News from FsLabs...good!

[Christopher Low 5,353]

22 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I did manage Honolulu to Auckland, NZ a few years ago but landed with fuel below the minimum allowed. That was a 4 hour flight and the maximum of Concorde’s range......

......and exactly the kind of experiment that can be performed in a flight simulator without breaking any real world flight rules. I look forward to reading about other interesting Concorde expeditions when the P3Dv4/5 version is released, Ray

[Christopher Low 5,353]

33 minutes ago, MachTwo said:

Three of us turned up at Shannon recently for some circuits on Vatsim. The controller was superb - even with some light traffic in the pattern he managed to make it all work. Some of the most fun I've had in P3D in a long time! 

A part of me would love to add the FSL Concorde to my short haul fleet in P3Dv4, but I would need to put a lot more time and effort into it than I do with my 737 and 777

[SimeonWilbury 220]

I always enjoyed doing the London -> Bahrain -> Singapore route when I flew in FSX - there was a lovely degree of anticipation as you flew subsonic over Europe and finally got to turn the Taps to full when you got over the Adriatic.

I would also add a cheeky extra leg to Kai Tak on as well - interestingly I remember it being easier to fly on the Checkerboard approach than I find a MLW 747-400F, despite both having not dissimilar approach speeds.

Will definitely be revisiting those routes along with a couple of new ones!

Edited March 14, 2022 by SimeonWilbury

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

1 hour ago, MachTwo said:

The ground effect is an area we've put a lot of work into for the new title. In fact, the handling characteristics in general are vastly different to Concorde-X due to the new auto-stabilisation system

Firstly, thanks for correcting my comments about readouts and throttle states. It’s been a while since I’ve flown the 32-bit version with the VAS limits. The even better flight model sounds great. 👍

1 hour ago, MachTwo said:

Some of the charter flights are great fun; navigating supersonic loops whilst trying not to bang somewhere. It's a very different experience to one that our Airbus customers are accustomed to.

The circuit around the Bay of Biscay is one I’ve flown it just once. But if time is short it’s a great one to fly.

32 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

A part of me would love to add the FSL Concorde to my short haul fleet in P3Dv4,

Sorry to inform you but it will only be available for v5.

[jon b 2,047]

39 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

......and exactly the kind of experiment that can be performed in a flight simulator without breaking any real world flight rules.

And that’s the beauty of flight simulation compared to the now miserable world of real flying where even the cups we drink our coffee from are subject to approval and regulation

 

[MachTwo 386]

58 minutes ago, SimeonWilbury said:

I always enjoyed doing the London -> Bahrain -> Singapore route when I flew in FSX - there was a lovely degree of anticipation as you flew subsonic over Europe and finally got to turn the Taps to full when you got over the Adriatic.

Yes the LHR-BAH-SIN routes are great. We spent a lot of time researching this one and reconstructing the routes to include the real world turn points - we even used this route to fine tune the supersonic steering control loops in our INS - as the waypoints had been carefully mapped out to keep the aircraft in a constant shallow turn so as not to reduce the climb performance.

[Iadbound 211]

4 minutes ago, MachTwo said:

Yes the LHR-BAH-SIN routes are great. We spent a lot of time researching this one and reconstructing the routes to include the real world turn points - we even used this route to fine tune the supersonic steering control loops in our INS - as the waypoints had been carefully mapped out to keep the aircraft in a constant shallow turn so as not to reduce the climb performance.

Andrew - certainly sounds like FSL is planning THE Concorde simulation. I've never considered it before, but now you've definitely got my attention.  

  

[MachTwo 386]

Yes - it's getting more and more difficult to acquire resources - and, inevitably, those who worked with the aircraft are getting older now. I don't think we'll have an opportunity to work on this title again with so many resources available to us. It'll be my fourth Concorde title that I've worked on in twenty five years - so I'm keen to see that it excels the others by some margin. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

@MachTwo, I know your a member of the Heritage Concorde group on Facebook as am I. That’s a great source of knowledge. Have you tapped into it?

[Christopher Low 5,353]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Sorry to inform you but it will only be available for v5.

That may just encourage me to upgrade, Ray

[MachTwo 386]

1 minute ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@MachTwo, I know your a member of the Heritage Concorde group on Facebook as am I. That’s a great source of knowledge. Have you tapped into it?

Hi Ray - yes, it's excellent isn't it! I love seeing all the old photos people have found taken from operations in the 70's and 80's. A real insight into that era. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

17 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

My understanding is Jet Streams don't usually go above about FL470 ... is FL600 still the best altitude for speed/range with the Concorde?

There’s no best altitude for Concorde. As the weight drops off it becomes lighter so continues to drift upwards perhaps only 50fpm. The priority is maintaining Mach 2 so it may drift down on occasions but the overall trend is upwards.

FL600 is only reached towards the end of the flight and generally in the tropics where the Troposphere is much thicker [edited from thinner] and the air temps are much lower than in temperate latitudes.

A very important instrument is the temperature gauge showing Total, Static and ISA. ISA is the one to watch. Jet engines love cold air and the outside temp really does impact on her ability to climb with MAX CLB / MAX CRS engaged.

An ISA DEV of -10 will aid a good climb rate. +10 has the opposite effect. Watch that gauge like a hawk. Of course you also need to watch Tmo. If >127°C you need to slow down or go down.

Fun eh? 😁

Edited March 15, 2022 by Ray Proudfoot
Error corrected

[331BK 96]

ahhh cain`t wait to take a flight with the concorde looking forward to it.

[MachTwo 386]

12 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

FL600 is only reached towards the end of the flight and generally in the tropics where the Troposphere is much thinner and the air temps are much lower than in temperate latitudes.

It's the other way around - troposphere is thicker at the equator, hence the temperature continues to drop as you climb higher. It played a huge role in Concorde operations - which is why it never went over the poles but allowed them to fly LHR-BGI without the tech stops in SNN/LIS/SMA as well as run the routes down to SIN in the early 80's. If you try and fly those routes with our new title without real world weather, you'll run out of fuel. These routes were only possible due to the higher troposphere and colder air temperatures. They only hit 60 in the North Atlantic with lighter loads (engineering/ferry flights and charters). 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

50 minutes ago, MachTwo said:

It's the other way around

Woops! 🤣 I knew the conditions were different in the tropics so thanks for the correction.