Airline2Sim

PMDG. PMDG. PMDG. Did I mention PMDG?

I can't speak for the Aerosoft version as I don't have it but the FSDT version of GVA still holds up well and is sure better than a lot of newer sceneries!

It's a very useful tweak even in P3D. If you do a flight crossing over or near London even at FL400 and you've activated London City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Southend they will all load into the sim once you get within range. Even a high powered machine will experience a stutter while this happens, plus they will bite away at VAS. I deactivate everything except the airports I need.

Leaving the AP in very late doesn't give you a chance to get a feel for the landing, so don't leave it too late. Also the trim wheel will start clattering away as it prepares for the flare from an autoland at very low level and disconnecting the AP at that point will be, er, interesting! Similarly despite the 'I fly from 25,000 feet all the way to to the runway' brigade in the FS community, a watch of any YouTube video of the said hand flying will show you most approaches are horribly unstabilized. Realistically you're doing the job of two people in sim and if you want to do it all properly, there's no harm in using the automation to help. Many crews won't take out the AP until fully established in the landing configuration, which can be as early as you want it to be but typically is usually around 4/5 miles.

Yes, we'll have a 10 hour one taught by a real world United 777 skipper, including RNAV, ILS, VOR and visual approaches, go arounds, systems knowledge, rejected takeoffs, CATIII autolands, auto flight, speed and flight envelope protections, noise abatement procedures, ETOPS and oh yes, which peg on the flight deck wall the Captain uses for his hat. Sadly it's not ready yet. Give us another month or so.

Welcome to the 30hz club. 60 is SO last year.

Interesting stuff, thanks. I have exactly the same rig as you and after doggedly sticking with FSX and the 1/2 refresh tweak for many moons, kept there by the fact that although P3D @60fps/60hz felt wonderfully fluid, by the time it fell down to the low 30s it was a big stuttery mess. By comparison FSX forced to 30 by the half refresh tweak felt smooth at all times. Following Rob's advice I got a 30hz monitor and have never looked back. The 'smoothness' I had in FSX is back, with the myriad of graphical improvements P3D has brought to the table. I'll certainly be in the market for a 1080ti (hopefully!) and KabyLake or the next gen CannonLake in due course, which might mean 60fps being more achievable across the board. Maybe!

Simply speaking, sometimes the aircraft cannot automatically maintain the VNAV path without help. So it may be able to maintain the path but it can only do it by speeding up, which below 10,000 feet might be a problem because usually you're restricted to 250kts or less. Or it may be able to maintain the target speed, but doing so will mean it will not be able to maintain the target path. VNAV draws a line from the point at which you commence the descent (the TOD or Top of Descent) down to the ground. Well, there's a bit more to it than that but for the purposes of explanation, that's what it does. In an ideal world the autopilot, via the VNAV function, would simply fly down this line until you reach the runway. Of course in the real world there are winds, weather to avoid, other aircraft, ATC delays caused by a lot of traffic etc so in reality it's almost impossible to fly in a continuous path all the way to ground, as much as airlines and crews would like to. Many crews, especially of older aircraft, are also a bit distrustful of VNAV, and prefer to use FLCH or VS once closer to the ground.

You've got top of the line gear and you seem to be using all the tweaks available to keep your frames high. I'd be interested to see the relative benefits of GSYNC vs 30hz when it comes to smoothness.

Great work Rob. You've helped me out with questions and queries on many occasions and I'm truly grateful! As a recent P3D 4K/30hz convert, it's interesting to read the technical explanation of how long each frame has to render in 30hz vs 60hz. Great stuff!

Hi Mark, unfortunately I'm away on holiday until Saturday so can't fire up the sim to help, and I'm afraid my Q400 knowledge is a bit rusty as we shot this 3 years ago and I've been doing 777 and A320 things more recently. If no one else jumps in I'll come back on at the weekend to clarify it.

The only thing you really need to care about is: If you're in a descent and it says 'VNAV PATH' then it's on the path and all is good. If you're in a descent and it says 'VNAV SPD' then for some reason you're off the path and the aircraft needs some manual intervention from you (speedbrakes, SPD intervene etc) to regain it. Also my 737 guy rarely uses VNAV below 10,000 feet anyhow. The usual modes are FLCH if high on the profile or VS if low.

Navigraph and Aerosoft offer LIDO charts. I find the Aerosoft iPad Charts app a little better in terms of ease of use than the Navigraph one, although conversely their desktop FMC Nav Data Updater app is really not that great compared to the very slick one from Navigraph. Certainly no keen simmer should be without charts and updated nav data inside the aircraft.

On the 73 I'm not sure. On the 777 yes. I'll ask one of our guys. I'd be surprised if the NG couldn't do it.

That's interesting stuff, thanks. I imagine in a high workload situation the whole converting metres/feet/QFE/QNH thing isn't much fun!