flyinhawaiian

Haven't been on lately since I've been really buckling down on my training... hell I haven't started X-plane up in 2-weeks! But, all that studying and whatnot has paid off. PASSED MY COMMERCIAL SEL CHECKRIDE ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! I get my instructor assignment for my multi-engine add-on, tomorrow (Monday)

Enjoy! Canon Digital Rebel XTi, EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS - from ~11.5miles away T-minus 10 by Finktel Jr Productions, on Flickr Liftoff!! by Finktel Jr Productions, on Flickr Cleared the Tower by Finktel Jr Productions, on Flickr Endeavor Rolls by Finktel Jr Productions, on Flickr Punch It (Contrast) by Finktel Jr Productions, on Flickr I wish my camera recorded sound too, because 45 seconds after launch, the wave of sound and power hit us like a freight train. Was certainly a humbling experience... Here's the full set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/finktel_jr/sets/72157626735264346/

Looks good. Just an FYI - US registered N-numbers will never start with the number 0.

How are you so good at making these liveries? I've been trying a US Airways one and the tail comes out like crap, and I haven't even STARTED on the fuselauge! What's your secret?

Well you know what your true course is supposed to be, so correct that for magnetic variance and compass deviation first. Then look to see what compass heading it takes to maintain the track you're supposed to be on. From there you can figure out your wind correction angle. Then all you have to do is get your ground speed (either through your display, DME, or through a bearing change calculation), and input it, your TAS, and correction angle into your E6B and BAM you have winds aloft. We do it all the time on long cross countries in GA aircraft (especially while working on my commercial pilots certificate), for fuel tracking purposes as well as to relieve boredom on longer legs...

Did you also take notice where the sun was in relation to where you were looking...? :)

;D ;D ;D I didn't want to say sim/simulate too many times in a row, lol!

Well, people also should learn how to calculate how to do it as well. Most of us fly this sim to "pretend" (for lack of a better word) to be a pilot. Real world pilots don't always have all this information fed to them. They have to know how to calculate things like top of descent, diversion calculations, wind direction and speed, as well as many other things, all while concentrate on flying. Its certainly a lot more than just sitting there and watching the scenery go by. So that said, for those of you interested, go online and buy yourselves an E6B flight computer. Its essentially a circular slide rule with TONS of aviation calculations on it that is a bitch to use if you're unfamiliar, but easy, once you are. You can do it manually too, but I need to look up the calculations...

That is definitely a pretty livery. Good find!

I'll see what I can do about making a metric version of the file on a separate sheet. It shouldn't be hard at all, but I have to figure out which measurements get converted and which stay in standard form. As for the weight and balance, I've been confused with how this works as well. Obviously, if you're outside the envelope, you should shift people around so you're within it, but I've run into a few cases where I'm within the boundaries of the chart, yet when I go to set the stab trim, it falls outside the green zone. I just set my trim to somewhere around 7.5-7.8 and it works pretty fine for me... I'll see what I can do. There's a bit of cleaning up to do with fields showing minimum data, and some formatting issues, but I'll do everything I can to get it finished before you release 1.1. Glad you like it!

Aerobatic doesn't start until 60deg

Feel free to use it and incorporate it in any way you can! Glad to help

...not unless you're "said" flight attendant...

I've created a performance planning spreadsheet for the CRJ. Its a first attempt, but as far as I can tell, it works pretty well. Please ask questions and give feedback/suggestions on how it might be improved. Clear boxes are required information. -Jeff http://tinyurl.com/3nfzh4a

Well I tried to do the same thing into JFK, which has probably been flown a few times before . Again, at the end of the arrival procedure (CAMRN4) it took me to the hold of my selected RNAV approach (RNAV (GPS) RWY 22R) then to the IAF, rather than taking me to the IAF and each subsequent point after that, THEN the hold. I'm burning a DVD right now, or else I'd jump into the sim and get some screen shots, but I'll do some more testing and see what I find...

