Always having to use insturments durring landing question.

[Sabunim]

OK, I can't decide if I'm going into land at too slow of a speed in a DC-9 that I'm flying.

When you go in to land do you keep flaps below 5% or so then lower them to full when the glidescope indicator actuall goes to the middle marker on the path indicator? It seems that when I turn onto final and have dropped my flaps, I end up having to pull my nose up so much to keep altitude that I can't see the runway no matter what, then when I'm on proper alignment, when I try to nose down to see the runway better my decent is too high. Do I need to go into the final approach faster and lower my flaps later (to keep the airspeed up) and "fly" down the glidescope, or am I missing a major principle?

[pavi]

I don't use more than flaps 30 normally when landing F1 DC9. I decide whether to lower my flaps late or soon based on the radio chatter, to try avoiding going around. If the approach permits it I'll lower the last notch (to 30 degrees) when I'm a half dot from catching the glideslope, If I'm properly trimmed and there aint to much fuel onboard it'll settle quite easy on the slope without you have to fight it, though alittle trimming and control input will be needed. It sounds like you are to heavy when you are landing and using full flaps on a DC9 isn't needed (it get sluggish and hard to control). Try with flaps 30 and only a light fuel load.

[boxjockey99]

The selection of flap depends on what type of approach you intend to accomplish but the norm when flying a jet is to accomplish what is known as a stabilised approach.

The stabilised approach simply means that the aircraft should be fully configured to make a landing BEFORE Glide Slope intercept, ie before the G/S hits the centre mark. This may mean that you have handfulls of power on to keep the speed and the nose may be higher than normal but this will subside when you start down the slope. The method is used because if you are fully configured then there will be no more significant pitch changes caused by moving sufaces like flaps and gear thus the attitude is set to whatever is normally required to keep speed and Rate of Descent on the profile and then minor adjustments are made to keep the parameters in check ie correcting a change in pitch or roll caused by wind.

With reference to what flap to use, I am unfamiliar with the DC9 but the norm on the A300 and B737 is to use one stage less than full flap. This will give you a fighting chance should you need to go around, for example, the B737 has up to 40 flap but we would use 30 flap for the approach normally as flap 40 would provide too much drag should we have to go around on 1 engine!

Remember that when flying a jet or large turboprop the trick is to fly the attitude, truly believe the addage 'ATTITUDE + POWER = PERFORMANCE' and you will not go far wrong, speeds will be met and profiles kept but remember that things don't happen instantly, let the speeds and rates of descent settle then adjust again if need be. NEVER chase the needles!

Hope that helps, please ask more questions if you need more answers

Kris

[toddrf]

You also need to realize that the Shift Enter combination is essential in almost every FS airplane model to be able to properly see the runway on approach.

A DC-9 will have a relatively (referenced from the glideslope) nose high attitude on an approach. With this in mind you'll need to slew your view down a bit to keep the runway in sight. Again Attitude + Power equals performance. You want to have power set and the proper attitude referenced off the gauges first. Once on the glideslope and trimmed properly to keep the descent, then play with the Shift Enter combination to find the right view to get the runway in sight.

Do not chase the outside view, fly the needles and adjust once you are on GS and LOC.

In real airplanes you can adjust seat position to see over the glareshield so this is less a problem, but Bill Gates has yet to incorporate such a feature in the sim so you'll have to use the keyboard.

Todd :-wave

[flyinggriffin]

It also seems like every aircraft lacks a seat. The view you get is similar to sitting on the floorboards. It is that, or the average pilot is about 4-11

[robbie1472]

>It also seems like every aircraft lacks a seat. The view you
>get is similar to sitting on the floorboards. It is that, or
>the average pilot is about 4-11

I agree. I don't know what it is but you just cant see over the instrument panel in most planes. Sure ctl>enter moves it down until you change views again. I have cfg edit and it has a tool for adjusting the window position on the horizon but for some reason any change I make does nothing, unless I'm doing something wrong. There are some planes that have smaller panels so it looks ok but you cannot see the gauges as well.