America West 757-200: Denver to Las Vegas

I've spent much of my flight sim time over the years flying aircraft that did not have an FMC as I thought the process of learning it was too much. About nine months ago I decided to give the QualityWings 757 a try since it had an FMC, but was also able to fly using FSX flight plans. I'm glad I gave it a try because it's an awesome add-on, and the simplified FMC was perfect to learn on in order to move on to the more advanced aircraft I've since purchased.

Now onto the flight. I remember as a kid flying on an America West 757, I'm pretty sure it was to Las Vegas, and I immediately took a liking to the livery. I'm not sure what it is, but it's my favorite livery of any airline and I was sad to see it go when they merged with US Air. The beauty of flight sim though is that you can fly anything you want, so today we are flying the America West 757 on a morning flight from Denver to Las Vegas.

Ground crew loading up the plane as I fumble around in the cockpit trying to remember all of the preflight items

Climbing out of Denver we cleared a high cloud layer in time to enjoy a view of the Rockies

Flight deck of the 757 with the "retro" panel as QW calls it

The view was very similar to this for much of the flight

We had to enter a hold over Lake Meade in order to lose some altitude

Turning over the final waypoint on the SITEE4 arrival with a great view of Las Vegas and McCarran Intl

Visual approach to 19L

Seconds away from a pretty smooth touchdown

Welcome to Las Vegas!

Thanks, guys!

Nicely done! I to have been putting off really learning the FMC. I even have the basic instructions printed. One of these days I will get serious about it.

I know there are some freeware FMC options, but at $15 I would highly recommend this add-on as a good place to start with the FMC. It has enough so you get a good grasp of how to program an FMC, but it's not so advanced that you are preflighting the aircraft for 30 minutes. Plus, if you decide the FMC isn't for you, you can upload FSX flightplans right to the FMC and fly using default navigation and ATC.

Nice shots!! And that Retro panel looks good as well. Having said that, FMC IMO is truly a step above!!

Michael

Nicely done! I to have been putting off really learning the FMC. I even have the basic instructions printed. One of these days I will get serious about it.

I actually have been getting seriously into learning to use FMC, especially now that I am flying with a VA (picture documentation of those flights coming). once you learn the FMC, you will have a hard time going back to not using one! it just makes flying so easy!

Enjoyed this thread very much! I had that acft in FS9 and I had some rudimentary success with the FMC back then but I didn't know my SID from my STAR and I probably didn't know or care that Navigraph even existed. This shot was found on a backup disk from 2010:

Haven't flown it in literally 10 years, I think I might see if my purchase way back when might still be valid today for P3D v4.5! :)

Enjoyed this thread very much! I had that acft in FS9 and I had some rudimentary success with the FMC back then but I didn't know my SID from my STAR and I probably didn't know or care that Navigraph even existed. This shot was found on a backup disk from 2010:

 

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Haven't flown it in literally 10 years, I think I might see if my purchase way back when might still be valid today for P3D v4.5! :)

Nice shot! Having said that, I hope no one falls out those open hatches!! ;):eek::eek:

Nice shot! Having said that, I hope no one falls out those open hatches!! ;):eek::eek:

Thanks Michael! Meh, it was just a chemtrail flight anyway, only me and the copilot onboard, lol.

...I think I might see if my purchase way back when might still be valid today for P3D v4.5! :)

Nope, separate charge for P3D v4+. Cheap though @ $15 bucks? I dug up my original purchase details last night and I paid $45 bucks for it back in 2010! I do have an installer for FSX and I still have FSX installed so I think I might give it a try in FSX before I pony-up for the v4.5 version.

Thanks Michael! Meh, it was just a chemtrail flight anyway, only me and the copilot onboard, lol.

 

 

 

 

Nope, separate charge for P3D v4+. Cheap though @ $15 bucks? I dug up my original purchase details last night and I paid $45 bucks for it back in 2010! I do have an installer for FSX and I still have FSX installed so I think I might give it a try in FSX before I pony-up for the v4.5 version.

be aware, this thing likes to shoot up like a rocket!

Glad I’m not the only one who feared the FMC! Having said that, if anyone is still hesitant I would give it a try. Do some research on reading charts, watch a few tutorials and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to program. The first FMC flight I did was from Philly to Charlotte with the 757, and I remember after touching down thinking to myself “that’s what I was worried about?” It’s still nice to fly using FSX default navigation with my GA aircraft, a lot less prep needed, but when flying airliners I can’t do it without the FMC.

Now my next mental hurdle I need to clear is flying on VATSIM.