For IFR flying, a Simbrief account is invaluable. If you are in the US, use Flightaware to find real world flights to duplicate. You can use the Simbrief app from inside of MSFS to plug in the information about the flight from FA, and then use it to import your route into the simulator and into the Fenix. There's no need to come up with any information on your own.

Use the checklists, and for the Fenix, DIFSRIP is your friend (that's the order to fill in the pages in the CDU - Google it).  

You'll get it. Good luck!

 

On 11/6/2025 at 7:52 AM, Rob G said:

Hi everyone. I see lots of folks in the forums flying jumbo jets. I feel confident that you are not all real world commercial pilots.

So my question is: how did you learn to do that (just talking in flight sim, not real life)?

Is there a good course that starts at the beginning and takes you through what you need to learn to be able to fly jetliners IFR? I don't know where to even start to get the skills I would need to enjoy flying the big guys in the sim.

Thanks ..........

I found the literally step by step tutorial documents included with the PMDG airliners I have absolutely invaluable. I don’t have the Fenix, so don’t know if they include one. 

ChucksGuides.com provides excellent step by step tutorials for short flights in an illustrated format, for free

His A320 guide is a bit out of date, but it should translate to your Fenix exceptionally well, especially in terms of the conceptual progress of a complete A320 airliner flight:

https://chucksguides.com/aircraft/fsx/fslabs-a320

I personally find videos difficult to follow for hands-on step by step training ( I prefer manuals), but there are plenty of IRL Airbus pilots who stream on YouTube. their IRL knowledge comes through in every one of their videos, and of course, they follow realistic procedures:

A320SimPilot

V1 Simulations

IntoTheBlueSimulations

and others

if you have some spare coin, I have found the in-game tutorials produced by fsacademy.co.uk to be a pretty good use of sim time when I don’t want to make up my own training sessions  

 

Edited November 7, 2025Nov 7 by UrgentSiesta

Back in the day: Froogle! 

Flightdeck2Sim's channel is also worth a look. 

Edited November 8, 2025Nov 8 by The_Flying_Potato

Learn a bit at a time. This is why small, single englne aircraft (eg Cessna 172) are useful. More slowly, you'll get the hang of what you're meant to be doing. (A Garmin GPS unit is not massively dissimmilar to a full-blown CDU. Not really!) Get the hang of a particlar flight in a small plane then try to replicate it in a jet. 

Try to learn what all the switches lights and knobs do and where they are located. 

... and YouTube videos...

Edited November 8, 2025Nov 8 by The_Flying_Potato

I'm pretty bad with airliners... but they don't really interest me all that much... they usually fly into the big class B primary airports (in the USA) or just larger airports.   I prefer flying where I want to fly, and that location may not have an airport suitable for an airliner.

But I did first learn to fly the B737-400 in FS98 (after using the C182RG), mostly VOR to VOR back then.  And then for recent sims like FSX, XP, P3D, MSFS I used youtube to understand how to set the 737 or whatever up from cold and dark.

And then over the years I've just read stuff from real pilots on what's SOP or regular flows etc etc.  I don't get into the failures at all, and I wouldn't know how to troubleshoot something major on any airliner.

If an addon has excellent avionics, a decent flight model and sounds I'll probably purchase it.

Edited November 9, 2025Nov 9 by ryanbatc