henri5

If you do't need STARs and SIDs, Plan G is free and cannot be beat. If you want SIDs and STARs, Flightsim Commander has a free full-featured demo except that you cannot save plans in the free version. It costs nothing to try them. Henri

Try reducing the sliders. Another possibility is that these planes are put there by FSX or another application. In my case at CYQB I had to remove some of the static planes by hand because there were even two planes at the same spot. In this case the extra planes were due to an addon airport at CYQB (Quebec City - great free addon BTW). Henri

Note that the FSX ATC is not always realistic or convenient. Personally I don't use it at all, and if the approach is not already fully programmed into the FMC, I use "heading" to intercept the glideslope at a reasonable altitude , and press "appr" when I am almost lined up. In fact this is almost necessary (with our without ATC) with the Majestic Q400 Dash 8, since among other things it has no autoland and one cannot adjust the course while in "nav" mode (so one has to be in "heading" mode while adjusting the course to the runway heading) . In sum, when approaching the next to last approach waypoint, one sets the heading to the next to last approach heading (which will intersect the glideslope), press the "Hdg" button, then set the course to the runway heading, and when the plane approaches the glideslope, one presses the "appr" button and the plane lines up with the runway and later grabs the glideslope. Some airplanes will set the runway course by themselves from the FMC, but not the Q400. The Q400 is a bit finicky about holding the glideslope and the speed has to be controlled manually as well as the landing itself (no autoland). Henri

If you don't want tospend more time prepping on the ground than flying, try Ideal Flight, which will choose airports depending on time and distance specified by you or between airports you specify. It will set you up at the gate with the FMC already programmed and a detailed flight plan including frequencies, TOC, TOD, weather, approach waypoints etc indicated on a map. Once I reach TOC, I usually speed up the simulation to 4X until TOD and the whole flight can take maybe 20-30 minutes for a 300 nm flight. I use it a lot with the Majestic Dash 8 Q400, and although I do not follow check lists etc, I enjoy the short times. Although the plane starts off cold and dark, if one is not fussy about check lists, the engines can be started and the Q400 can be taxiing in a couple of minutes. Ideal flight is less complex than FS Captain, which has more interactions with the crew (for example meals), and more factor of flight evaluation after the flight. I have both and prefer Ideal Flight for quick and dirty flights. Henri

Just change the com1 (or com2) frequency and no ATIS message will appear if no transmitter is in range at that frequency.

Having watched the first 8 videos, you can be confident that the tutorials are not "system" videos but "operations" videos with emphasis on the practical. For example, when some recommended procedures are not necessary, the instructors say why, without going deeply into systeml details ("The company says to turn these switches off, but it really doesn't matter whether you do or not, unless you are a maintenance man."

I have now watched 8 of the 10 episodes, and it is well worth buying given the modest price and the lack of a suitable operations manual (as opposed to a system manual) for this aircraft. Buy it, you will learn a lot. Here are a few comments I mean to be helpful, please do not take them too seriously. 1) I tried to watch the episodes without first downloading them, and despite having a 1.2 Mb/sec download speed, the stopping of the video every few seconds made it a pain to watch, so I downloaded the episodes and watched them without any problem. These videos seem pretty big, and I wonder if there is not a more highly compressed format than the mpeg 4 format used (perhaps not?). 2) The speaking habit of the pilot to speak fast and to end his sentences with a decrease in frequency and volume along with and increase ins speed ending in a whisper as if running out of air makes it more difficult to understand than it should. 3) One or two of the videos having to do with flight planning have little to do with the specific aircraft and require additional software, and for a person like me who does not care very much about spending a half hour of preparation before taking off could do without them. 4) A complete newbie not familiar with the Q400 and/or with all the acronyms of flight (ACARS, PFD, FMS, ILS, MDA, ATC, charts and so on) will find it very difficult to follow these tutorials and should probably learn some of the basics first. These videos seem aimed mostly at experienced simulators already familiar with the main features of the aircraft able to start from cold and dark, taxi to a runway, take off and land with the autopilot. Some of the explanations go by very fast, ad there is not always a cursor showing which specific screen they are talking about. In a couple of cases, the screen disappeareed before I could identify which specific screen I was not very familiar with or button was being talked about and had to backtrack the video to recognize it. 5) I had no problem going back to the videos screen on the following day (today) where the videos were still available for download. Probably because i have cookies turned on). 6) If like me you can fly the plane, but are unsure of how some of the less obvious things work (like fuel calculations and weight distribution, the de-icing equipment and toggles like the hydraulic or fuel pumps) or the reason for some specific procedures and whether they are really necessary (many are not), then it is really worth it to shell out the modest amount of money for this video course. henri

Although the first speaker speaks very clearly, even fluent English speakers will sometimes have difficulty with the second one (the pilot I think). He has the occasional British habit of lowering the frequency and volume of the speech as ne nears the end of a sentence to finish in a whisper as if he has run out of air, in addition to speeding up at the end of the sentence. Good series though, and not too expensive. I will make a few additional comments on the other thread. Henri

Many commercial FSX addons are not licensed for P3D and some do not work for P3D, and although I have both FSX and P3D, I almost only use FSX because it works fine for me and I can use all of my addons. Henri

If you are following a glideslope and the nose pitches up, either you are too low and the plane wants to climb, or you are going too slow, or you are using too much flaps for the speed you are going. For some planes that do not have autoland, this can be used to flare just before landing (not in real life). If not following a glideslope but on autopilot, it depends on the plane, but it could be related to your elevator trim. Henri

Although you mention jets, I would not overlook turboprops. The Majestic Dash 8 Q400 is my favorite plane, and has its own simulation program. It is fun to fly (but hard to land), and is a STOL aircraft and so can use short runways. If you want something smaller, the Flight 1 Beech Super King Air B60 is also very realistic. Henri

I also bought a sectional of my area but I never use it because there is too much information written in text that is too small and crowded for my old eyes. The problem is that sectional cover too much area - hundreds of square miles so are big and clumsy to use, in addition to not having approach information, which you probably use a lot more than the information of the sectionals. What I DO use is SIMPLATES X Ultra on the Ipad for Approach plates and airport information all over the world. Most of the information on the sectional that is required for simulation is available on the FSX map (airport and navaid frequencies, airways etc), but more convenient to see better is Plan G, where you can see any airport or Navaid information simly by mousing over it, in addition to seeing your aircraft on a zoomable real moving map showing cities, roads and so on. The same information can be obtained from FSCommander, but on a black background instead of an actual map. Plan G is free and FSCommander has a free demo. Both also have flight planning, but PlanG does not have SIDs and STARs, whereas FSC does. Henri

And do not forget to set the navigation to "GPS" as opposed to "NAV". Some planes have a toggle switch, some have a rotary switch and some have a button.The "NAV" will try to follow a navigation beacon that is set with the nav frequency buttons."GPS" will follow the flight plan. When you approach the destination, if you want to use the autopilot, you have to switch back to "NAV" (as well as setting the ILS frequency and the runway heading), and eventually the "APPR" button to intercept the glideslope. If you have problems, state here which specific plane you are using and someone will happily walk you through a whole flight. Henri

groentesoep, the 400 does not autoland. One has to turn off the autopilot just before landing and land by hand (and it is one of the hardest planes to land properly due to the small wings). However the FMC is simple, and if you use Ideal Flight to prepare your flight, it will prepare the flight plan and it can be copied into the FMC directly using the "copy" function. Henri

Fly in the rain? Henri