landing

[krazyj]

hey everyone

I have problems landing with any aircraft at all....
I tried the default 747 and the 777 paintkit from meljet... good details by the way if you read this :d
I line up perfect slow down to about 145-150IAD flaps all out. gear down flare 12-15 degress

what am I doing wrong ??

plz help

[JBaymore]

krazyj,

Have you started out flying (and navigating and landing) the single engine craft like the Cessna 172 and worked your way up to the "heavy metal"?  Have you tried the flight school lessons in the simulator?  All that helps with flying the more complex and larger aircraft.

That is the best way to get he hang of flying....and it kind of parallels the real world.

best,

...............john

[krazyj]

hey

not really I did the first 5 lessons in the minor league

but that is then I did the ILS lesson but didnt coundn't make that work for me either....

but why cant I land the big ones when I do the approach with autopilot on ??

[Delta_]

You need to learn the stuff in the training.  It tells you how to use the red-yellow lights at the side of the runway.  Also rate of decent, KIAS and various other stuff.

[JBaymore]

krazyj,

There's that old saying about "payin' some dues".........

MSFS2004 (like the sims before it) are simulations of the "real world".  As such...... they try to recreate real life situations with some fidelity to the original.  While not anywhere near perfect........ the sim has SOME basis in reality.  So landing a 474 ain;t no piece of cake  ;).

The autopilot in any aircraft has tolerances within which it is designed to function.  If you keep it within those tolerances....... it works OK.  If not...... well.........

So for example, intercepting the ILS glideslope from the correct vector, altitude, and speed...... with the avionics (Nav radios and AP and so on) set up correctly, and the aircraft configured and trimmed for landing will let the AP do it's job.  If you don't have all the parameters set up within what the autopilot expects to handle......... something goes wrong.

Then there is the fact that the AP on most fs2004 aircraft is not typically an "autoland" unit.

Anyway.... my guess is that some more time spent flying easier to handle aircraft and in studying navigation procedures will "up" your success rate  ;).

Hey...... if it were easy.... everyone would be doing it  ;D.


best,

..................john

[Billerator]

Yeah I remember that I used to do that.
First time I had FS it was more of 'the bigger the better' , but soon realised that I should really do some training ang read the tutorials.

These days I prefer to fly smaller aircraft, and take my caravan for short cargo hops round Germany and local areas.

Practice on smaller aircraft, then gradually go up in size. After a while you will be making A class landings, even without the AP.

[MattNW]

This has got to be one of the top ten newbie questions. "How can I land the big birds". Oh, welcome to SimV and ACOF. It's a fun simulator but you have to start with the basics just like in real life.

Landing is a balancing act. You need to keep your speed and descent under control so that you end up on the runway at the right place with the right speed. The large planes are very unforgiving. Just the fact that they are jet powered is enough to give the beginner trouble. Jet engines have a much slower response than piston engines and thus you must be thinking ahead when making power and attitude adjustments. It's easy to let the plane catch up with you and fly you instead of you flying it. When this happens you end up either way too fast or in stalling before the flair and making like a pancake into the ground.

That's why it's important to learn on the small planes. They have an instant response and you can learn to balance all the forces required for a stable approach and landing. My suggestion is to try the landing part of the flight lessons a few times and then do the slow flight lessons. After that you might want to practice slow flight some more on your own in your favorite small plane.

After you get so that you can maintain heading and altitude at the slowest speed the aircraft can easily maintain, you will want to try a slow descent while maintaining slow flight. Try to shoot for about 500 ft/min descent and a steady heading. From there you can try landing. It's about the same procedure as a descending slow flight but keep it a few knots above stall speed to be safe and pull all power off at about 10 to 15 feet off the runway. You are aiming at the numbers but don't be too disappointed if you overshoot a little bit.

At about the height of a two story building you pull all power off and let the plane settle to within a few feet then try to hold it in the air. This will slow the descent until you lightly touch down. (Note: Lightly touching down is a misnomer for a student pilot. If the plane doesn't break then it's light  ;D )

After you get so you can do this every time with the smaller planes try it with the Baron or another twin engine. When you can do it with that then go up to the King Air until you are flying the big jets.

That's about the only way to do it. You can shorten the transition since it's a simulator and the consequences of a crash are less severe than the real world but you can't entirely forget the learning process either.

[Silver1SWA]

I have taken lessons in a Cessna 172 in real life and I absolutely cannot stand flying the default 172 in flight sim.

[krazyj]

ok thanx guys

I'll try and be patient... but I do love those Big planes....

thanx for a good forum by the way


krazyj

[JBaymore]

Silver,

Try the RealAir SImulations version of the C172.  Much better than the default one.

best,

...............john