Simulation - FS2004 Questions & Suggestions

Author

FS2004 Questions & Suggestions

~~~ .NET Ed ~~~

2006-08-03, 12:13 am

Ok, I have been following lessons until I stopped so here some suggestions
(and later some questions) in hopes that FS X improves on it.

SUGGESTIONS
------------------
a) Many people are "handicapped" with a joystick rather than a flight yoke,
because of that in some lessons it becomes erratic to maintain certain
parameters. Then you get the R. Machado virtual instructor giving you
contradicting orders "you are too high, please descend" , only way to do
that is to pitch down which causes acceleration, so if you try to descend as
quickly as possible before you get "cancelled" by him he tells you "you are
too fast, slow down", but if you slow down and descend gradually you hear
"since this is not going well I am going to stop the lesson NOW". Darn
it!!!! it is a simulation!!!! nobody is going to die, no physical plane is
going to get crashed, you are following the lessons to LEARN. So why not,
instead of having the annoying abrupt cancellation of your lesson, have the
student to continue until he tires? after all the virtual instructor is just
a recording fired by events, he doesn't have to go to a wedding, right?

Regarding A I simply stopped following the lessons, or skipped one of them
because of the annoyance.

b) Slew mode by keyboard is very awkward to say the list. Why not show a map
where the user can drag the plane to the desired location and put it in the
right position and heading+altitude? This would make it MUCH MORE easier
when someone just wants to practice landings and approaches over and over
again without having to go through the whole take-off, get away, find the
airport again (tricky for beginners) and then do what you wanted to do:
practice a landing alone.

And that brings up my question.... Does FS2004 has a better slew mode? I
tried those keyboard shortcut but none did what I expected, except the
"align with north heading and level attitude" which well, is only one of the
things I wanted to do.

Just wondering...

Vic Baron

2006-08-03, 12:13 am

In response to A - IMHO, cancelling the lesson is a shortcut to get you to
learn. If you could just continue, where's the learning. It is abrupt but if
you know you're going to get bumped out, you will try harder. However, there
are some, like yourself, who don't see it tat way and skip the lessons. No
comment.

Re B - I don't use it myself BUT I believe that if you go into map mode you
CAN move the a/c by dragging and dropping. If I'm not correct on this, I'm
sure someone will chime in quickly.

Suggestion: DO the lessons and learn how to do what they are saying. It will
be worth it, otherwise you're better off getting an arcade type flight game
and shoot down the bad guys.

Good luck with the lessons -

Vic

"~~~ .NET Ed ~~~" <tiredofspam@abolishspam.now> wrote in message
news:O$bJEbepGHA.4960@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

quote:

> Ok, I have been following lessons until I stopped so here some suggestions
> (and later some questions) in hopes that FS X improves on it.
>
> SUGGESTIONS
> ------------------
> a) Many people are "handicapped" with a joystick rather than a flight
> yoke, because of that in some lessons it becomes erratic to maintain
> certain parameters. Then you get the R. Machado virtual instructor giving
> you contradicting orders "you are too high, please descend" , only way to
> do that is to pitch down which causes acceleration, so if you try to
> descend as quickly as possible before you get "cancelled" by him he tells
> you "you are too fast, slow down", but if you slow down and descend
> gradually you hear "since this is not going well I am going to stop the
> lesson NOW". Darn it!!!! it is a simulation!!!! nobody is going to die, no
> physical plane is going to get crashed, you are following the lessons to
> LEARN. So why not, instead of having the annoying abrupt cancellation of
> your lesson, have the student to continue until he tires? after all the
> virtual instructor is just a recording fired by events, he doesn't have to
> go to a wedding, right?
>
> Regarding A I simply stopped following the lessons, or skipped one of them
> because of the annoyance.
>
> b) Slew mode by keyboard is very awkward to say the list. Why not show a
> map where the user can drag the plane to the desired location and put it
> in the right position and heading+altitude? This would make it MUCH MORE
> easier when someone just wants to practice landings and approaches over
> and over again without having to go through the whole take-off, get away,
> find the airport again (tricky for beginners) and then do what you wanted
> to do: practice a landing alone.
>
> And that brings up my question.... Does FS2004 has a better slew mode? I
> tried those keyboard shortcut but none did what I expected, except the
> "align with north heading and level attitude" which well, is only one of
> the things I wanted to do.
>
> Just wondering...
>
>

RobertVA

2006-08-03, 12:13 am

~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ wrote:

quote:

> Ok, I have been following lessons until I stopped so here some suggestions
> (and later some questions) in hopes that FS X improves on it.
>
> SUGGESTIONS
> ------------------
> a) Many people are "handicapped" with a joystick rather than a flight yoke,
> because of that in some lessons it becomes erratic to maintain certain
> parameters. Then you get the R. Machado virtual instructor giving you
> contradicting orders "you are too high, please descend" , only way to do
> that is to pitch down which causes acceleration, so if you try to descend as
> quickly as possible before you get "cancelled" by him he tells you "you are
> too fast, slow down", but if you slow down and descend gradually you hear
> "since this is not going well I am going to stop the lesson NOW". Darn
> it!!!! it is a simulation!!!! nobody is going to die, no physical plane is
