SINK RATE WARNING & BRAKING ON LANDING

[Guest Breeder]

I have two problems:1. When I descend to land I nearly always get the sink rate warning. I don't understand why when the rate I'm descending is fine and my landing is perfect.2. Braking never seem to work when I land. I always have to use the parking brake to slow the plane down to bring it to a halt. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.Hope some of you can put me right.Many thanks!

[Guest martin842]

1. You will need to say what aircraft you are having this problem with, and whether you have added any gauges to it.2. Just a guess, but you may have reassigned your brake keyboard command to something else, and forgotten to assign another key command to the brakes. Check in Options > Settings > Controls > Assignments to see what, if any, key command you have currently assigned to the brakes.Martin

[Guest Breeder]

I'm flying a Boeing 737-800 in mission "Secret Shuttle". I think I've got the brakes sorted. I increased the repeat rate and its working now.Still not worked out the Sink rate. I'm having major problems in the Rome-Naples airline run mission. The rudders don't work at all.

[Guest JeffPreston]

Just a thought - don't know how much you already know...Setting autobrakes before landing will also help.As will arming the spoilers with Shift /As will reverse thrust after you get down using F2 (hold it down)and then using F1 to cut it when you get down to 60 kts.As to the rudder - perhaps autorudder is turned on in the aircraft realism settings? This means you have no separate control of the rudder - it moves automatically when you bank. You can turn it off of course.Hope this helps.RegardsJeff

[Guest Breeder]

I've just discovered that the A321 is a fly-by-wire plane and that the rudder is inoperant.With the sink rate I'm landing with the engines idle. I think I need to increase thrust a little?

[Guest X15]

If you pop outside of the A321 in FSX you will see the rudder moves perfectly when on the ground, as you say it is fly-by-wire so barely moves once in the air at all. (I will avoid any obvious quips about airbus rudders at this point, yes I know it was a different type).You might find you need to fly the heavies 'onto the runway'. Plenty here more experienced with this than me, but they are not landed in the same way you would a small GA aircraft, i.e. you do not flare and practically stall at 5 ft above the runway with the engine at idle with a large jet.

[Guest Breeder]

Can someone please explain braking while flying in the air. The differential brakes seem to have no effect on the plane's speed at all.

[egntpilot 19]

Hi,differential braking refers to braking the wheels separately, i.e. only activating the right wheel brake or left wheel brake. It is used mainly to help tighten turns when manoeuvring on the ground or to assist taxiing when your aircraft does not have a steerable nose or tail-wheel. It has no effect in the air whatsoever. If you are talking about flying the heavies, you can use the spoilers to slow down while airborne, very few light aircraft have them fitted however. Flaps also have a drag effect but their main function is to allow you to fly slower as opposed to using them to slow down.Hope that was of some use.Steve

[NM5K 1]

Are you doing an ILS approach, or otherwise knowyour descent rate and glide path is normal for that approach?At what point do you get the warning? Right beforetouchdown, or earlier in the approach?Try to keep the same rate of descent after an autopilotunhook.. Like one says, you almost fly the plane onto the runway, and I don't usually totally let off the thrustuntil nearly planted. If you are going in manual, and drop the thrust without changing the trim, you can get a drop in descent big enough to trip the warning in some cases. Another thing could be running the approach a tadhigh, if manual, then having the drop it down quick to the runway. That could trip a warning. Without seeing the landing, I can only guess you need to keep the thrust on nearly until touchdown, or you need to trim to keep the same rate, if you are lowering thrust. I usually kill the engines at about 50 ft or so, if at normal approach speed.I'll already be getting my alt callouts at the time I dump the throttle.If you are getting a sink warning, I'd say you really aresinking too fast at that point. I haven't noticed any "falsealarms" as far as that in fsx.I think I'm more prone to getting the occasional sink warningwhen flying the lear, vs the 737.. Usually due to "bruteforcing" my approach from a higher than normal alt, anddropping fairly quick towards the end. To me, it's nothingto really get excited about, but the aircraft will moan about it, and tell me it doesn't really approve of my tactics... :/MK

[NM5K 1]

Actually...If I get alt callouts... I haven't rigged that upin fsx yet, due to the change in gauge types... :(The fs9 versions won't work.. Drives me nuts to fly a 737-800with no landing callouts.. That &^%$ ain't right... :(I'm waiting for a fsx workable version to the usual landing callouts... There may be some out by now.. I haven't been watchingstuff much lately.. Been busy..MK

[Guest JeffPreston]

No free lunch? We provide a number of GPWS features plus detailed evaluation of airmanship too in our free demo...RegardsJeff