I am wondering what the users of both these aircraft are seeing as far as the consistency of good landings in both of these aircraft. I had the 737 in P3D and don't remember any difficulty in landing that aircraft. I have had the Fenix since it came out, and find myself facing inconsistent landings with this aircraft. I even purchased the FSiPanel to practice landings in the Fenix, which I would have never done with the 737, and still seem to have more problems landing the Fenix than I ever had with any other sim aircraft. Has anyone else found a difference between the 737 and the Fenix? 

I find it impossible to land the Fenix with a rate of descent less than 600fpm. If I pull up any it seems to just glide all the way down the runway.

I usually float the 737.

Fenix A320 - usually average -80 -> -220 most times. 

pmdg has always been much easier to land and also suppresses sudden atmospheric effects (read more about it on their forum).. I believe it refers to weathervaning as I've found pmdg easier to control after a x-wind landing vs fenix.. 

It's a matter of practice, but flare is different on both. The fly-by-wire flare on the Fenix is really subtle, the viewpoint shifts only slightly. I find on the Fenix it's a lot harder to correct when you've flared too much or too little, you really have to flare smoothly at the right time. That's why i tend to float on the Fenix. On the 737 it's as easy at it gets.
Keep in mind that problems with landing can have a myriad of reasons, from wrong joystikc sensitivities to wrong timing to wrong viewpoint etc. To anyone with problems I'd suggest letting go of any FPM measuring and just try to get the aircraft down on the touchdown point and centerline and with a slight flare. Try to develop an instinct in the flare, look outside and try to control the flare via your peripheral view. Also let go of hard rules like "flare at 30 ft, idle at 20 ft", instead judge your height with your eyes and the runway visually closing in.

EDIT: just to explain, in real life you can just "gut" the flare because you feel the reduction of downward movement while flaring. In MSFS this is missing obviously, so you have to rely on your eyes only.

Edited January 28, 20233 yr by Fiorentoni

24 minutes ago, flightskyc said:

I usually float the 737.

Fenix A320 - usually average -80 -> -220 most times. 

Same. I've had many really nice landings in the Fenix lately. I've got it nailed. I'm very inconsistent in the 737 and 738, which should not be the case.

for me the Fenix is a little harder -80 to -220 use thrustmaster airbus stick, the 736,737,738 get nice and not vary to much -80 to -120

have a homemade boeing yoke with columm total travel on elevator 17inch , bondar card with hall sensors 

It has been a few years since flying the 737 and have spent the last 7-8 years in the FSlabs and Fenix.  The 737 and A320 are completely different planes with different methodology.  So if you are trying to land the A320 like a 737, you will likely have a bad/unstable landing and vice versa.  I've been consistent with the Fenix and the only issues I run into is when the sim starts to stutter or get bad performance close to Flare Mode.  Having said all of this, I am not a real world airline pilot so take this with a grain of salt.  I do however study the Airbus and this is what I have found out.  

Consistent yes. Completely different behaviour, you just have to get used to it (on both).

As far as I am concerned the Fenix is the best product ever released for a home simulator. It's perfectly fit for purpose at the right price.

My landings are quite consistent meanwhile. It took me dozens of patterns practice though and it is necessary to understand the flare concept of the Airbus.

BTW I would always prefer doing full patterns instead of using an external app to slew your aircraft around somewhere on the final. Flying full patterns will give you a much better feel of handling the aircraft (and slewing the Fenix might also have an influence on the flight model, which might be the reason for inconsistencies when using FSI-Panel - not sure about that, but I had issues with the Fenix when I manually slewed it).

Regarding the flare I found this video very helpful which was posted in another thread.

 

Edited January 28, 20233 yr by RALF9636

Both completely different. I find the Fenix way easier to land though.

My only experience landing an A320 is in a full motion flight simulator, and I do not recall the flare feeling all that different from the PMDG 737 in P3D (maybe a little less pull on the joystick required). I use a CH Flightstick Pro joystick to fly the 737 at home, so maybe that is part of the reason. I was a bit worried about having to use my left hand to control the movement of the plane in the full motion simulator, but that real Airbus sidestick was so smooth and responsive that it compensated for my lack of left hand dexterity.

Edited January 28, 20233 yr by Christopher Low

I think the most important thing is that with fenix you shouldn’t do any excessive stick movements like with pmdg 737 yoke. Just small inputs and then let stick center, again and again. 

Edited January 28, 20233 yr by spitzer45

1 hour ago, spitzer45 said:

I think the most important thing is that with fenix you shouldn’t do any excessive stick movements like with pmdg 737 yoke.

Kind of hard to say that unless you have matching sensitivities, no?  When I land PMDG 738 I am making subtle inputs w/ the TM Boeing pendulum yoke and the Saitek before it and no way I can do excessive movements in it and get away with it.

When I first started using PMDG 738 I had been reading about when pilots w/ disconnect the AP on an instrument landing when not using autoland, and the comment was at about 200'.  W/ the MSFS version of the plane it comes in too high for an ILS approach such that if you maintain the pitch establishing in the glideslope I was ending around 100' over the RA at the runway threshold, and could not get landing rates I was after.  So now I hand fly in from about 500' instead of 200' giving me better control over altitude over RA.

Bob, what is your altitude above the runway threshold?  Just a thought