COBS

A good approach and landing is heavily influenced by flying the correct airspeeds . These speeds will vary with aircraft weight , lower weight lower speeds . The specific approach speeds range is unique to each type of aircraft that you fly . Fortunately you are using an aircraft that has "autoland" , that makes finding your correct approach speeds easy . Do 3 flights on "autoland" , as follows , 1. Light weight , set about 10% fuel . 2. Medium weight , set about 50% fuel . 3. Heavy weight , set about 90% fuel . Compare , and note what your fuel gauges are reading for each instance . If you wish you can also adjust passenger/cargo weight as , light , medium , heavy at the same time as your fuel setting . Now during each "autoland flight , at each weight , note and write down the following , 1. the airspeed during approach when you are about 4 to 5 miles to go prior to landing . 2. the airspeed just prior to landing , when the aircraft is about 50' above the runway , or 2 hundred yards prior to touchdown . For your manual landings you now have a table of airspeeds for approach and touchdown , check your fuel gauges early on approach and fly the airspeeds that are applicable to your weight . Having the correct airspeeds during approach and landing make the whole process easier and neater , also it reduces the landing roll out distance on the runway . Cheers Karol EDIT Below right on the radar is an overlay gauge that I created for my panel , the top portion is a fixed table of airspeeds vs weight , the lower portion gives you the current weight of the aircraft , enter table at weight to ascertain current applicable speeds .

The main thing is the speed and breadth that computer applications are evolving at , it's awesome. Today you can't pick up a maths text book without it having a computer disc inside the back cover. I lost my Nikon camera manual , downloaded it in PDF form , then viewed several "How To" videos on You Tube. A couple of years ago there were discussions of pilots doing their training solely on simulators , not sure how that would translate to regulations and possible subsequent litigation. Personally I wouldn't want to fly with a pilot who hasn't faced the real life demons , I have seen hundreds of Log books that terminate at or about 10 hours , some of those would have discontinued due to fear of what "might" happen , as pilots we have to get past that element and continue with the job at hand regardless of any emotions . The bureaucratic legislative process does not lend itself to rapidly evolving circumstances , some of which really does amount to crystal ball gazing , thirty years ago who could of imagined the electronic world that we now live in , I wouldn't want to even try to predict what the next thirty years might hold for us . Ron , what you said is sad but true . Cheers Karol

This modern era of computers , applications and trends is leaving the authorities in a state of confusion , the bureaucrats are floundering in the dust wake , well and truely left behind by the rapid progress that is being made. Previously regulatory changes followed deaths and public outrage , but circumstances have changed , the computer age is not directly resulting in deaths , so there is no pressure on the authorities to adapt , so they drag the chain and wait until the progress becomes clearer , adaptation is passed to committees or sub committees , there it is lost in an Alice in wonderland hall of mirrors. Already simulations and apps are being used in education , industry , the military and in civil aviation. Take a deep breath and have a long hard analytic look at the fundamental rationale behind LM's Prepar3d , it's training through simulation and using simulation as a part of education in both the military and civil aviation , (note the absence of certification). So when will the certification for all this simulation finally eventuate , it's anyone's guess , just don't hold your breath waiting for it ! We have all seen that regulation and legislation for hacking , fraud and other nasty aspects of our electronic age have been left behind , the authorities don't know how to cope with the rapidly evolving situations , the same applies to the aviation simulation aspects. Cheers Karol

Hi John I seem to have accumulated a few duplicated AFCADS , they are a pain , in the following screenshot you can see their duplication effect in the radar display of the airport detail , Grrrrrr ...... I remember that I had John Lennon previously , I hadn't done an ILS there until now , but I used to fly there often several years ago , the airport had some of the largest Hardened rooftops available in the Sim , I used to lower the tailhook on the F-111 and do arrested landings (aircraft carrier style) on them , loads of fun . Cheers Karol

I just did autopilot coupled ILS approaches at at EGGP for both 090 and 270 degrees with frequency 111.75 tuned . Both worked all the way to touchdown. I have a scenery problem at that airport , the ILS is NOT located on the runway ! ? ! ! In each case I landed on the grass about 200' from the runway on the apron side of the runway . Questions : 1. Have you loaded a addon scenery for England ? 2. Have you loaded a addon airport scenery for EGGP ? 3. Have you tried both of the EGGP ILS in another aircraft that is not fitted a FMS/FMC , and did it work ? 4. Out of curiosity what is your EGGP airport called , - Liverpool , or , - John Lennon ? Cheers Karol

