Cavulife

This site has static pics from airports in Alaska and Canada. It's pretty cool to compare it with what you get in the sim. https://avcams.faa.gov/

"Side question, does time acceleration work in manual flights or do I need to enable autopilot for that? Eventually I want to use it for longer duration flights but don't want to crash if time acceleration doesn't lock in my flight controls." Time acceleration works with or without autopilot. The problem with it is there is no way to tell what rate is currently on. I've got a little sticky that I put on the keyboard when I use acceleration and I always use ++ so I know how many to undo when I'm ready.

I think what is happening to you with the AP might be a bug I've noticed. If you enter a "Procedure" for an airport after you've passed your last waypoint in the flight plan the AP will take you back to that last waypoint before continuing with the "Procedure". Try that flight again either IFR with waypoints or put in E16 (South County airport) as an interim waypoint. That way you have time after takeoff and before E16 to select the ILS30L Approach. Make sure you select the KLIDE transition so it doesn't take 40 minutes.

Just to confirm, you have set Flight Model to “Modern” and turned off any Assistance?

If you’re selecting an Approach Procedure from the Garmin then it’s probably based on what an airliner is going to require in terms of turning radius, altitude, etc. What I’ve done in that case is what Neilends suggested, fly to your desired point on the approach at the correct altitude. You can fly to that manually or via AP with the heading bug. As for disconnecting the AP before landing, 500 feet is reasonable. If your throttle setting is good for the approach speed then you shouldn’t have an issue with falling below the glideslope. The AP is trimming for you and just keep an eye on that white arc of the Airspeed indicator. The bottom of the white is where you stop flying and go splat, or too high above that and you float. At SJC you’re landing on a 2 mile runway so plenty of room. Come on man, you can do it!

Go ahead and do the flight plan in the World Map to KMRY RWY 10. On the ground at KWVI, go into the PROC screen and select the ILS RWY 10. In longer flight this part can be done in the air. On takeoff you can either fly it by hand or select NAV in the AP and you’re all set...

Yes, I set up the flight plan on the World Map for KWVI to KMRY RWY 10R via GPS. In the plane, selecting the Approach from the PROC button on the Garmin adds waypoints to your last waypoint for the Approach. Your only problem was getting the cursor to come back on to select LOAD or ACTIVATE. If you get that to work you are all set. Did you try pushing the “cursor” button again? As for altitude, I just flew the altitude of the first waypoint on the Approach since it’s all over water and there is nothing to run into. Take off, fly the magenta line by hand or GPS and the Garmin will switch to the ILS after MINCK.

While sitting on the runway at KWVI I entered the PROC menu and selected the ILS 10R. I think the cursor disappeared and I had to push the button to enable it again, which seems dumb. Once the cursor came on I used the big knob in the back to scroll down to LOAD and then hit enter. After that it’s just flying the magenta line. I did it both with AP and hand flying, no difference. I never select ACTIVATE for the procedure only because I’m not so sure what the difference is. LOAD always works for me.

Hi Aptos, I think you're basically doing it correctly. I've had a couple of times where the cursor didn't come back so I could select LOAD or ACTIVATE. Retrying to set up the Approach seemed to work those times. I tested with a flight in your neighborhood today. KWVI to KMRY ILS 10R. If you're going to go into the PROC on the Garmin then you don't actually have to set the ILS frequency yourself. It's loaded into the system when you select the ILS 10R procedure. This Approach will take you to MINCK intersection via GPS and then it switches the CDI needle to the Localizer for you. Good luck.

This thread says that the last update introduces a bug that gives flaps double the lift that they should have. It causes a lot of float on landing. https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?329753-Trouble-landing-with-flaps-lately-It-s-not-you-it-s-Asobo-s-fault&highlight=Flap

Hi Aptos, It wasn’t me this time, but it might be me next time. :) I will sometimes fly formation with another plane for a while, sometimes even landing as a flight of 2. I hope it’s not disturbing anyone since you can’t actually crash into them and I mostly stay where Blue Angels #2 would be so out of their way. Check your 6!

SkyVector is also great for low and slow VFR. I’ve done flights through New Zealand at low level after planning them on SkyVector. You can plan legs there that aren’t based on Navaids (from valley to valley), and then follow them in FS2020 because the FS VFR map matches SkyVector (but not as detailed).

I use Skyvector all the time. It doesn't have all the airports or navaids, but still a lot of good info. It even has the approach plates for US airports.

I think the clouds look a lot better with the update. I always thought they were good, but there was that sometimes fuzziness, like noise, that they've eliminated I think.

Ahh, I found the problem and it's pretty weird. Under Flight Conditions I had Multiplayer set to Live Players. This grayed out the Weather & Time to only Live weather and grayed out the time Slider on the World Map. If I select All Players, then I get the slider for Time back. Thanks for the help.

This doesn't seem to work for me. If I've selected Live Weather under Options/General/Data, then I don't get the time slider under the World Map/Flight Conditions. If I turn Live Weather Off under Options/General/Data, then I get the slider, but no option for Live Weather under World Map/Flight Conditions.

I've got it here in California. After the initial 23GB download, make sure to go to Marketplace to get the World Update III.

I never did make it down for the Watsonville fly-in, but I do recall that it was a big deal. I live near the flight path going in to Moffett Field (about 10 miles away), and we always get to see the B17 and B25 that were coming up from WVI around Memorial Day.

Yes Aptos, I was down at WVI in the 172. I’m from San Jose so I’m familiar with the airports in South County and I went there when trying out the radios for your glide slope question and for the guy with the alternator question. I didn’t see you so I’m guessing that the plane stays there for a bit after I exited? Maybe I’ll see you around there next time.

The standard 172 does have a conventional localizer gauge so I'm guessing that the radio tuning for COM & NAV is what you don't like? I agree that it's a little weird tuning the radios on those Garmins, but after just a couple of minutes it's pretty easy. I really don't like the GPS display in those because it's too small, but for just local VFR flying the setup seems pretty good to me.

I'm not exactly sure of the issue you're having. I just tried a cold dark start for the non-glass 172. Here is what happened: Battery switch ON Avionics Bus 1 & 2 ON AMP shows 30 Then ALT on AMP shows 30 You're getting a different outcome?

Did you check in the PFD to see what the autopilot info said? It should show there that AP in On, Alt is selected and GPS is used for navigation. Otherwise, it seems weird that it just didn’t work at all.

Go into Controls and select Keyboard. Set F2 to Decrease Throttle. This is a good time to look for the other Throttle commands and see what they're set to.

The heading bug is a little orange square-ish thing on the directional gyro. It’s the same thing that sets heading for the autopilot if you’re using heading mode. I’ve set up 2 mouse keys to make it go right or left but you can hover over the knob for it on the DG with your mouse and wheel it up or down.

I just tried the KMRY landings you mentioned in "Where did you fly today" thread, in a 172. The brackets seem about right to me for location in that plane. As for speed, they are very slow I think. It says "Too Fast" if you enter downwind over 65knots which doesn't seem right to me. One thing I always find helpful for the traffic pattern is to put the heading bug on the runway heading. It gives me a good reference for the 90 degree heading changes in going through the pattern. It helps in the high wing planes when it's difficult to see if you're aligned 90 and 180 degrees to the runway for example.