jcmissionary

It’s ad free for now, but Garmin bought them some time ago, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it shut down eventually in favor of Gamin’s Pilot service.

If you look at EDDS in Bing Maps, the whole airport is blurred out. Apparently, governments can request that certain areas be blurred out for national security reasons. There are a number of missing airports in Europe where this is the case. Some new airports are also missing where they were either built after the latest bing data was acquired, or the bing imagery is not sufficient enough for the AI to recognize that there is an airport there.

To find an airport: Select World Map Click on the Select Departure Airport box It will pull up a list of the handcrafted airports, as well as your search history. At the very top of the list is a search box where you can type in an ICAO code, city name, etc... If it's in the sim it should come up. There should be no need to fiddle with the world map. Edit: Looks like people are getting it figured out. I'll leave this up just in case it can help people out.

On the FSX beta we received a physical copy of the RTM build as well as being involved in testing the various patches and the Acceleration expansion. I was a little surprised that the testers for MSFS did not get a complimentary copy.

A lot of the major airports are using CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) for clearance delivery, so even the bigger places are going to seem somewhat slow. Another problem is that many liveatc streaming sites have a hard time picking up aircraft on the ground.

Energy management is one of the big struggles pilots have with the 800. I've jumpseated on the 737 a number of times, and it's been something that the captain comments on every time in the approach briefing. I've also seen the speed brakes used extensively in the descent. If they're planning on a short approach, then they'll sometimes drop the gear early to help in getting slowed up. High energy approaches are also something I keep in mind as a controller, and we've been told to be keenly aware of the workload that it can put on pilots. If I have a sequence where I can put a 737 on a short approach, I'll look at the type. If it's a -400 or -700, then I can usually get them in pretty tight without any problems. If it's a -800 or -900, then I'll think twice before trying to set them up for a tight approach. If you want to get a taste of how energy management works in the real world, next time you fly an approach hold 210 kts to a 15 mile final, and then 170 to the FAF. This is typically how we set aircraft up on the finals here at IAH. It can be challenging, but I find it to be a satisfying way to fly approaches.

If you don't mind the somewhat high price, I would recommend this: http://aviation-press.com/ I used it a lot during my time studying for the ATP written, as well as just increasing my aviation knowledge. The layout is a bit bizarre, but the author does a good job of breaking down the regs into plain english.

I can't speak for the EU, but here in the USA, Alaska Airlines has HGS in all of their 737s, even the -400s. When I've flown in the jump seat, most of the captains have used it for takeoff and stowed it at 1000', and then brought it back down at top of descent. One captain did use it in cruise to see the flight path of the aircraft as we were picking our way through thunderstorms.

It's just a little tounge-in-cheek humor, is all. In this case, it wouldn't be a case of poor planning since it was an ATC assigned speed. Not much the flight crew can do about that. The poor planning part comes more from when you get a pilot's discretion descent and then hang it up when you should be going down. I've had airplanes that get PD descents come into my airspace up in the flight levels, and then get vectored all over the sky on the great Anchorage tour while they get down.

Some of my airline pilot friends call it the 'poor planning lever'.

Sounds like the A330 was too close to the ERJ when he started his turn. I don't think the controller was at fault.

Bryan,I accidentally installed the May 2008 start center into my FCX installation, and lost the PMDG 737 tab, which was replaced by the Wilco Airbus: SE tab. Is there a way to get the old start center back?Thanks.