2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Do any of you Airbus pilots fly Concorde? Because if you think landing an Airbus is tricky I can assure you Concorde is in a different league.

Approach speed is 190kts reducing to 160kts at 800ft. No flaps so to slow the aircraft the nose is pitched up to 10.5°. Autothrottles engaged until 15ft then pitch up ever so slightly for a smooth landing. No reverse thrust until the nose wheel contacts the ground too. Then you have the ground effect of the delta wing. All good fun! 😁

I can regularly manage <200fpm but it’s taken years of practice. Sorry for deviating. 😉

Do you have this? Worth getting?

https://www.justflight.com/product/dc-designs-concorde-microsoft-flight-simulator

EDIT: Just read your prior message on this. Was behind on the Concorde talk.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by alanw2005

11 minutes ago, alanw2005 said:

Do you have this? Worth getting?

https://www.justflight.com/product/dc-designs-concorde-microsoft-flight-simulator

EDIT: Just read your prior message on this. Was behind on the Concorde talk.

I have it, it's alright. If you want something that looks like Concorde and functions (very) broadly like the real one, then it's quite good at that.

To be fair I've not flown it since the latest update where they added INS. Before it just had some generic-esque FMC built into it to handle the navigation which was just.. wrong.

Other silly things like the reheats turn themselves on when you set full thrust so it's almost impossible to cruise at full dry power, which of course was standard in real life ops, which I don't know if they've addressed.

I'm not going to complain too hard because I think DCD is pretty much a one-man operation, and so for that it's a sterling effort which I couldn't achieve, but if you really want to fly it as per real world ops - like follow along the excellent ITVV video of a full return flight LHR-JFK - then sadly it misses the mark. I was able to do that with the FSL and even older SSTSIM one for FS2004.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by Tom Wright

1 hour ago, alanw2005 said:

Do you have this? Worth getting?

I see Tom has already replied. I would say if you’ve never flown Concorde and are unaware of its specific procedures it would be okay.

But for those who’ve seen the ITVV twin DVDs of how it’s actually flown it would probably disappoint.

I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to Concorde and want to operate it as it was flown in service. My flight this morning from Manchester to Lisbon took just 1h 23m rather than the 2h 30m in an Airbus or Boeing.

If you still have a licence for P3Dv5 you could consider reinstalling it and buying the FSL Concorde. A lot is done for you with the Virtual flight crew but a good knowledge of its flight profile is still helpful.

It’s quite reasonably priced given the complexity.

https://www.flightsimlabs.com/index.php/concorde-p3d/#buyConcorde

3 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

During flare mode, airbus logic has the auto trim push the nose down forcing the pilot to pull back on the side stick to keep the nose from falling too quickly.

Airbus is full automation. A Boeing is like a 75 Chevy. They say Airbus is designed by geniuses for idiots and Boeings are designed by idiots for geniuses.

Here are two question regarding the auto trim logic in your comments:

• How does Airbus logic determine when the A/C is in "flare mode" ?  Is it the combination of stick pullback and AGL ?  Is it just AGL ? 
• During the flare, is this auto trim logic you reference in effect regardless of thrust mode (auto thrust or manual thrust) ?

I am slowly getting there 😅

6 hours ago, zachlog said:

Here are two question regarding the auto trim logic in your comments:

• How does Airbus logic determine when the A/C is in "flare mode" ?  Is it the combination of stick pullback and AGL ?  Is it just AGL ? 
• During the flare, is this auto trim logic you reference in effect regardless of thrust mode (auto thrust or manual thrust) ?

I am slowly getting there 😅

Flare mode is only in the A320ceo, as far as I'm aware Airbus removed it (or at least significantly changed it's behaviour in the Neo).

At 50ft RA it freezes the auto trim.

At 30ft RA it starts commanding a very slow pitch down (2 degrees over 8 seconds), to make the pilot naturally pull back to counter it.

Auto trim is operable regardless of whether Auto Thrust is engaged, provided the fly by wire system is in normal law.

I just started flying the Fenix A321. Everything is coming along except the landings. I'm a real-world pilot and flew Boeing aircraft for years and have also been flying them in the sim. The airbus seems to not want to stay on the ground after landing. I'm on speed, have the spoilers armed, retard the throttles to idle, and touch down smoothly but airplane seems to behave like it's on ice and starts to slide around and float.  The aircraft seems to stabilize after selecting reverse thrust. Also, there's no sound when the wheels contact the runway. Anyone else seeing this?

Thanks.

1 hour ago, tamba765 said:

Also, there's no sound when the wheels contact the runway. Anyone else seeing this?

Absolutely not. The Fenix has multiple touchdown sounds depending on how hard you landed.

Well, maybe but I heard nothing.

11 minutes ago, tamba765 said:

Well, maybe but I heard nothing.

It is kind of quiet. I just looked at one of my Fenix landings. Also, I was locked on the LOC diamond on touch down but to me the airbus was too far to the right of the centreline.
 

 

With all the advice and information you provided now I am able to land Airbus aircraft consistently with ROD 100 - 300 FPM.  Key causes of my difficulties:

• I was not prepared for the pitch down at 30' RA and when the A/C pitched, I would over compensate so the flare was starting improperly (thanks Tom W.).
• Stick movement was exaggerated.  "Apply back pressure on the stick" means exactly that but I was moving the stick way too much and that led to all sorts corrections and messy landings.
• During the last 1000' RA, I was making too many unnecessary lateral and vertical corrections.

There are two things in the Fenix Airbus implementation, which seem a little off. First, the slightest movement of the throttle produces a lot of power and very quickly.  This is very noticeable in landings with manual thrust and when taxiing.  I was under the impression that jet engines need a bit of time to spool up.  I wonder if increasing the throttle Dead Zone would help in making the increase in power more gradual when the throttles are at the IDLE position, I will give it a try (currently set at 0.06).  The second item is the usefulness of the "RETARD, RETARD....." enunciation.  In multiple flights I heard it after retarding the throttles and in a flight yesterday landing with manual thrust, I heard it after the throttles were retarded and the A/C was on the runway and decelerating.  I don't think I can rely on it for timing the throttle reduction during the flare.

Thank you all vey much !

You're not supposed to use it for timing anything. It's a procedural reminder, it has absolutely no idea what's going on besides playing in concert with it's relatively rigid logic. The FWC places these callouts into a buffer sometimes when they are activated rapidly in sequence, e.g retard callout - and it is not smart enough to "cancel" it like the newer aircraft when no longer required. The A320's logic and processes are from the 80s after all 🙂

On 1/23/2026 at 7:06 AM, tamba765 said:

Well, maybe but I heard nothing.

I hust took the Fenix A321 for a flight landing at LAX. The touch down sounds are quite loud. Really loud.

Touch down is at 4:42 if you care to be deafened.
 

 

Edited January 29Jan 29 by alanw2005

10 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

I hust took the Fenix A321 for a flight landing at LAX. The touch down sounds are quite loud. Really loud.

Touch down is at 4:42 if you care to be deafened.
 

 

I think the touch down sound of the Fenix is well done from a sound quality perspective but I think the location-specific experience needs tweaking.  I don't think this is what one hears when in the cockpit.  Seeing the various posts for other aircraft as well, sound tends to be perceived very differently so there will always be suggestions for improvement.  I had also seen a post or two that Fenix aircraft have no sound or something to that effect and that claim is incorrect.