Some quick questions/issues I've been having

[rodn^]

Hi all,

I'm having a few issues which I'm hoping you have seen before

- I was flying a 737-700 (737 Mega Pack Vol 2) from LAX -> LAS. As I was approaching the runway at Vegas, at about 200 ft, every time I kept trying to descend the plane pulled back up. So I lowered it again to 100ft and it pulled back up on its own, resulting in the inevitable front wheels hitting the runway first in my attempt to fight the plane and I crashed. Now, auto pilot was completely off, so I'm curious as to whether this was a bug in the airplane or some setting was on that I hadn't realised.

- Auto pilot in general seems temperamental on the add on aircraft I've downloaded, or I just don't understand it fully, with the latter being most likely. On the default planes that come with the game, say the 747-400, I turn the master switch on, set my cruise altitude and set my rate of climb and all is well. However, with the add-on planes it seems a bit of a lottery: sometimes it works fine, others the rate of climb doesn't work properly, and in the case of the a330-300 mega pack, it just acts as a "hold altitude" switch, and I have to climb or descend manually. I'm obviously missing something here, so if anyone knows what I'm doing wrong that'd be handy.

- How and when does the altimeter require calibrating? I was night flying earlier and accidentally crashed into the ground even though my altimeter said I was over 3,000 feet :-/

Kind of broad and random issues, but if anyone can point me in the right direction I'm more than happy to do the reading.

Thanks in advance

[Fozzer]

Don't forget, If you switch in and out of the Autopilot, you will need to re-trim the aircraft every time, especially when coming in to land.
Switch the AP off, re-trim the aircraft, and land manually.

Altimeter: Remember it shows height above Sea Level (ASL), not height above the ground (AGL. for that you need a Radio Altimeter).

I always fit a Radio Altimeter in all my aircraft...reminds me not to fly into hills... ...!

Paul... ...!

P.S..In FS 2004 pressing "B" (Barometric Pressure) recalibrates the Altimeter during flight. (It will vary during the trip).

[BlackAce]

The default FSXplanes suck at everything. Make sure your vRef is not below stalling speed, that may be why, you're going to slow.

[MASABI TROOPER]

Hi, retrimming is the word of the day...............after autopilot you have to retrimm the plane....

Regards
Bruno (Trooper)

[TXHills]

Landing: Agree - re-trim is needed for the 737 - very much a handful if you do not. Contrast aircraft like the RJ700 - she will allow you to push (or pull) through adverse trim much more easily than the 737. Just as a reminder - if using autothrottle remember to disengage this since it does not disengage with the autopilot.

Autopilot: Even in default aircraft the autopilot sometimes does not change the vertical speed (remains zero) when engaged. Not sure why this is the case but the result is that when you engage the autopilot it holds your current altitude as you described. Since I find the default VS to be not what I want I end up changing this anyway so I use the four arrrow keys on the keyboard programmed through FSUIPC to make altitude setting and VS changes (no fumbling with the mouse). I prefer FSUIPC over FSX or vendor software (I have Saitek yoke, rudder pedals and joystick) - much more functionality and worth the cost. I don't think you can set a key to adjust altitude or VS through FSX but someone might have a work-around.

Altimeter: All aircraft in Class A airspace (in the US, at or above 18,000 ft) are required to reset their altimeters to standard pressure (29.92 inHg). FSX (sort of) automatically does this once you are at/above 18,000 - but as Fozzer said you need to hit the 'B' key (or turn the knob to set the 29.92 in the Kollsman window - or push the knob in the 737 to go to 'STD' altitude). Likewise, on descent once you are below 18,000 ft you need to hit the 'B' key again to set the altimeter to the current barometric pressure (a 1" Hg change in pressure = ~ 1000 ft so the usual range of pressure change can result in significant error). Pilot adage: (Barometric pressure change from) 'High to low, look out below (you are lower than your altimeter shows); Low to high you're in the sky (you are higher than your altimeter shows).

[rodn^]

Sorry for the delay guys: been away.

Thanks a lot for the thorough responses. It makes a lot more sense now and re-trimming the aircraft when flying around places like Vegas has stopped me smashing into mountains!

Just completed my first JFK -> LGW flight on one of the A330-330s off this site. This time I actually bothered to line myself up with the running about 30 miles out and managed to land perfectly . I kept leaving it too late and was having to make awkward last minute adjustments.

Happy flying!