I also went down the rabbit hole, purchasing the CRJ.  I dreaded the learning curve, but it was very easy to learn given the excellent video series by “The Dude”.

Question though, and I haven’t checked Simbrief to see, but can one import the flight plan from Simbrief?

 

EDIT > I see from the video that there is an easy import of the flight plan. 

Edited September 6, 20214 yr by FrankR409

3 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Maybe you are using the wrong plane for that then? 

Sitting there, flicking switches is what its all about when you "fly" an Airbus isn't it?

This kind of gets to the heart of what I was asking.

In a community that so often demands absolute fidelity, with every button working, or it's not a sim (etc, etc)  and every system emulating real life, how many are actually using said systems and functionality fully?

After all, it takes literally years of research and work to bring these aircraft to us in the detail we seem to demand, yet even in tutorial videos I see what seems to be 99% of it going to waste....

Are the majority of even simmers really going into such detail on any sort of regular basis, or is a minority of super-simmers (and maybe ex-pilots) acting as the metaphorical tail that wags the dog?

Its something I've wondered for years, and now, finally getting into it myself, a sort of residual peer pressure seems to make me want to push all the buttons, even as it seems that maybe in reality even many simmers are not actually doing all of that....

Edited September 6, 20214 yr by HiFlyer

1 hour ago, FrankR409 said:

EDIT > I see from the video that there is an easy import of the flight plan. 

Yup, though maybe sacrilegiously, I miss the in-game flight planner because the sim is designed to work hand-in-hand with it, and does so, giving you the constraints and ATC being aware of what you are doing, and ingame assistance that all works together, whereas the Flybywire kind of acts as an alien visitor that wants to do its own thing, making me feel the disconnect from the sim around it when using it.

7 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

I highly recommend FS2Crew for the FBW Neo. It really adds to the immersion and reduces workload. Its definitely worth getting.

Sorry to be contrarian but this definitely can wait.

Learn the systems and procedures by yourself. I started with the default neo just so i could get the essentials down before moving to the FBW.

Learn the basics (Get electricity to the Aircraft if you are cold and dark at the gates)

Start the navigation alignment ADIRS (That's going to take 7-8 mins)

import your flight plan if you are using simbrief

start setting up the "box" mcdu and prepping the cockpit for the flight. Within the MCDU you are looking to do a couple things

weight and balance, Fuel planning, Flight plan and alternate, Trip Wind, Runway selection-Departure selection, Planned arrival and runway, Perf page to set your V speeds, transition alt and flex temp if you want to set that.

easyjetsimpilot is your youtube friend. Check out her playlist https://www.youtube.com/c/Easyjetsimpilot/playlists and follow the tutorials

The thing with the airbus is that at critical phases if something important is forgotten it will let you know via the ECAM. Consider it a mini checklist.

2 hours ago, Maxis said:

Sorry to be contrarian but this definitely can wait.

Learn the systems and procedures by yourself. I started with the default neo just so i could get the essentials down before moving to the FBW.

Learn the basics (Get electricity to the Aircraft if you are cold and dark at the gates)

Start the navigation alignment ADIRS (That's going to take 7-8 mins)

import your flight plan if you are using simbrief

start setting up the "box" mcdu and prepping the cockpit for the flight. Within the MCDU you are looking to do a couple things

weight and balance, Fuel planning, Flight plan and alternate, Trip Wind, Runway selection-Departure selection, Planned arrival and runway, Perf page to set your V speeds, transition alt and flex temp if you want to set that.

easyjetsimpilot is your youtube friend. Check out her playlist https://www.youtube.com/c/Easyjetsimpilot/playlists and follow the tutorials

The thing with the airbus is that at critical phases if something important is forgotten it will let you know via the ECAM. Consider it a mini checklist.

Yep thats your way of doing it. I just went full in and learned everything from scratch using the knowledge i had, tutorials and so on. Overall the Airbus has no steep learning curve and is very intuitive to work with. Using FS2Crew is just the right way to add some more realism while distributing the workload between you and your AI Copilot. Again, i can really recommend it!

5 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

This kind of gets to the heart of what I was asking.

In a community that so often demands absolute fidelity, with every button working, or it's not a sim (etc, etc)  and every system emulating real life, how many are actually using said systems and functionality fully?

After all, it takes literally years of research and work to bring these aircraft to us in the detail we seem to demand, yet even in tutorial videos I see what seems to be 99% of it going to waste....

Are the majority of even simmers really going into such detail on any sort of regular basis, or is a minority of super-simmers (and maybe ex-pilots) acting as the metaphorical tail that wags the dog?

Its something I've wondered for years, and now, finally getting into it myself, a sort of residual peer pressure seems to make me want to push all the buttons, even as it seems that maybe in reality even many simmers are not actually doing all of that....

I would use all of it, personally, but my favorite flying is abnormal situations. There's something I find rewarding to successfully landing a crippled aircraft, or watching complex systems interact and knowing what's going on and staying ahead of them.

Most people could not care less, and don't get the same satisfaction. And that's okay.

I would really recommend getting this book if you want to understand all the gubbins in an A320. Don't worry, it isn't one of 'those' manuals where you can't understand a word it's on about; it is aimed at real-world pilots but in all honesty, you could probably read the entire thing cover-to-cover in about two hours. It will really help you get to grips with an A320 and let you know what switches to press, where they are in the cockpit, why you are pressing them, and what is actually happening when you do press them. They also do this one which explains the MCDU in a similar manner. There is actually a third book in this series which is a crew manual as well, if you really want to go for it.

As others have said, the FS2Crew add-on is worth having as a help, or if you have MCE you can use that with a custom checklist you can easily find.

With regard to 'when to put on which particular lights', here goes: You have the nav lights already on when on stand whilst powered up and setting up the flight, when you get your pushback clearance and are about to push out you put the anti-collision beacon on to indicate you are gonna start moving and may start up an engine or two, when you have been pushed back and disconnected from the tug so you are ready to start taxying, you put the taxi lights on to indicate you are gonna start rolling under power and to illuminate your way if it is dark, when you are going to go on the runway you put your strobe lights on and landing lights etc to make yourself as visible as possible. When you raise the gear you turn any lights off which are mounted on the gear but keep other stuff on to make yourself more visible, when you pass the transition level, you turn of everything apart from the strobes and the nav lights (these stay on throughout the flight), when you descend back down past the transition level, you stick your landing lights back on, when you land on the runway and come off the runway, you turn off your strobes and stick your taxi lights on, when you are just about to turn onto the stand, you turn your taxi lights off (to prevent dazzling the ground crew), when you come to a halt and shut your engines down, you wait until the engines have spun down to less than 19 percent and then you can turn the anti-collision beacons off. That's the signal to the ground crew that it is safe to approach the aeroplane and chock it. Exception: If for some reason you need to start the engines on stand (for which you need ATC permission), i.e. an engine test, or if you have a busted APU and need an air start, or you need to do a manual engine start from the APU, etc, you put the anti-collision beacons on to warn everyone you are going to be cranking up when not on a taxyway.

This is the 'proper' way to do all that stuff with the lights, but to be honest, unless you are a realism nerd, it doesn't really matter in a flight sim. 🙂

 

Edited September 6, 20214 yr by Chock

Copilot to Pilot: "Lists? We don't have no lists. We don't need no stinkin' lists !!"

6 hours ago, Fielder said:

Copilot to Pilot: "Lists? We don't have no lists. We don't need no stinkin' lists !!"

We got FLOWS!!