Flexman

I agree. That is one clever little feature for adapting sims to our solution's limitations.

Well, then be prepared. During pilot training I used to spend hours in student pilot forums and I was the guy who would make diagrams and stuff for explaining things the way I undestood them. It's been a long time since i dont talk aviation basics, so be prepared for some more "little additions". Before training, I used flight simulator since i was probably 10 years old, and it is normal to learn something at 0.1% of what it really is. Like, flight levels? Yeah, a new way to notate altitude. Then you get to train and you see that there is sooo much more to it. Grab another concept, for example. Flexible take-of procedures. V1, stick shaker... any of those things have pages and pages of explanations and regulations. It's a lot of info, but it is beautiful info. So, for me, the NGX and this forum have become a reason to get my old ATPL books and to start refreshing long forgotten things. What better way than explaining it to those who might need it for getting the most out of flight simulator? Cheers and have fun.

Not really. For real world training, unless you have a full cockpit simulator, 2d is used both in synthetic instrument training and procedure training. Some people like that. They don't want to "feel" like pilots, as they already are pilots. They want a good training solution. And they want it to look as close as possible as the 100.000€ piece of software they bought in their TRTO. But please, I'm not trying to be controversial here. Just explaining why some prefer 2d, so that others could at least understand.

I was a flight attendand in Emirates Airlines while i was doing my pilot training. I had always been an airplane nerd and, on the long flights, i would go with my laptop to the cockpit and show the pilots what little treasure i had. Most of them's jaws would drop with PSS 777. There were some pilots that, after the flight, came to my hotel room to check it out properly. This happened more than 10 times. A few of those pilots were also TRIs at the company and were interested in training solutions. They had all they needed in the company's training center, but i guess sometimes they needed something simpler to explain something to someone. One of the 777 captains told me that his son was about to get type rated on the 777 and that he needed something to train at home, so i offered my self to set up a rig for him to practice. He bought many monitors and didnt care about the game factor or the immersion factor. They spread the panels on the screens, the father (777 captain) sat there with him explaining all the flows and procedures. It was magic, cause for the first time i saw a real 777 instructor teaching things that, more or less, i already knew, and that feels amazing... but yeah, for training they prefer 2d panels that they can look at all the time. Some real computer based training devices have the same looks as the diagrams you find in the manuals. I have a real a320 FMGS trainer (used during type rating)... it's so 2d that it's almost 1d ;) Again, i don't care what i fly with. I like both ways. But, just understand that when someone uses 2d only, he's more of a flight training purist, than a flight simulation heretic.

I used to be a 2d flyer and now I stay in the 3d cockpit most of the time. Having said that, there are some panels that i just like to have a 2d version of. Mainly the mcp, the cdu and PFD and ND. Even in 3d view, there are flows i like to do on a 2d version. I guess this is because there are certified procedure trainers based on 2d panels that used to be as realistic as what we have now, only 20 years ago. These "pro" sims were part of airlines CBT (computer based training). So the idea of having 2d panels spread over a couple monitors, giving no importance to the external view, had always been appealing to me as a child wanting to train as a pilot. 2d flyers want simulators to be as close as possible as real world desktop procedure training solutions like they use in FTOs and airlines with moving maps and failure management for the instructor.3d flyers want simulators feel as close as possible as sitting in the real airplane. There's nothing wrong with any of them. Everybody is free to use the sim as they like. Real world type rated pilots tend to prefer 2d panels, because they want to train.

That is not an issue in real airplanes as it is in flight simulators. On the real airplane you are actually sitting in it and have visual ques. With time you also get the feeling of where the nose landing gear is in reference to you, so you can also make perfectly precise turns. The nose wheel awarenes is something pilots start getting from the first time they fly general aviation airplanes. For someone who is sitting on the left, it is important to know how far the line has to be to the right, so that the nose landing gear is always sitting on the line for taxi. In the 737, the nose is not too far behind and if you enter the runway from a twy at 90º of it, in order to make the tightest turn, first you advance to the center completely perpendicular. Look to the side and then the center of the runway starts is close to appearing on the window behind yours, then you turn full lock. On bigger airplanes you have to give even more room. For example in an a773, to make the perfect 90º turn, you have to almost let the nose of the airplane go past the edge of the runway.

