Thank you, I think ?

[Fred737]

First I turned to the dark side when I switched from helicopters to GA planes, that ended in several "studylevel" planes and for most bush flying in single and twin turbines. I have the Zibo 737-800 because that should be the ultimate. But after one flight I went back to bushflying. 

Then I watched a video about a 737-300 and there was something about how that looked and sounded that triggered something in me. Helped by the man who made the video. He was very good in explaining all the things he showed. The engineer in me loves lots of switches and meters but I want to know into detail about what they do. As a non pilot airliners are very difficult. Most videos show  only the order of switches to operate but not why or what they do. That man was Jan Vogel . At the same time I received mail from X-Aviation about the last hours of sale for the 737 .  So I bought it.

The first thing I did was looking at the fuses...bummer, then the cabin, doors etc, hmmm, not really great but who cares, it is the cockpit eye candy AND systems I care about and they turned out to be excellent.  And all the different switch sounds are even better. But to be honest, I had no clue where to begin. I can start and operate every turbine but the 737 has 20x the amount of switches. And then I found out it came with a bunch of excellent tutorials, including videos. The second surprise was that the maker was that same Jan Vogel. 

I am now practicing the first tutorial flight (instead of diving direct into all the systems) and I do not regret it. As  a self-study pilot I miss a lot of knowledge about things other then operating the systems and Jan is a great instructor. 

But, I must say that I like it a lot more as I expected. This is the first plane that really  "did" something to me.  Even more as my favourite bushplane (PC-6) I do not know what it is but this thing fits me like a glove. The way it "hand-flies", behaves, the ambiance in the cockpit, the eyecandy, the sounds....I am afraid I am hooked..so thank you for that, ........I think.   

Fred

Edited August 27, 2020 by Fred737

[Litjan]

Hi Fred,

glad to hear all of that! I love the 737 - and I hope I was able to let some of that feeling permutate into the simulation of it we made.

Regarding the things you mentioned missing - we have a stickied post up that explains what we consider still incomplete and what we will add - or not.

https://forums.x-pilot.com/forums/topic/8526-things-that-are-not-going-to-be-in-v133/

Its well worth browsing through the stickied posts here in the general forum, but also in the "bug report" forums .

I hope you will continue to enjoy the plane we made, and we don´t consider it finished yet!

Cheers, Jan

 

[okernel]

9 hours ago, Fred737 said:

The way it "hand-flies", behaves, the ambiance in the cockpit, the eyecandy, the sounds....I am afraid I am hooked

Hi Fred,

I can relate to that.  I have owned the IXEG B737 since it was released, and it still "does it" for me.

[Fred737]

I am still practicing the first tutorial and reading about the rest. I have no experience with a FMS/CDU or navigation.  I would like to fly an interesting real life (1 our or so) route over nice landscape using easy airports (easy regarding landing, not st. Barth style    )  just for the fun of it and to learn. But I do not know where to start.  I only use the GTN750 or G1000 is GA planes but only a straight line from A to B, often trips between 10 and 50 nm from bush strip to bush strip  3000 ft above ground. .

I know the basics about stars, sids, airways, VOR, DF etc but only in theory, never used them.

I know how to google but do not know what info I need and so also not where to find it. But I like to learn the whole preparation for a flight and then program the CDU and  fly a real route with a real weight of fuel and passengers, using the pushback, fuel trucks, catering and autogate, ATC, bad weather, emergencies etc  etc  I think it is best  I start with a straight line from A to B, using a VOR and ILS and then every flight add  more things until I can do the whole real life route and procedures . 

But I do not know where to start. I know the basics about Skyvector and installed little navmap but not used it jet. 

I would be very happy if somebody could help me in the right direction.  

My idea is braking this down into smaller steps:
Step 1.
- select 2 airports
- .find the minimum navigation aids to fly an easy to navigate route (so I can find the airport without a GA style GPS)
-  how to do the weight and runway length calculation for ideal weather (and if needed other data like airport charts),
-  vertical navigation "profile" for arrival/approach so I know when to fly at what altitude so I do not have to nosedive down in a stol way for landing. 
Step 2
- adding things like airways  and star and sid
- using the correct altitudes for the whole route
Step 3 
- Add airport navigation and things like hold, toga etc
- correct use of groundservices
- correct "parking" to unload pax
Step 4
- introducing other weather
- maybe introducing technical problems to practice emergency procedures

I want to practice every step until I can dream it and then move on. I do not expect I need much help in figuring out how to operate the plane because I know the function of most of the systems enough to find out how to operate them. 

 

EDIT http://www.dept.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/B737.pdf  everything you want to know about planning trips for the the 737. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Fred737

[Fred737]

Sorry for asking, turns out the tutorials go way deeper then I expected. 

[Litjan]

55 minutes ago, Fred737 said:

Sorry for asking, turns out the tutorials go way deeper then I expected. 

Hehe, yes - once you complete them all, you should have a good idea of how the aircraft works.

I also made some more movies to give you some ideas here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGRsg_6rB1D6f7lKjdw5r9P99swJtryhQ

Cheers, Jan

 

[Fred737]

Does a real pilot have 3 hands and 4 eyes ?  Still doing the first flight pattern and it is pretty intense to do all those things at the same and/or right time.  You need to trim, and that has a delay, hold heading,  VS, bankangle and speed, find ther runway   and this bird is pretty fast compared to bushplanes.  I managed to crash already 2 times (out of 8 or so) one because I stalled the plane, the other because I deployed the speedbrakes during approach (and 30 degrees flaps)  and then applied some rudder. That caused a violent self oscillating wobbel and I landed almost inverted. That took less than 15 seconds. Pretty brutal, I am glad this was a virtual plane 

[Litjan]

Well, a real pilot has another guy with him in the cockpit - so there are 4 hands and 4 eyes..

To fly the 737 by yourself requires practice and a lot of planning ahead so you avoid situations where it gets "too much". Judicious use of the autopilot is recommended, especially when you have "stuff to do" besides just flying the airplane (like setting up radios etc.).

The speedbrakes should not be used with more than 15 deg of flaps deployed - I guess you found out, why ;-)

It will become easier with practice - try to remember the values for pitch and power for certain phases of flight (like downwind, on final,...) that makes precise flying easier instead of "hunting" for the correct pitch and power.

Cheers, Jan