Newbie to Flight Simulator X

[Billbixby]

So I used play Falcon 4.0 back in the 90's and I loved that game. I recently bought a Flight Yoke and Rudders pedals and got ahold of FSX. I figured out how to take off and navigate but I'm having a really hard time landing. I make it to the airport but I have a hard time lining up with the runway and landing properly. I'm not flying jets yet just the prop planes. Is it just a practice makes perfect thing? It's starting to get really frustrating. I admit I only ran through the tutorial missions one time. Should I keep doing those instead of spending 30min to and hour flying from one airport to another only to crash. I think thats the part that is getting to me.

Also, I got the bright idea of making a waypoint that lines me up with the runway according to the flight planner. But when I got in game the waypoint was not on the GPS. Any ideas what happened here? I'm going to try it again when I get home from work though.

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[mrzippy]

Only practice makes perfect! At least you have the Flight yoke. You should try it sometime using just the keyboard. I crashed many times
until I got my controller. If you are landing while still sitting in the cockpit, use the Virtual cockpit and raise your seat to be able to look over the control panel out the windshield. Or cheat like I did at first and land the plane sitting out about 100 feet behind the plane in Tail-view mode. Some fun!

WAIT! Wasn't Bill Bixby Mr. Ed's owner & The Incredible Hulk?

[Billbixby]

WAIT! Wasn't Bill Bixby Mr. Ed's owner & The Incredible Hulk?

You are correct! How do I raise the seat in virtual cockpit mode?

[Nels_Anderson]

Doing good landings really is mostly just practice. Do use the lessons built into the game as that will help and will offer some advice. After you understand what they are trying to teach, though, it's just a matter of doing it over and over until you get a feel for it. If you can set up a saved flight with yourself already on final approach that will let you do more practice in less time.

Real student pilots go through this too. After learning basic maneuvers you spend lesson after lesson doing touch and go landings until you get them right. Then you start doing them in tougher conditions (i.e. with a crosswind). Eventually it will click in your brain and you'll be able to do it, and you'll really feel like you've accomplished something.

[mrzippy]

You are correct! How do I raise the seat in virtual cockpit mode?

Press Shift+enter as many times as you need, usually once or twice does the trick!

[mrzippy]

I took some screenshots from the Sitka landing mission (a good one to practice landings) I changed the aircraft to a Beach Baron.

Attachment 128593

Attachment 128594

Attachment 128595

This should show enough of a difference in raising and lowering seat height giving a better view of the runway!

[SAM Hunter]

Bill:

There is a learning curve to over come, transitioning from real world to simulated flight games... Or in your case, Falcon 4.0 to FSX… You find that you must get comfortable with how you got your equipment set up… Try 1st on easy settings with no weather and slowly build your skill levels, do not get upset on the muck-ups just take what happened, good or bad and see if you should or should not do it again… It would help to know what kind of equipment are you using? Are you using just a joystick or do you have a more elaborate set-up? If you provide a little bit more information on what’s happening as you approach your landing, may-be I can point out what or what not to do…

David...

[mikeandpatty]

1. Open FSX

2. Use the WORLD menu to put the airplane on an airport / runway you want to use

3. Now select the airplane you want - it will show up where the previous one was

4. Use slew commands to back up and raise up slowly until you are about 1000 ft AGL and 2 miles or so from the runway, aligned with the center line - be in the cockpit view so you are "looking good" to start an approach (use slew to fine tune your position)

5. use PAUSE then come out of SLEW mode.

6. Go to WORLD / MAP and set the AIRSPEED window to approach speed.

7. Go to FLIGHTS/SAVE FLIGHT and name it something like "Landing Practice - Cessna 172"

8. Select "set as default" if you want FSX to start up with that flight

9. Go out of PAUSE and the plane will start flying from you slewed position at the airspeed you set.

9. Use PAUSE and SLEW to fine tune your start situation by starting a little farther away from the runway, get the gear/flaps in the correct setting, and start flying in a good approach, then PAUSE.

10. Resave the flight

11. Soon, you will have a good setup to practice with, and not waste a lot of time flying around to get started.

12. Remember this - if you come out of SLEW mode, you need to PAUSE first, else the plane will start to fly immedialy ,with no chance to evaluate how things look, etc -can be a big surprise!

.

[rudyjo]

When I started , back with FS2002, I had the same problem, I just ran out of runway before I could get landed.
I then tried landing on long roads and then went to the longest runways I could find, such as LAX.
You will eventually get the hang of it, the runways I couldn't land on 10 years ago, I can now land, come to a stop and then take off again.

The only type of flying I do now is Bush Flying where you need to land on airstrips that are less than 700ft in lenght.

I finally got to where I could land a plane with tricycle landing gear but I had nothing but trouble with taildraggers, now they are
what I fly 95% of the time.

[jomni]

Falcon 4 is also a difficult sim. But I guess you have a fly-by-wire jet that is quite responsive. I also have the feeling that the F-16 in Falcon 4 is a bit too stable.

Anyway, just keep practicing. What you learn from FSX will also be useful in Falcon 4 (navigation, atc procedures, landing). I'm my case, I never got to fully grasp Falcon 4 until I had several months of experience in FSX. Now I know why all pilots (military or civilian) start with flying GA props first.