OOOh, it´s a game! Wait, purism mode off... 4700Kg?

Hehe. You know, flight levels don´t really care if you fly over sea or land. You might be confusing them with the difference between altitude and height. But i have a better example for showing flight levels graphically. I´ll leave it for tomorrow though

Thank you! you have given me the best example to use on people who just dont get it. If 30fps was the maximum for our eyes, then you would not see most of your photo camera´s flashes or a strobe light at a club.

Ok. It doesnt really matter if the weather is realistic. What matters is that you get numbers of what is happening in fs atmosphere so that you can put it in the RTE DATA page. Otherwise, whatever fuel calculations the box makes are wrong. I have not tried fs commander. After having had access to every day real operations, i think fsbuild is the closest to how they really dispatch in the real world. The master flight plan it creates is just spot on.

Yeah, also, fs9 is better

Makes sense only if he pressurized right after that. Why would he turn on the beacon when putting the APU online say, 20 minutes before pushback, with no pressure and engines off. It would also freak out the ground staff.

You know with fsbuild and active sky you can get route winds. For 8 hour flights you really need to know winds. Also, where it says step on the CRZ page, put in 4000ft. When optimal, you'll step climb and that will really save fuel.

Are you sure about that? Where is that exactly? I remember when getting to the airplane, APU would be turned on long time before passengers arrived. On most fields non hub fields, it was not only for electrical, but also for air conditioning. The beacon is one of the last things you turn on before pushback and is really when it all starts, when the airplane is about to act as one. Usually APU has been running long before that moment.

...some airlines won't pay for ground power and some fields don't even have GPUs. They do it all on APU yet the beacon isn't on all the time. The law says, you turn it on when engines are on. Good operating procedures are to turn them on when control surfaces become movable (Hydraulic pressure).

The first time I saw a real autoland on an airplane, i loved it. During the layover i asked the captain that I wanted to see one. He was a nice guy, so on our flight back to Dubai they told the tower they would be conducting an autoland (even though it was VMC). I LOVED... One thing is to see it in the simulator, and a completely different thing is to see the damn 777-300ER doing it all by itself, even rollout. Too bad they turned it off. Otherwise It might have taken me home and cooked me dinner. Guys at Boeing make their real airplanes so realistic! They work just like flight simulator!!

True. Also, I think some airline's SOPs are to turn the beacon on when they pressurize. You don't want an elevator to hit somebody (a giant passing by for instance). On the 737 you presurize B first (A controls the nose wheel, which wouldn't let the tow-truck to pivot). What i've seen where I've flown is that they turn on the beacon and then turn off both hyd pumps (elec and engin driven) for A, and turn both pumps for HYD B on. After pushback, then they pressurize A. So, it is safe to say that good operating practice is to turn on the beacon whenever standing near the airplane is going to get more dangerous than normal.

That only happens on the 777 (in boeings). Deflection is always in direct relation to the control input. It doesn't matter if you are on LNAV or on HDG MODE. Whenever the pilot or any of the autoflight systems needs a deflection of the control column of 10º or more, flight spoilers will work. One thing to mention is that flight spoilers also work, along with the ground spoilers, as speedbrakes (differenciate the name spoiler from speedbrake). In flight Spoilers work:-On banking when the control is rotated aproximately 10º (commanded by the pilot, or commanded by autoflight).or-When the speedbrake lever is operated. On ground (speedbrakes armed):-Flight spoilers will deploy fully when any landing gear compresses.-Ground spoilers will deploy only once the right landing gear compresses. ...but yeah. On cruise, banking rate and angle are reduced for passenger confort, so flight spoilers aren't needed.

They will raise whenever control column rotation is higher than 10º. How an airplane moves its control surfaces varies greatly among models... some airplanes wont even use ailerons for high speed flight. On the airbus, when flying faster than 190kts, the outboard ailerons will remain fixed at 0 deflection. Inner aileron and flight spoilers will generate all the momentum.

