Considering giving up on Mission 6

I'm a newbie.

I successfully landed missions 1-5 after crashing only about 5 times, but I can't seem to get thru mission 6. I crashed so far in more than 30 tries. The problems are:

1. I cant see enough of the ground to follow the creek and after the first 3, the green markers don't appear soon enough.

2. It seems to be necessary to be hair sensitive with moving the joystick to steer, and even a slightly stronger movement messes things up.

3. Something seems to be wrong with the program, since sometimes, when I need to increase altitude and pull the stick BACK, instead of going up, the plane goes down.

I don't want to give up the whole thing of the Flight Simulator, since I greatly enjoyed the first 5 missions, but I seem to be stuck.

Any suggestions?

1. DO NOT look at the ground and try to follow the creek!!!!:mad::mad:

Now I hope my point is made! You are flying an aircraft, not driving a car. Unless your Indicated Airspeed is over 80 knots, do not raise the flaps, even if the instructor says so. You need speed to gain altitude and then follow the green markers and aim to hit them.

 

2. What joystick are you using? You may need to make sensitivity adjustments in your settings, I'll post mine at the end of this post.

 

3. There is nothing wrong with the program!

 

Realism: I have mine set to the maximum. You should set to EASY! Put a checkmark in autorudder if your joystick has no rudder control.

 

Controls: I think these settings will work for you, also!

 

Take some time and go through all of your settings to see what it's all about. Also you don't have to start flying the Mission when the idiot instructor says so. Sit in the cockpit, press and hold the spacebar and move your mouse to look all around.

Edited May 13, 2019 by mrzippy

My joystick is T. Flight Stick X from Thrustmaster. Should I, or can I, make any adjustments to it? I calibrated it by resetting it to default, and everything else in Realism ans Control ia as you have it in your picture. I try to follow the green markers but after the 3rd one they do not appear soon enough to guide me properly.

My joystick is T. Flight Stick X from Thrustmaster. Should I, or can I, make any adjustments to it? I calibrated it by resetting it to default, and everything else in Realism ans Control ia as you have it in your picture. I try to follow the green markers but after the 3rd one they do not appear soon enough to guide me properly.

 

That's because you are trying to look down! Look ahead and once you pass the 3rd one, start looking to descend. The green markers are lower than you.

 

If you were successful on Tutorial 5, it's pretty much the same.

Edited May 13, 2019 by mrzippy

There's nothing wrong with the joystick. Flying's just not as easy as pulling on the stick to go up.

 

We explained clearly how to adjust the view. With images even. Nothing more to explain about that. Re-read that thread closely. And practice adjusting view in free flight. Park at an airport and get used to the cessna aircraft, the they adjustments, and fsx before taking off.

 

It actually sounds as if you are not ready to fly the Cessna. Practice more in the ultralight in free flight first.

3. Something seems to be wrong with the program, since sometimes, when I need to increase altitude and pull the stick BACK, instead of going up, the plane goes down.

There's nothing with wrong the program in that sense, because a real aircraft will do the same thing. The problem is in your lack of knowledge of what the controls actually do. It's all about energy management, and while under some circumstances back pressure (don't think of pull, think of pressure) will, indeed, result in a climb, when there is not enough potential energy (think of speed) then that back pressure will, indeed, add enough drag (one of the four forces of flight) to make the aircraft descend.

 

Aircraft controls are not nearly as straight forward as those in a car. All maneuvers use combinations of the four main controls (aileron, or roll; elevator, or pitch; rudder, or yaw; throttle, or power). And there are four main maneuvers, combinations of which make up ALL other maneuvers: climbs, glides (or descents), turns and straight-and-level. You MUST learn these well to do much else.

 

I'd suggest you look below (lower part of the main menu page) at the Real Aviation Tutorials & FAQs section of the forum, under Basic Aircraft Control, especially the piece called "What are the basic flight controls? How do I use them?" It starts with this statement: "When a student starts flying in real aircraft, the first thing they learn is what each control does."

 

It then proceeds to explain those controls and to give you some exercises to really learn what each is and how they work together (it's not intuitive). These exercises are something I've done with all my real world flight students, and it works exactly the same in the sim.

 

Get a couple of thousand feet above the ground in the Cessna (no need to go back to the ultralight) and practice these exercises until you become comfortable with them. It doesn't have to be all in one session, but run through them a time or three, then later come back and do it again. And again, until you are comfortable with these exercises.

 

The posts you've made here tell me that you are trying to run before you can walk very well, so forget the "missions" for a while until you can control the aircraft with precision. Just as in real aircraft, it takes time and effort to learn to fly well. It's not for nothing that soloing real aircraft takes (for most people) anywhere from 10 to 25 hours under the tutelage of an instructor (how often they fly, their inherent abilities, and other things affect the time required). Without an instructor to evaluate your performance and adjust instruction to your specific needs, it may well take somewhat longer for you to reach that same level of proficiency in the sim.

 

You absolutely MUST spend time on the more mundane things, just as a music student MUST practice the scales to get to know the instrument.

 

2. It seems to be necessary to be hair sensitive with moving the joystick to steer, and even a slightly stronger movement messes things up.

Not quite "hair sensitive," but you cannot be hamfisted with an airplane's controls, any more than you can drive a car with the grossly exaggerated movements of the steering wheel that a child might use to "imitate" driving.

 

If you will spend the necessary time and effort to gain a reasonable amount of precision (yes it's possible, with practice), then you will find the more advanced things (with practice) will also be attainable. Without that basic practice you'll never gain the more advanced abilities.

 

You can give up or you can practice getting precise and learn how things work -- your choice.

I agree 100% with Larry! Forget the Tutorial Missions for now and go HERE to learn to fly the Cessna 172: It's a lot of reading and then at the bottom of each reading assignment there is a practical factors flying assignment where Rod sits in the aircraft with you and guides you through what you just read.

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by mrzippy

OK, I'l do what you both, MrZippy and and Larry suggest Thanks!