Hi Chris Most of the instrument there are my own creation. As I said previously , I created some of those instruments to overcome the sort of issues that we have dealt with in this thread. Primarily navigating and finding your way around in a fully informed manner. One big problem in the Flight Simulator is place names , we often have airport ICAO's ( ie ; EGCC = Manchester airport ) , so in the GPS display you have the airport ICAO , but what is it ? , there are about 24,491 airports in the flight simulator , what we really need is their full names. In the shots above you will see that several instruments give the airport's full name , that solves one problem. The next problem is how do we find an airport that is distant from where your aircraft is currently located ? I dealt with this in two ways , (1) the green clipboard gives an abbreviated list relating ICAO to full airport names. this allowed me to , (2) type the airport ICAO into the Left Hand MFD , Nearest airports page , I then get further information on that airport which includes it's Distance and Bearing from my current position , and that is a massive bonus. Basically I can be anywhere , Eg ; EGLC - London City airport , then type in any of the ICAO for any of the 24,000+ airports , and I will get a Distance and Bearing to it. With that panel I am never lost , I can find my way to any place on earth. The Nearest function in the Left MFD goes on to generate a Synthetic ILS for any airport runway at either end anywhere on earth , this guides on the correct approach perspective all the way down to a landing. This is purely a Synthetic ILS , no radios need to be tuned in , it works for all airports , even those that do not have an NAVAID ILS. It's rather interesting , by default the Synthetic ILS is the usual 3.00 degree Glideslope , however the Glideslope can be altered to any angle that you wish , now one of the airports that you originally chose was EGLC - London City , it happens that this airport is an oddity , in real life the London City airport ILS Glideslope is 5.5 degrees , almost twice as steep as the normal , to operate into London City an aircraft has to be validated as being capable of handling a 5.5 degree Glideslope , if it can't then it cannot use London City. London City is smack in the center if the CBD with high rise buildings all about it , so the steeper approach makes sense. If I'm flying into Interlaken (Switzerland) at one of the ends I have to set the Glideslope at 14 degrees to clear terrain , now that is steep enough to call it a Dive approach angle! These instruments are just in the F-111 , some are very new , and I have not yet uploaded them , I will in future upload to freeware sites , I don't put them into other aircraft , but people are free to install them in their aircraft if they desire. Back on topic. When you fly the Flight plan that we previously created do the following : - Fly most of it on autopilot. - When the aircraft starts to descend to follow the ILS , switch off the autopilot and do the approach manually . - The autopilot will have started the descent , and therefore will be giving you the correct approach angle or perspective view , just maintain that manually all the way to landing , with practice you will get the hang of the approach. Cheers Karol PS ; What might be a nice idea is to go to any long sealed airport , then take off , then turn around and do an approach , don't land , do what is called a missed approach , apply power just before touchdown , then come back and do another approach. During these aborted approaches do the following , 1. vary your approach angle or steepness a few times. 2. laterally snake about left and right of centerline. Do this as a fun exercise , don't put yourself under any pressure at all , just repeat these aborted approaches several times , slowly the approach picture will evolve and control will keep getting easier.