It's not a matter of advanced animations as is the wing flex.There are ground spoilers and flight spoilers. The flight spoilers move in flight on the lowering wing, increasing its drag and decreasing its lift, thus helping the ailerons with the bank momentum. 4 of each wing's spoilers act as inflight spoilers. When spoilers are extended, the way inflight spoilers work is inverted. It is the wing going up that will retract its spoilers to help bank. So, i have just tested this and, they work for me. Spoilers 2-5 and 8-11 work perfectly. Make sure you've pressurized A and B, and that the flight spoiler switches are guarded for normal operation (these control the flght spoilers shut off valves).

In real life you hard disconnect autopilot and auto throttle by pressing thumb buttons located on the actual control column and the thrust levers. The first time you press these thumb buttons these systems get disconnected and the disconnect bar will descend. Tone sounds and the corresponding disengage indicators will light up. For resetting these aural and visual warnings, you press these bluttons a second time. So, it is common to see some pilots go click click click click when they go manual.... and one more click just to make sure. Also, on boeings you'll hear the autopilot really disengaging mechanically from the control column. You can map keyboard commands for the disconnect bar and autothrottle in the CDU menu. Then you can map those keys to your yoke's buttons with FSUIPC.

I'll add a little to that. As you say, FL245 refers to an altitude of 24500 feet, but that is pressure altitude. Flight levels are isobaric layers (constant pressure levels) at which traffic arranges itself for standarized altimetric references. For example, FL180 is at whatever true altitude at which the pressure is 500hpa. Some factors affect flight levels:Temperature: On hotter than ISA days, flight levels are further apart from eachother. On colder days, flight levels are closer to eachother (typical test question: What is the vertical distance between an airplane flying at FL200 and another one flying at FL220 on ISA+15 conditions. Hint: It is more than 2000ft) Pressure:On days with higher than ISA pressure, all flight levels are lower. On low pressure days, flight levels are higher. Altitude: The pressure gradient is affected by the altitude. At lower levels, 1hpa corresponds to 27ft. Above 18000ft, 1hpa corresponds to 50ft. That means that higher flight levels are further apart than lower flight levels. This is not only affected by the current time conditions, but also for the local conditions. That means that, an airplane flying along a flight level (that is, flying at constant pressure altitude), it climbs and descends depending on the atmospheric presure and temperature of the air mass that it flyes through... and so do the other traffics, so as long as we set 1013,2 in the collsman, we're fine. So, why do we use altitudes at lower levels and flight levels when flying high? Well, sometimes we care more about where the ground is, and sometimes we just want to be far from other airplanes. It is often said that flight levels are those read at the altimever when it is set to QNE. That is actually wrong. QNE is the actual indication of the altimeter, when it is set to 1013,2hpa. So, it is correct to say that at FL200, your QNE is 20000ft. QNE is the Qcode for "pressure altitude".

I only mentioned it to make a point for those saying that 30fps is as good as it get in terms of immersion. As in, "wanna know what it feels like to get 100fps? Run an old game and you'll see". I never tried to start the fs9 vs fsx debate. In fact, that debate only made sense a couple years ago. As I tried to say (maybe my english is not as good as i thought), I am now completely FSX converted. There's actually more to it... When i started studying for my ATPL, I stopped using Flight Simulator for some reason (i used fs9 back then). I guess I got all I needed from my actual flying, I was also tired from studying and I was a bit fed up with the sims at my FTO. I also didn't want the feel of FS ruin my adaptation to the FNPT. So now, a couple years after training, i saw that the NGX had finally been released and immediately installed FSX. So, again, not trying to debate anything other than The more FPS, the better.

Do yourselves a favour, reinstall fs9 and enjoy what a 100fps feel like... now, realize how hard it was for us, fs9 users to modify our standards (ex fs9 users that is). Comming from machines able to pull off 100+fps with the most complex addons, it was a bit hard to "be ok" with 30fps. The only reason i switched to fsx is NGX. The only reason kept using fs9, was PMDG's original NG.