Re: How to land the Concorde

[captainbernie]

Is it true, that in reality it is not possible to see the runway from the
pilot's seat in the Concorde during the last seconds before touchdown?

Given this is the case, how does a Concorde-Pilot manage to land the airplane
exactly at the beginning as well as in the middle of the runway?



Pulling it from a vague memory somewhere but if I remember correctly the nose
on Concorde droops to an approx -13 to -14 degrees down. As the required
attitude for landing concorde is +12 1/2 degrees this allows the P.I.C. to have
a 1 to 2 degree downward view; and as we all know the trick of fixing our eyes
on the end of the runway it is supposed that the pilot should be able to see
the black stuff! I suppose though if that isn't enough a good cushion under the
seat trick is sufficient to get away with it. (Ctrl and enter or deltee, I
think on FS!)

Also Concorde has VERY accurate radio altimeters which the F/E usually calls
out. Coupled with proper BRITISH (and grudgingly French) pilots means that the
info is usually enough to get the bird somewhere roughly right.

You must remember that Concorde is a PROPER aircraft...not one of these flying
gameboys.

Hope that helped!
C.B.

[captainbernie]

I HAVE EVEN BEEN IN CONTACT WITH MICROSOFT REGARDING THIS ISSUE AND THEY
CLAIM THAT USING SHIFT+F4 WILL ENGAGE THE AFTERBURNERS. I TOLD THEM I DON'T SEE


ANY INDICATION OF AFTERBURNERS GOING ON NOR ANY SOUNDS OF SUCH. AND FINALLY, I
DON'T SEE OR FEEL ANY DIFFERENCE IN THRUST. CAN ANY SKILLED SYM HELP ME WITH
THIS ONE; I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT. THANKS.

Well the re-heats do work! I haven't personally seen any flame being rendered
on night

flights or the like but this may just be a small omittion on MS. No1 can get it
all right

can they? Otherwise who would need GPWS or autopilots? lol

Well the SHIFT+F4 does work. You should see and little white light appear on
the exhaust

apature come on and the area % increase from 62% at idle to 80%. After full
throttle is

applied the apature will increase from 80% to 82%. (These figs are when the
afterburners

HAVE been armed!) If you didn't have the re-heats armed this SHOULD not occur!
lol. Concorde

has an 'Iris' type exhaust, similar to other aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat.
This is so

the pilots can control the pressure on what is known as the 'Primary Nozzle'.
(which in

effect is the rear turbine if I remember correctly). This helps control specfic
engine

parameters and in, I think, supsersonic flight it forms a condine nozzle which
in itself

produces thrust. Independant, as it were, from the engine.

If you aren't au fais with the T/O procedure for concorde, then it follows
thus:
After lining up on runway, come to a complete standstill. Clearance obtained
and read back.

Everyone fully briefed and gauges set. Apply Parking brakes. The F/E arms the
re-heats. The

P.I.C. counts 3,2,1 and fully advances the throttles. At this point a stop
watch is started

to time for noise abament and for the tech log. To calculate how long the
re-heats were used

for. A thing whihc isn't simulated in FS is that the No.4 engine is held at 88%
N2 til about

20-30KIAS. This is for pretty obvious reasons!

Anyway I hope that should answer your question about the re-heats and basic T/O
use!

If you want to know more about supersonic re-heat use, etc mail me!

C.B.