Newbie guide to flying the Challenger 650?

[Atlas]

I'm looking for tutorials, videos, or documentation that helps someone transition from, say a C172 or B58, basically your average beginner GA aircraft to something like the CL650.  Someone who has done casual flying but is now looking to expand and enjoy the flight sim genre a bit more.

I really enjoyed flying the C172 and B58 with the REP.  I enjoyed sync'ing the Baron engines and flying to altitude and tuning for performance as shown in the REP manual.  Someone then recommended the TBM and after balking at the price for a few weeks, I bought the aircraft and thoroughly enjoyed it, kicking myself for not buying it sooner!  My first adventure was taking a TBM I "purchased" from Papua New Guinea to my home base in France in FSEconomy.  This made the CL650 an instant buy for me to support the amazing work of the Hot Start team.

However, I have zero airline experience and have thus far avoided the FMC by using the RealityXP GTN module.

I really don't know where to start to learn this aircraft so some guidance would be appreciated!  For example, I wanted to know how to start up the airplane from cold and while I found the checklist, it might as well have been in greek or klingon as I didn't really know where to look or where to begin.  Luckily, I found a tutorial video and just basically followed along!  I can do cold starts on the F-16 in DCS and BMS and also the F-18 in DCS (still learning the Tomcat!) so I'm not entirely new to this but just for some reason find airlines or fancy jets a bit intimidating.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!  I know this is a new add-on so if anyone is working on such tutorials, please let me know so I can keep an eye out for that as well.  Thanks!

[ois650]

If you can do a cold start in DCS then you've nothing to worry about - clearly you have an ability to learn procedures. 

Have a little faith in the checklist - the included illustrations at various points can be helpful. If you can't find a switch just look for it - there's not a huge amount going on in the 650's cockpit. It is intimidating at first but after a few times starting it up you'll be laughing! (While looking for switches you'll discover a million other features). 

I can understand, seeing as you're coming from the TBM, that the avionics seem a little complicated. There's a good document included with the add-on called "FMS Primer" which basically shows you how to do all the "normal stuff". There's a ProLine 21 primer coming soon also. 

The tutorial video series will be expanded in due course. 

Any questions feel free to have a browse around the forum - most of them have been asked already at this stage so there's a lot of good material floating around. If you're not already in the Discord please join here: https://discord.gg/GxfSeRPq

 

 

[Muchimi]

I for one found the Collins 21 avionics a bit different from the avionics I'm more familiar with due to years of simming with them (think Boing and Airbus systems) - while they were different themselves, the Collins is yet another beast as there are things it does that surprise me, and there are also things it doesn't do that also surprise me and get me in serious trouble fast.

Recommendations:
- there are a few videos from your usual streamers on youtube showcasing the Hot Start Challenger 650.  Some of them I'm amused because the streamer was clearly in the same boat I was figuring this stuff out.   The better one from the source is here:  

I also encourage you to download the Smartcockpit docs on the Challenger 605 which is very similar to the 650 as that will give you at least more solid documentation on the avionics and systems that make the plane work.  The docs (which are coming for this aircraft) will at least give you a head start on the various aircraft systems and what the buttons do - warning, more than 1,000 pages to sift through but filled with "ah-HA" moments for me.  The 605 is very similar to the 650 in terms of the cockpit and systems, the 650 has different engines and different range from what I can tell but otherwise very similar to the 605 in how things are setup. https://www.smartcockpit.com/plane/BOMBARDIER/CHALLENGER 605.html

I'm sure more tutorials will come out but I'll share with you that from what I can tell, we're all in the same boat trying to figure this one out because it's superbly modeled - it's an unusual system in many ways not only because this redefines "study" in study sims but also because Bombardier's way of thinking is a bit different.

Steep learning curve for sure, but that's also what makes it great.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Muchimi

[Atlas]

Thanks both!

The checklist just has me scratching my head for 98% of the time and even with DCS and other jets, I've usually learned mostly by watching videos then repeating it, then looking at the checklist which at that point makes more sense as I know I'm looking at the right areas of the cockpit.

I have downloaded and printed out the 605 documents so a lot of reading for me!  Very interesting stuff and I really enjoy watching and learning how things work especially in this detailed jet.  I just watched the refuelling video and it was interesting to see how the center/aux center tanks worked!

Funny how by learning this jet, I'm faffing about more compared to actually flying but it's so fun when something that went wrong with the last startup sequence is identified and corrected in the following attempt.

[IronCroptop]

@AtlasI'm in pretty much the very same boat (plane?) as you. All of my flying until now has been in various GA aircraft with the TBM900 being the most "complicated".

The CL650 is a whole new, intimidating beast for me. I, too, found large parts of the checklists to be largely confusing given my lack of knowledge and understanding.

In addition to the great advice and references that have been posted above, I'd recommend looking at the videos posted on YouTube by "Foxtrot Alpha Aviation". He's a real CL650 pilot and is posting some very in-depth looks at various procedures and walkarounds.

He hasn't posted a full startup video yet. His latest walked us through up to and including the start of the APU. But the level of detail he's providing is excellent and I've learnt so much from him already. I'm eagerly awaiting his next video.

 

[Tassierob]

7 hours ago, IronCroptop said:

@AtlasI'm in pretty much the very same boat (plane?) as you. All of my flying until now has been in various GA aircraft with the TBM900 being the most "complicated".

The CL650 is a whole new, intimidating beast for me. I, too, found large parts of the checklists to be largely confusing given my lack of knowledge and understanding.

In addition to the great advice and references that have been posted above, I'd recommend looking at the videos posted on YouTube by "Foxtrot Alpha Aviation". He's a real CL650 pilot and is posting some very in-depth looks at various procedures and walkarounds.

He hasn't posted a full startup video yet. His latest walked us through up to and including the start of the APU. But the level of detail he's providing is excellent and I've learnt so much from him already. I'm eagerly awaiting his next video.

 

I will totally agree with you on Foxtrot Alpha’s videos. The level of depth he goes to is extraordinary. So far an absolute master class in what you look for in a real walk around with what every pump and system does in detail. I know we can’t access that aft bay in the sim but wow amazing stuff. Even the cabin walkthrough revealed so much I was not expecting. Looking forward to every new video he releases. 

[Atlas]

Thanks guys!  Subscribed to his channel!

[IronCroptop]

Latest video in the Foxtrot Alpha Aviation series has been posted:

Definitely recommended viewing.

[Tassierob]

On 2/5/2022 at 5:32 AM, IronCroptop said:

Latest video in the Foxtrot Alpha Aviation series has been posted:

Definitely recommended viewing.

In my humbled opinion  these  should be pinned and recommended viewing  for all Challenger  sim pilots. The how and why explanations of everything a real captain does and the system explanations are above and beyond. The Collins Proline 21 system is really coming to life for me now and I appreciate its capabilities more every video he releases.

[FYG001]

I found this one really helpful, not intimidating in terms of length nor detail. Once you've watched this one you will be able to get your aircraft to the RWY in no time. When proficient with this, you can dive into much more detail with the FAAV videos. 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by FYG001

[XPJavelin]

My compilation of useful forum users contributions in the first hours after the Challenger installation on my computer :

 

 

 

[pbsc787]

Have updated this .pdf since this release?  I am very impressed with your care and detail/technical writing skills...Just retired off of the B787 in real life and enjoyed ( P3D 787 Quality Wings rendition) looking to get into corporate Aviation or IP work.  I will look for more of your posts.  Thanks for this PDF, I look forward to the wisdom as a CL650 newbie.