No screenshots yet, version 0.9
About...
It took me some time to understand the very basics of FSX, like flying a Boeing 737-800 from start to end with autopilot. There are a tons of tutorials and videos online, but I never found anything just straight on. So here is a quick and dirty tutorial how to create and fly an IFR flight.
Note that this tutorial is really quick and dirty. It's for absolute beginners, only meant to experience the fun of a full FSX flight and to get you started. Procedures are not necessarily correct or complete.
First
If you haven't already, print out a keyboard layout (link, PDF). Keep it in sight.
Objective
Flying a Boeing 737-800 from Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands to Orly, Paris, France.
Realism settings: ultra high, full damage. No joystick.
Start
- Start FSX.
- Best thing is to set all behaviors to realistic like crash detection, stress damage and so on.
- Choose a Boeing 737-800.
- Go to the flight planner.
- Create an IFR plan, low altitude airways, from Netherlands Eindhoven to France Paris Orly.
- Save your plan.
- Set the weather to clear skies since wind makes things more difficult. Fly in daylight.
- Click "Fly Now".
Prepare for take off
- You are at the start of the runway.
- First engage the parking brakes. (CTRL+. (period)).
- Check Numlock is off.
- Set strobe lights on (O)
- Contact the airport meteo service ATIS and reset the altimeter (B).
- Reset heading indicator (D)
- Adjust your seat so you can see more of the runway. (Shift+ENTER, shift+BackSpace).
- Contact the control tower (Air Traffic Control, ATC). Hit ( ` , accent) to show/hide the ATC menu
- File your IFR.
- Prepare the autopilot (AP): Set heading HDG to that of your runway. Arm HDG.
- Set A/T Speed hold (IAS/MACH) to 180. Arm A/T (but do not engage it).
- Extend flaps slightly (F7).
- Make sure NAV is enabled and not GPS
- Contact ATC ( ` ).
- Request to taxi is probably the only option. Do this, but don't follow the instructions.
- After the taxi chitchat contact ATC again for permission to take off. Take off will be granted.
- Set the AP altitude (ALT) to what ATC told you.
- Set the AP climb rate (VSPEED) to 800.
- Check AP settings + arm.
- Center ailerons and rudder (numpad 5) (numlock off)
- Release the parking brake ( . (period)).
- You may want to save your flight now in case something goes wrong ( ; (semicolon)).
Take off
- Engage full throttle (F4) and keep an eye on the speed.
- If needed, tick rudder to keep the plane in line (numpad 0 and numpad Enter) (with num lock off)
- If the speed is above the yellow zone pull up. Do this slightly, don't space shuttle.
- As soon as you are fully in the air engage the A/T speed hold.
- Center ailerons and rudder (numpad 5) (numlock off)
- Gear up (G).
- Adjust your climbing angle to 0-5 degrees by pushing the nose down.
- Retract flaps (F5).
- Engage autopilot master (Z).
Airborne
If everything went fine your plane will now gently climb to the designated altitude while your speed keeps stable and safe. At this time you most probably already got instruction from ATC to contact another frequency. If this ATC window appears while you're still in the take off procedure, ignore it or click it away (`). If you suspend take off procedures your plane may stall, flaps may break, you may overspeed.
Flying...
- increase A/T speed hold to 220.
- Follow all ATC flight instructions.
- Adjust AP settings when instructed (altitude, heading). You'll follow the route you filed.
- Save your flight every now and then.
- Enjoy the view but keep in mind that there is always a chance something goes wrong.
- If something goes wrong, disengage AP (not the A/T speed hold) and try to level the nose.
- ... or just bail out and reload your last saved flight.
- Flying is a great time to examine the cockpit and instruments. Hover over things to see what it is.
- When ATC orders you to lower your altitude, bring back the A/T speed to 180.
Approach
- When you are getting near your destination you will be prepared for a runway and 'expect ILS vectors'.
- Go to the 2D cockpit view. (You may pause the game for a moment)
- Click on the map icon.
- Zoom into Orly and click on the airport.
- Look up your runway and memorize/write down the runway heading and the ILS frequency
- Go to the 3D cockpit view
- enter the ILS frequency in the radio, NAV1, in the number on the right
- click the button in the middle to swap it so it is on the left
- click the small NAV1 button below to hear the beeps when you're near.
- Enter the runway heading in COURSE
- (if paused, continue the game)
- ATC will guide you all the way down to the point where you can actually engage Approach autopilot
- First...
- You will start to hear beeps. It's OK to turn off the sound by clicking the small button below on the radio.
- Landing lights on (CTRL+L)
- Decrease the A/T speed to 145. As you get near this speed engage full flaps (F8)
- Arm spoilers ( Shift + / )
- Gear ( G )
- Reset the altimeter (B).
- Reset heading indicator (D)
- Save your game (;)Final Approach
- When you see the horizontal glide scope indicator, engage the APP button (or CTRL - A)
- Do not change main AP settings or turn things off, APP will be in control
- If everything goes well the plane will keep adjusting its heading to line up with the runway
- a vertical glide scope indicator appears, you'll be below it
- the vertical indicator will start to descent and the plane will start to adjust its altitude
- bring back A/T speed to the very minimum
Landing
- the most tricky part here is timing
- when you are about to hit the runway you have to disengage the AP (Z), but not yet the A/T.
- Gently pull up the nose, this will cause the plane to slow down a bit while you still descent.
- Disengage A/T as soon as you are touching the ground, or about to.
- When you're on the ground engage reverse thrust (press and hold F2) for a few seconds, then cut (F1).
- Note: do not push down the nose. Gravity will do its job.
- Brake (press and hold . (period))
- If anything goes wrong, cancel landing and take off.
- Or reload your saved game.
- If everything went fine you've landed safely and you'll slow down to the point where you can taxi.
Note
- AP is not a robot. Always keep an eye on things.
- There are several airports where ILS is located wrong on the map. Miami is an example. If you try to land there you'll fly over the airport and land in a suburb.
- There is also a problem with ILS landing in the mountains like the Alps. ATC will guide you directly in piles of rock instead of Zurich, for example. There are also airports near hills and mountains where ATC does the same when you take off, like Clermond-Ferrant airport.
- On some routes you may be bugged by ATC telling you every 5 seconds to contact another frequency, like flying from Rotterdam airport to London.
- Flying with only a keyboard makes things hard. The worst thing in FSX is that there is no indication how far you've pushed/pulled the yoke.
- Trimming controls is skipped in this quick tutorial.
Some great add-ons
Free:
- FS Water Configurator: Free. Enhances the looks of water.
- NL2000maps: Free. The whole of the Netherlands in very high detail. Download per province via torrent.
- Venetubo: Free. Upload your ini file and download an enhanced one with the best settings for best performance. It's an online service that works quick and produces excellent results. Consider a donation if you like it.
Commercial:
- FsPassengers: allows you to fly 'real' passengers who will react to your actions, adds a nice flight intendant and much more. You'll have your own flight company. It does not allow you to save a flight which is really a bad thing.
- REX2: Real Environment Extreme replaces the default textures and brings superb graphics
- GEX/GEXEurope: Ground Environment Extreme replace the default ground textures with realistic ones
- ActiveSkyEvolution: adds highly detailed, accurate meteo
Free enhancing graphics
- ENBSeries: Free. Tweaks DirectX, though you will have to tweak it for your own PC for good effects. Use this if i.e. the ugly reflection of stars in the water and bright nights annoy you. You can use the GTA San Andreas version, search online for FSX documentation. See the Arma2 article on our blog for an ini file you can use to start with. ENBSeries works with about every game if your GPU is suitable.