Hi Chris I have previously mentioned having a map , any kind of map of England next to you as an aid to basic navigation. Most of us do not have aviation maps or charts , and if we do it might be just for one area or country. That leaves us with having to use , the GPS , FS Map , FS Flight Planner map , G Plan or some other Flight planner to give us a map style of presentation to find our way in the sim. The FS map is tiny and difficult to use for long distance flights. This coverage of navigation is not meant to be a proper full blown navigation course , that takes Navigation Textbooks to cover we are only interested in some basics. Get to know your map of England , also start to think in terms of , North , South , East and West relative to that map , imagine a compass rose starting at North and going clockwise through 360 degrees ; North = 360 or 000 East = 090 South = 180 West = 270 The center of that compass rose can be placed at any location on your map , and be used to measure (determine) a heading from that point to any destination point. Always align the Compass Rose North with your map north. Having a cheap transparent school protractor to lay on your map is a handy asset. The map North is regarded as True North. Aircraft Fly Magnetic directions , however True directions are close enough for rough navigation , the Magnetic Variation at London City airport (EGLC) is only West 1.7 degrees , so it can be ignored, and still give reasonably accurate headings. I loaded my F-111 panel and got the following headings from the EGLD -> EGSU leg of the flight plan at a point 28 nm to go to EGSU. 1. EGQS - Lossiemouth , Dist 373 nm , Brg 347 degrees 2. EGCC - Manchester Dist 120 nm , Brg 327 degrees 3. EGFF - Cardiff , Dist 113.4 nm , Brg 263 degrees 4. EGHH - Bournemouth , Dist 80 nm , Brg 227 degrees 5. EGLS - Old Sarum , Dist 65.7 nm , Brg 237 degrees 6. EGKK - Gatwick , Dist 35.5 nm , Brg 172 degrees As I said previously I created instruments in my panel to address similar issues that are the subject of this thread. Below are a couple of composite screenshots of how I resolve some navigation aspects. (1) - The Clipboard is a 5 page abbreviated listing of airports relating ICAO to name for ICAO entry in Search and Flight Plans. - the Left Hand MFD has 16 nearest airports , clicking any airport line selects that airport and provides additional data. - one of the radar pages gives a Flight Plan listing. (2) - the left hand MFD Nearest function consists of 3 pages Page 1 = 16 nearest airports , any of which can be selected, or a search function (gold boxed ICAO button allows any of the 24,000+ airports in the sim to be typed on the keyboard , and thus be selected. any selected airport appears at bottom of display in more detail Page 2 = a runway detail list of all runway available for the airport previously selected a click on a runway line selects that runway , text changes to orange Page 3 = details airport and runway previously selected the RWY button toggles either runway end the instrument calculates a SYNTHETIC ILS touchdown point 6% of runway length in from selected end ILS deviation bars give full precision approach guidance the display provides a considerable amount of runway data , also enables calculation of approach intercept position - The right hand MFD includes a Flight Plan editor that enables flight plans to be created or modified - one of the radar pages (Mode 6 - Stand Off) enables the pilot to project the display to any location on earth - it will be noted that any airport or runway selected provides as a part of it's display both Distance and Bearing data , thus you can have the Distance and Bearing to any airport in the world that you might wish to nominate Basically the above enables fully informed navigation even without having maps. Cheers Karol

Hi Chris That is just my opinion , it is based on both personal preferences and objective testing , following are the main points ; 1. The Flight Model is superb , I doubt that you will get better , Rob Young excelled himself in that regard , that alone translates into an easy to fly aircraft that performs flawlessly , flight models are complex and notoriously difficult to get exactly right , he got it right for the SF 260. 2. If you owned a real world SF 260 , you could use the REALAIR SF 260 as a full blown simulator to practise or reherse a flying routine with absolute confidence , that is rarely the case with other aircraft. 3. In my opinion anyone who uses the flight simulator should at the very least have that aircraft loaded regardless of their area of interest , it is that good. 4. The instrumentation is comprehensive , and the panel visuals are exceptional. 5. It is slow enough for a novice to keep up with , and that is extremely important in the initial stages of learning to fly. 6. It is simple to operate , some high end payware have features where the engine will blow up if mismanaged , or will not function if the procedures are not followed to the letter , I can do without those obstacles. There are very good freeware and payware available , I treasure the work and effort put into many of them by their developers , I am not trying to deride them. It's just my opinion that the REALAIR SF 260 is a truely worthwhile aircraft for all to have , it is the best and most sincere advice that I can give. Always do your own research , check the videos , check the reviews , get advice from authorative sources , ignore subjective or shallow one liner comments or advice. Get advice from real world pilots or those that that back up opinions with thorough quantative testing . It's always wise to realise that eye candy alone does not guarantee a good flying aircraft. Cheers Karol

