top left hand corner of the PFD (not shown here as I'd not advanced the throttles..). I'd also changed the pressure setting of the altimeter so that the amber CHECK ALT notification was extinguished. (I don't think the "B" command for default FSX alt setting works with this 'Bus.

 

Bye bye EGGP. Once she's cleaned up and settled, then a warning bleep tells me to lower climb and I move the throttles back (KER-LACK!) to the CL detent - AKA Autothrottle. The MCDU knows that the limit is 250 knots below 10000 feet and then speeds up to 320 in this case above 10000.

 

Turning on to course, overflying Stanlow. We'll be climbing up to FL390 today.

 

Cardiff Airport off to starboard and Barry Island off to port.. (I know I've got the blurries, but my LOD is set to 4.5...)

 

On up to FL350 initially.. the First Officer's getting ready to read Tractor & Farming Heritage magazine.. We all need our hobbies...

 

Passing by the coast of Brittany, it appears we are not alone: How are you doing down there?

 

Keeping pace with each other over the Bay of Biscay.

 

The Spanish and Portuguese coast..

 

Beginning our descent towards Porto. FSX NOTAM I'll have to have another read of the "manual". When selecting a descent the Airbus decided she was going to exceed 4000fpm  (OP DSC or something??) or so until I'd commanded otherwise - impressive stuff! I do note that the autopilot and autothrottle responses are very impressive - I'd left the descent rate at around 2500fpm and forgotten to reduce this a bit as we neared the selected altitude yet the plane didn't undershoot or porpoise about - I have to baby the Sky Sim MD-11 AP in this regard... 

 

At 10000 going through the murk..

 

This isn't pretty and it took a while to get here, but we'll be OK... 

 

Down.. and on the runway...added bonus!

 

Interesting flight. Phew!

 

I had an interesting flight for several reasons: After being cleared to 10000 feet or so, it appears that the default ATC forgot about us and I ended up cancelling IFR and using the autopilot manually to get back close to LPPR, then hand flew a visual into RWY35. Even with the autopilot turned off, the autothrottle is separate and it was interesting to see the engine readouts respond to my pitching up and down (I'd guessed at a reasonable approach speed of 135 knots!!). I had a couple of sink rate warnings on the approach, but you can see I was a little high and just left the descent rate as it was until closer to the ground. I retarded the throttles to idle before landing (she didn't shout at me) but I managed to get a "FIVE" callout on the altitude strangely enough  I'm not enough of a pilot to know what's wrong with the "flare" law in the BBS widebodies..

Another good reason I had an interesting flight was the satisfaction in watching an electric jet do what it's supposed to do insofar as the displays and the throttles seem to me, to pretty much do what I'd seen from watching Airbus takeoffs on YouTube.

Things to do - consult the AVSIM membership on how to fly this new fangled airliner....I'll have to see if I can reload a saved flight and see what state its in... I'll try and find a way of inputting departure and arrival runways into the generated flight plan - SIDs and STARs if I get that far too. Also see how it shoots an ILS.

Cheers! 🍻

Mark:

I'm glad you're getting your feet wet with this Airbus....btw, I see "Blackbox Airbus" format supported by SimBrief Flight Planner...maybe you know already...but, yes, the flightplan (in the correct format) has to be placed in the correct folder, for the MCDU to be able to pull it up....i.e. if you want to import the FPLN directly...

Look for a few on-line Tutorials, on top of referencing the manuals, that should help you master it...

Question: Did you finally cave in and purchase it outright....I've been thinking of getting an A340 or A330 for myself on FSX/SE...(please keep posted)...thanks...!!

10 hours ago, P_7878 said:

Question: Did you finally cave in and purchase it outright...

Yes I did (note the lack of a large green bar with a 90 minute countdown) - I bought the Widebody Prologue which includes the 330, the freighter and 330 MRTT and the 340 (CFM56 and RR Trent 500 powered variants). That's the only way to have real world liveries on the planes as painlessly applied through the Pre-Flight Manager I believe.

Lovely paint.

Nice pictures, Mark! I see you're liking the BBS 'bus well.

Now I understand the bus into Porto. What a coincidence!😳

What is the livery link?? And is it for POSKY A330? Thanks!