> going to get crashed, you are following the lessons to LEARN. So why not,
> instead of having the annoying abrupt cancellation of your lesson, have the
> student to continue until he tires? after all the virtual instructor is just
> a recording fired by events, he doesn't have to go to a wedding, right?
>
> Regarding A I simply stopped following the lessons, or skipped one of them
> because of the annoyance.
>
> b) Slew mode by keyboard is very awkward to say the list. Why not show a map
> where the user can drag the plane to the desired location and put it in the
> right position and heading+altitude? This would make it MUCH MORE easier
> when someone just wants to practice landings and approaches over and over
> again without having to go through the whole take-off, get away, find the
> airport again (tricky for beginners) and then do what you wanted to do:
> practice a landing alone.
>
> And that brings up my question.... Does FS2004 has a better slew mode? I
> tried those keyboard shortcut but none did what I expected, except the
> "align with north heading and level attitude" which well, is only one of the
> things I wanted to do.
>
> Just wondering...
>
>

"...going to end the lesson now." I would imagine the flight path has
strayed beyond the 3D corridor the lesson's "if ... then say ..." logic
applies to. There might be some validity to the opinion that that logic
should be extended to a wider (vertical as well as horizontal) corridor.
Adjustment of the aircraft's throttle in coordination with entering or
leaving climbs and descents is normal procedure and justifies the
"instructor's" advice to slow down or speed up. The amount of lift
produced by the wings is to a great extent dependent on forward speed
and you DO want make throttle adjustments to prevent gaining speed in a
descent or slowing too much when you want to climb.

The simulator already allows pilots to drag their plane across a map
with a mouse. Just select the map from the World menu and drag the
airplane symbol to the desired spot. You can enter the desired altitude,
as well as latitude and longitude, in the boxes to the left of the map.
You can use the buttons at the top of the window to zoom the map and
toggle what features are displayed on the map. Clicking near the edges
of the map scrolls it. The map has no provision for changing the
aircraft's orientation though, you would have to use slew for that.

Whatever method you use to position your plane you can save that
position for future use by pressing the ";" key and then entering some
information in a pop-up window. This is VERY useful if you want to
repeatedly practice a landing approach. ALWAYS remember that all but the
smallest planes NEED to have LESS than 1/4 of their full fuel load when
landing. You can adjust your fuel level in the Fuel and Payload pop-up
window available on the Aircraft menu.

RobertVA

2006-08-03, 12:13 am

~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ wrote:

quote:

> Ok, I have been following lessons until I stopped so here some suggestions
> (and later some questions) in hopes that FS X improves on it.
>
> SUGGESTIONS
> ------------------
> a) Many people are "handicapped" with a joystick rather than a flight yoke,
> because of that in some lessons it becomes erratic to maintain certain
> parameters. Then you get the R. Machado virtual instructor giving you
> contradicting orders "you are too high, please descend" , only way to do
> that is to pitch down which causes acceleration, so if you try to descend as
> quickly as possible before you get "cancelled" by him he tells you "you are
> too fast, slow down", but if you slow down and descend gradually you hear
> "since this is not going well I am going to stop the lesson NOW". Darn
> it!!!! it is a simulation!!!! nobody is going to die, no physical plane is
> going to get crashed, you are following the lessons to LEARN. So why not,
> instead of having the annoying abrupt cancellation of your lesson, have the
> student to continue until he tires? after all the virtual instructor is just
> a recording fired by events, he doesn't have to go to a wedding, right?
>
> Regarding A I simply stopped following the lessons, or skipped one of them
> because of the annoyance.
>
> b) Slew mode by keyboard is very awkward to say the list. Why not show a map
> where the user can drag the plane to the desired location and put it in the
> right position and heading+altitude? This would make it MUCH MORE easier
> when someone just wants to practice landings and approaches over and over
> again without having to go through the whole take-off, get away, find the
> airport again (tricky for beginners) and then do what you wanted to do:
> practice a landing alone.
>
> And that brings up my question.... Does FS2004 has a better slew mode? I
> tried those keyboard shortcut but none did what I expected, except the
> "align with north heading and level attitude" which well, is only one of the
> things I wanted to do.
>
> Just wondering...

Additional information:

It's really useful to use an airport near a large body of water early on
so you can locate the airport easily. In addition to proximity of the
detailed Seattle scenery, this is a desirable feature of the default
Sea-Tac airport start position. As you gain experience you will learn to
use the GPS and various radio aids to navigation. There's more
information about navigation at http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/

It takes a while to get a feel for controlling the aircraft. In many
situations there is a need to make relatively small control movements
and allowing the aircraft a little time to respond. Landing is the
HARDEST part, so DON'T worry about landing at first. Concentrate on
things like straight and level flight, turns without altitude changes
and maintaining a STEADY rate of descent for a while. Only in real life
are landings mandatory.