Hi Chris Fantastic ! ! I really hope that you appreciate what you have done , and achieved , don't for one second under estimate what you have just done , as jlong has stated IFR/ ILS is advanced stuff that a lot of people have trouble with . 1. Trim , nose up is backwards on the wheel , but as I said above the trim on this aircraft is terrible , if it's any concilation , I also have trouble during take off with this aircraft , it is hard to do. 2. " How do I find Lossiemouth AB or Manchester on the display? " This was going to be the next task or exercise that I had planned after you had started getting used to the , 'flight plan on autopilot with ILS approach' What you need to do now is have a map of England next to you when you fly the Flt Pln on autopilot , any map will do as long as it has the major cities on it , it can be a road map , AA map , or family atlas. With your GPS zoom at 350 nm take careful note of the coastline shape detail , compare that coast detail to the coast detail on your map of England , on that map of England you have city or place names , relate that to the GPS map. Next use the compass rose on both the GPS and your HSI to try to estimate a rough heading to fly from your aircraft's current location to any city location. I will cover this in separate post in this thread using the Flt Pln and Autopilot in a slightly different manner , I think that you will like it , it's a small extention to our navigation aspect. 3. Applicable speeds . Each aircraft type has it's own set of airspeeds for , Take off - Climb - Cruise - Flap/Gear extention - Approach - Landing - etc. How do you determine those speeds ? ? ? - one method is , open your 'Kneeboard' ( it is the tick Icon ) , then read "REF" has a variety of speeds , also read "checklists" often speeds might be mentioned there. - another method is a "google" search on the internet , type in something along the lines of , Flight airspeeds for aircraft ( manufacturer and model ie; Cessna 414A ) . In my opinion the most important speed that you need is the 'final approach speed' , getting that as close as possible to correct makes the landing easier and uses the minimum of runway length. in our example I used 110 kts . 4. " If I wanted to land on runway 5 which has I believe a heading of 055 what would I need to change in the plan other than the HSI NAV 1 setting?? " If you are referring to the other end of the runway at Southend -EGMC then the following considerations might apply , - check if it has an ILS green feather for that end , not all runways have ILS at both ends. - you will have noticed that I used Clacton Vor - CLN as a run in that was roughly aligned with Southend runway 236 , you might want to add some more waypoints that will turn your aircraft into a rough approach alignment with runway 055. 5. While we used the freeware Cessna 414A for this procedure to be consistent and to prevent chopping and changing aircraft , that allowed us to talk about the same panel and airspeeds throughout the exercise , the Cessna 414A is not the ideal aircraft , there are much better aircraft available for use in the sim , a really good aircraft is much easier to fly and use . The only aircraft that I can recommend unconditionally is the .... REALAIR SF 260 ... it is magnificent , an absolute gem to fly. It is payware (reasonable cost) , a loverly bubble canopy , retractable gear. It is easy and simple to fly , stable flight dynamics that probably represents the best Flight Model currently available . It might be worth checking it out , do a search for REALAIR SF 260 video there are several videos on you tube , see if it suits your needs. Also do a search for reviews of that aircraft . Cheers Karol

Chris This might make the Approach phase of the flight a little easier to follow Cheers Karol

Hi Chris It sounds like you are doing everything correctly , well done . The Cessna 414A that we are using is a "Port over" from FS9 (FS2004) , it does well for our purposes of flying that Flight plan. The evidence that it is a port over is , 1. The elevator trim is terrible to set correctly. 2. The ADF frequency cannot be set , common problem porting from FS9 to FSX , I had to re code the ADF frequency setting in my F-111 panel for the same reason , it's just one of the small differences between FS9 and FSX. Regards flying that flight plan , 1. It is a slow climber , don't worry too much about the Trim , just manually hold the Pitch at 10 to 15 degrees in the Attitude Indicator instrument until the aircraft is about 500' above the ground , then engage the autopilot as follows , - mode button to "GPS". - "AP" button On. - "ALT" hold button On. - "NAV" hold button On. Always confirm that the Flight Plan lines are showing up in your GPS display , that confirms that the actual Flight Plan loaded correctly. 2. In the detailed full flight procedures I described some 'practise' speed setting exercises , setting your speed accurately is important. The idea being that as you get close to your approach you need to start slowing the aircraft down , then during your approach you need to slow down further to Flap and Gear deployment speeds , they are . - Flaps 15 degrees and Gear when speed falls below 152 kts. - Flaps 30 degrees when speed falls below 122 kts. in the real world these speeds ( 152 and 122 ) are the maximum allowable , it is to prevent the wind speed from tearing flaps or gear doors off the aircraft. You then further slow down to the 110 kts for the short final portion of the approach , then over the beginning of the runway cut the power completely Off. 3. At about 15 nm to go to Southend , you set the autopilot to Approach - ILS , do the following , - Mode button to "NAV". - "APR" button On . Always ensure the ILS frequency ( 111,35 ) is set in the active window of the NAV 1 radio. the autopilot should fly the aircraft by itself all the way to landing and roll to a stop , the only actions that you do are adjust speed down and lower Flaps and Gear. Do not take any short cuts or sim rate changes , it is a matter of being patient , and doing the full flight , and most importantly observing and learning , don't rush it take it a step at a time . Once you have done several autopilot flights , then you can start taking over manually from the ILS during approach. At the moment concentrate on burning into your mind the Runway perspective picture during the ILS approach , that angular perspective does not change during the whole of the approach , it only gets bigger as you get nearer. You need to get used to that runway perspective picture because that is what you will base your manually flown approaches later on . This is the whole reason that we are using , the Flight Plan , Autopilot , and ILS , to learn and get that runway perspective picture stored to our memory , this procedure is your flight instructor. Please try a couple more and report results back here. Cheers Karol

