Practicing

Get FSPassengers.... It is the ultimate addon for FS imho and will keep you interested... well it has me and I get bored really easily!

I don't need a program to tell me how do I fly, I need a something to tell me WHERE TO and HOW to fly, like heading, make turns, ascends & descends, all of that.

Well you can fly where ever you like....and if you fly IFR ATC will tell you when to turn, climb etc 😉

A good pilot shouldn't be looking for a program to tell him, he has to be able to know himself

Turn when you get to the proper waypoint/VOR to turn

Ascend at a certain climb rate so you'll know when you will reach your Cruise Altitude. Cruise at the proper percentage of sound speed suitable for that airplane (this is called Mach). While your cruising, your not doing nothing, your calculating things you need to know for descend and landing.

Find your Top Of Descent (T/D) and descent rate. To find this you multiply the difference between your current altitude and your target altitude, dropping the 3 zeros, by 3. This is the amount of nautical miles you should start your descent from the VOR/Airport

A good descent profile to use is to aim to be at 10,000ft AGL 30nm away from the airport.

To find your rate of descent you multiply your DESCENT ground speed by 6. So if my descent ground speed is 300kts I multiply 300 x 6 = 1800 so my descent rate is -1800fpm

Its unrealistic to have a program to tell you when to do this. Remember in the real world, there is ATC, and they do tell the pilot when to descent, but there not telling the pilot for the first time, the pilot will be expecting that instruction there and then because he/she has figured out the T/D. ATC are just simply saying "You have clearance to start your descent as planned, there is no traffic alert at present time"

Now I suggest you take all Rod's lessons and then you should be ready to fly without anything telling you when to turn, ascend descent etc

Also do a route in Microsoft Flighit Simulator. Say New York - Boston. Start in New York, file an IFR plan and fly it. You should know when to turn descent etc of your own mind rather than ATC telling you. The only thing ATC should be helping you with is Vectoring to Final, but this can also be done without help of ATC

Hope this helps!!

Guest wrote:

Hope this helps!!

It does, thanks.

Guest wrote:

Now I suggest you take all Rod's lessons and then you should be ready to fly without anything telling you when to turn, ascend descent etc

This is xactly what I am doing, I am taking all the lessons. But I want to practice on my own, without Rod, and flying with no purpose isn't really helping, cause it's boring and all I feel is that I play, rather than fly an aircraft. So, like Rod's telling me during the lessons what turn to make and when to climb, I'd like something similar that does it on a "free" flight.

Guest wrote:

Also do a route in Microsoft Flighit Simulator. Say New York - Boston. Start in New York, file an IFR plan and fly it. You should know when to turn descent etc of your own mind rather than ATC telling you. The only thing ATC should be helping you with is Vectoring to Final, but this can also be done without help of ATC

I'm still not on this level... I need to practice more to be able to do that.

You could try flying for a VA.

No place where I can get flight plans for practice?

Anonymous wrote:

No place where I can get flight plans for practice?

Sorry, that was me, Pilau.

You could make a note of all the things you are asked to do in the lesson and then set yourself up at the same location and fly the same lesson on your own.

You could also make up your own lessons with specific elements to be practiced with +/- tolerances to aim for. Make the tolerances less than the lessons in FS and keep flying them until you can consistently meet the standards you set for yourself. Then when you fly the lessons in FS you can concentrate on the new elements being introduced and not just the basics.

Be honest in your self assessment.

well if your new then i suggest some short flights then as you get better you can extend your area to longer flights

start a flight oh say Hannoka to Honolulu INTL.

Miami to Orlando.

Salt Lake to Denver.

Los Angeles to Salt Lake.

i would call those beginner flights but thats just me but if your interested in long flights then try these...

Atlanta to Salt Lake.

Atlanta to Denver.

Atlanta to Boston.

Miami to Jacksonville.

Miami to Atlanta

San Deigo to Honolulu.

Chicago to Los Angeles.

Dallas Fort-Worth to Chicago.

Dallas Fort-Worth to New York.

all of these flights i have flown personally...so give them a whirl.

hope that can help.

NOTE: you can fly all of these either IFR or VFR.....ive flown most of them VFR and some IFR im not a very big fan of IFR Flights my self.

Virtual airlines were mensioned. May I suggest looking at Omega Air site you can look at the missions they are departure and destination locations that you can load in flight planner and set up a flight plant vor - vor or gps etc. You do not necessarly have to joing but it givew you a lot of flight to try out in different catigories of aircraft.

http://www.omega-air.org/mission01.asp

Thanks a lot, all of you.
Now - that 'flight planner' you mentioned earlier, what is it exactly?

when you create a flight just above the pic of your aircraft on the right corner it says flight planner click that.... now follo these instructions....

(1). Choose an Airport for your Departure. lets say )The Hartsfield-Jackson INTL Airport

(2) Sellect your arriving airport lets say )Salt Lake City INTL Airport

(3) Select your type of flight....which are.... (VFR) and (IFR)....well say IFR

(4) Select your type of route....which are.... (Direct GPS)....(Low Altitude Airways).... ( High Altitude Airways).... and ( VOR to VOR).... lets say.... High Altitude Airways

(5) Now click (Find Route)

now it will show you a map of your route here you can change your VOR corners or leave it the way it is.

hope this helps. 😉

let me know if you need some more help