Hi. The user who said 10 miles, flaps one and undercarriage down is has clearly never handled 350 tonnes into an airport. ;) You would stall in that config, or have such a high airspeed, your approach would still end up being disatrous.
To the newbie : Like in real life, you need to plan ahead, and I would be delighted to take some time and help you make that landing. Let me know how it goes too!
The flight you did from London to Paris is a nice one to start with. it isnt to quick, say, from Heathrow to Luton, and it isnt too long say from Heathrow to New York.
Try to get the ILS frequency tuned into Nav 1 before take-off for the arrival airport. Ignore the ATC runway advice. Fly on your own first before being told to do this and that with the ATC.
On the start runway, plan to fly from EGLL (heathrow) to LFPG (paris charlles de gaule). On the runway, select your altitude as 25 thousand. This gives you a "cruise time" and not an "arrive at altitude start descending" flight. Select the speed as 330 knots, (not mach), and heading is about...160 degrees? You could you the GPS for that in flight creator. Anyway...speed, alt, and heading set, now do the verticle speed.
Set this about 2000 feet per minute. Turn the Autopilot OFF, and set flaps 5 degrees. (Assume you are in a 737). Give it power. In real life, we dont use full power like some people think, because if you did, and you lost an engine, you have no "resourceful power" on the live engine. Use about 91 N1%.
Rotate at about 145 knots. Dont forget you start by default with 100% fuel. Not liekly in real life 737 flying to paris from London!!! More like 25 per-cent.
So, you have rotated. You might need some up trim to help it stay afloat. When you reach about 200feet, press G, and then turn the autopilot on, and select ALT hold. This will automatically climb at the preset 2000 fpm. Right...thats good...Let the speed accelerate, and try to keep it at 330 by yourself. DONT RUSH THE SPEED. You may be at 16000 feet by the time you have 330 knots. Keep it above 240 as soon as possible. Retract the flaps by one every thousand feet to keep things simple.
Head for Paris!!! As you climb, the aircraft gains speed an momentum, so you can increase the rate of climb to maybe 3200fpm and still be accelerating. Control this wisely, and start to reduce it to 1000fpm about 1500 feet before your level altitude of 25000feet.
About 70 miles away, reduce speed to 300, and THEN descend to 12000 at 2500 fpm. You will go over-speed otherwise.
Say you land on runway 31 (if there is one). Look at the ILS for runway distance (DME). Aim to be at 20 miles away, at about 7000 feet. Wehn you are 20 miles away, try to have about 260 knots also.
PLAN TO POSITION YOURSELF AT 90 DEGREES TO THE RUNWAY HEADING ABOUT 15 MILES AWAY AT 200 KNOTS AND 4000 FEET.
Then comes the hard bit. Make flaps 5. Speed now around 190. Check the glideslope bar to the RIGHT of the ILS. It should be at the TOP as you are under the glideslope and it is saying you need to go UP to meet the glideslope going down towards the runway (generally a 3 degree approach angle).
When you get pretty close to the center line, turn left to intercept it at 45 degrees, and slow to 170 knots. Drop flaps one more. Around this time, you will see the Glideslope indicator moving down. This will, at about 170 knots or less, descend you, if you folllow it at a stable 170 knots or less, about 700 fpm. Once you are on the centerline (without banking MORE than 30 degrees coz you will increase descent rate and stall when you try to recover), drop the gear at about 7 miles, and flaps about 20 ish. Speed now 150. Keep it going and make SMALL adjustments to the approach. You could think about slowing to 140 and full flaps around 3 miles.
DONT FREAK OUT when getting close to the runway. It sounds strange, but imagine there is no runway, and you are continuing to descend and fly straight! If you have used the autopilot, you should be pretty damn on. (expect a huge sudden descent when the autopilot picks up the glideslope. ignore this..IT WILL RECOVER) This doesnt hapen in real life by the way
Ok, about 700 feet, have speed 140/138, and full flaps. Gear down, and turn the autopilot OFF if it is on. Keep steady, and hardly move the plane. When you get over the runway, pitch the nose up about 5 degrees and close the throttle. (when I said turn the autopilot off, I meant the autothrottle too!)...otherwsie it will increase power as you raise the nose, because the speed will drop.
Kepp that position and DONT releive pressure as you get nearer the ground. IT DOESNT WORK. and the nose doesnt like it. When you touch down, confirm power is idle (no power - engines running tho, dont turn them off), and extend spoilers *(speed brakes), and apply half reverse power. Again, in real life, full reverse is not used to prolonge engine life. Let the brakes stop you, not the engines.
YOUR DOWN! Turn Reverse off at about 70 knots and keep breaking. taxi at 10-20. 10 round bends)
Retract everything, and taxi off.
Let me know how it goes
dan_cpt340@hotmail.com (Maybe the name helps you as to my aircraft type.) Any questions, email me
Good luck.