~~~ .NET Ed ~~~

2006-08-03, 12:13 am

Thanks for the great advice Robert. I am able to make level flight as well
as coordinated turns since my 12th when I used an R/C cessna, even landings.
Of course, on the sim it is more difficult to do the landing because you
have to look at all the instruments which also obstruct your view :-(

I have also been able to take off and do multi-beacon navigation (GPS) on
night conditions (with storm as a spice) only I crashed on the approach
(airport had no lights). My current problem on approaches is that when I get
there it turns out the runway is usually orthogonal (to some degree) to the
flight path given by the GPS which then requires a lot of last minute
maneuvering. I suppose that will improve once I get hold of ILS and things
like that.

I can do all that but according to mr. machado -who abruptly terminates my
lessons- I have failed Lesson 3 (Climbs & Descents) some 6 times. And of
course there is a limit to patience as to having to restart FS flight and
wait 8-10 minutes of someone trying hard to be funny just to get to try the
things you are learning. That's where your ";" tip comes in handy.

The tip about saving the position I will try soon. Seems like the way to go.

Thanks,
Emilio

"RobertVA" <robert_c72AThotmail@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:%23yOf16fpGHA.4188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

quote:

> ~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ wrote:
>
> Additional information:
>
> It's really useful to use an airport near a large body of water early on
> so you can locate the airport easily. In addition to proximity of the
> detailed Seattle scenery, this is a desirable feature of the default
> Sea-Tac airport start position. As you gain experience you will learn to
> use the GPS and various radio aids to navigation. There's more information
> about navigation at http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/
>
> It takes a while to get a feel for controlling the aircraft. In many
> situations there is a need to make relatively small control movements and
> allowing the aircraft a little time to respond. Landing is the HARDEST
> part, so DON'T worry about landing at first. Concentrate on things like
> straight and level flight, turns without altitude changes and maintaining
> a STEADY rate of descent for a while. Only in real life are landings
> mandatory.