Hi Chris There are probably a lot of ways , here is how I do it. ******* I go to www.orbxsystems.com ( you will need to register there) > at their forums , I scroll to , Community Screenshots and open that. > then open , How to post a screenshot , then click on the link there. > in the upload your screenshot para , click the link given. >> click start uploading , then select the folder in my computer where you shot is stored , and select shot to be used >> click Upload . >> then click Viewer links. >> select "Direct links" , then highlight and copy the JPEG text details. .............. Go to Avsim, When writing your reply in the message box , you have a cursor , at the Top center you will see a Square Green/blue button (image) click it , you will get a entry box , past the previously copied JPEG detail into it , OK. That's it ************* I use either FRAPS or IRFANview to take screenshots , that way it keeps the JPEG memory size down to a reasonable weight. (I had to use IRFANview to get the shots of the FS Flight Planner that I used in a earlier collated tutorial screenshot ) Some screenshot capture methods result in JPEG's that are 5-7 MB , that size/weight will exceed the limit at most forums, most of my JPEG's are 300 KB or less . Cheers Karol PS; in your PM the image tried to load , but never loaded .

Chris This might be of help in interpreting the ILS indications during approach. Cheers Karol

Hi Bruce PM by all means regard gauges , will try to answer if possible. Cheers Karol PS love the F-14

Hi Chris Q ; Karol, will the plan etc. you have devised show me the visual flight path on approach? A ; Yes , - the flight plan lines will appear on your GPS display ,and the green ILS feather will also be there. - to see the runway during approach you will have to use the Virtual Cockpit ( F9 on the keyboard ) , you cannot use the 2D panel ( F10 on the keyboard ) as the runway will be hidden from view behind the panel. Also , In the HSI you will have the Yellow Bar and Triangle that indicate if you are following the ILS . Do not be concerned about , " find that absorbing new information is a slow process " , rest assured it's the same for all of us , in the real world when I learnt to fly I had done all the text book theory , passed exams , then went out to the aircraft with a flying instructor it was still hard and slow , it's normal to think that ' I will never get the hang of this stuff ' , you just continue one step at a time and eventually it sinks in . You will probably have been bugged by the fact that I have said repeat the flight 6 or so times , well , I would hate to say how many times I repeated circuits while learning to fly , and the same applied to other exercised such as practise forced landings , etc. You need to remember that the first steps are always the hardest , but after a while you will look back and wonder why you thought that it might be hard. When you have problems or questions , just ask here for clarification , that's what these forums are for , if you clicked the above link you will see that often I was reaching out for help , and I got that help and support. I often find that I have a few ( or a lot ) of failures before the successes start arriving . Cheers Karol PS ; always remember that we do this for fun , yes some of the learning can be a little hard , but at times you have to say to Hell with it , and go and have a fun flight where you throw your aircraft about the sky , buzz buildings , fly under bridges , we all do that , every time that you fly in the sim you are slowly building your skills , so regularly take a break , and balance both the serious and the fun stuff.