This is happened to me twice, and I'm wondering how the FMS is designed to handle STARs. Yesterday, I was flying from KTPA to KRDU and had everything loaded in correctly, including my arrival into KRDU, BUZZY6 arrival > ILS 05L. So I'm flying along, and hitting my descent points when I noticed my proposed destination is about twice as far away as I was supposed to be. All the waypoints for the approach were loaded in, but what I'm noticing is that it takes you over the airport,performs a missed approach, hold, then the actual approach. I think its great that the missed approach is loaded into the FMS, but it should be AFTER the arrival point. So in this case, it went: BUZZY > RDU (last point on the arrival procedure) > RWY05L > DUHAM > (HOLD) > SCHOO > WEPAS > KRDU whereas it should have been: BUZZY (actual last point on the arrival procedure) > SCHOO > WEPAS > RWY05L > DUHAM > HOLD > KRDU I hope this makes sense, but essentially what I am saying is the FMS seems to want to take you over the airport, then hold, then the approach, rather than go into the approach straight from the arrival procedure. Not sure if this is by design, but it makes flying accurate sorties tricky, at the end...

Its funny how a "bug" is really the case of RTFM. Case in point I was on a flight today, decided to hand-fly the girl up to 10k feet (man its super easy on the controls!), hit the autopilot and nothing happens! I reset the whole A/P panel, check my FMS, check EVERYTHING, all the while climbing by hand, on route, to FL310. About an hour later, I notice the plane swaying a little in the upper-level winds, and think shouldn't the yaw-damper stop th... shit Yaw damper - on Autopilot - on (working fine) Checklists are a beautiful thing...

Internet browsers EAT fps for bfast/lunch/dinner on my computer... I usually close them out when I am flying

You'll be surprised what those brakes can take. Remember, they only have to stop the airplane ONCE ever so often and can't be certified unless they can stop the aircraft in a reasonable distance, without the use of T/Rs. Consider jets such as the Cessna Citation CJ-series, which don't have T/Rs, or the Falcon 900, which only has one T/R. Yes, they're smaller, but can get in and out of short airfields without T/Rs, no problem. Further, some airports have noise restrictions and the use of reverse thrust, except in certain situations, is prohibited. Check out this thread on Airliners.net for more info: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/371398/

That's very similar to what I've been using for my fuel calculations, and I haven't run out yet (or hit my reserve)! That said, looks like I've been shorting my taxi fuel a little. Thanks for the data! Here's what I used for my last flight (KMIA - KTPA): I'm working on a spreadsheet for that right now, which I plan on either publishing or sending to Javier for his approval. But as Dispatch said, we do it in the real world by hand. Granted, the pilot usually gets all this information from dispatch/ops, already calculated when they're given their day's route assignment. You need to remember, in most 14 CFR 135 and 14 CFR 121 operations, you're going to have multiple people working on the different aspects of the flight - Ops for route planning, weight/balance, fuel allotments; Ground crews for refueling, baggage handling; etc etc. Further, these aircraft have at least 2 pilots (one flying one non-flying), all with specific work-flows independent of each other, and cooperating with the other. So if it feels like a lot to do by yourself, well... it is, but all pilots learn how to do it. Here's the sheet we use:

I'm currently creating an excel sheet which will calculate all of your critical performance numbers for weight. In the future, I'll try and have it automatically correlate your Vspeeds as well

Seems the real sound is somewhere in-between the two, but I think I prefer the original better, as well... One sound that could be modeled is the wind-noise at speed. In an jet, the ambient noise from the air hitting the nose of the jet is quite loud, if we could have a sound file to replicate this (if there isn't already, have it turned up a bit) that would be awesome. That being said, the in-cockpit sounds included with the file seem spot-on, otherwise

Just some food for thought if anyone is running off the end of the runways... In reality, the majority of the braking power of a modern airliner is done with the brakes, while the T/Rs are there as "backup." While I've had one or two instances of the T/Rs not deploying on touchdown or having trouble getting them stowed, I still have no problem getting the plane stopped and off the runway. Many airlines' SOP is to unlock the T/Rs upon touchdown, but not deploy them unless necessary (Southwest is one). Fly the airplane first, guys, and I'm sure they'll get this fixed in no-time! -Jeff

^^ This. The ability of the FMS to negotiate airways is probably the single-greatest feature (with regards to navigation) on this aircraft. That's how we navigate in the real world, rather than endlessly typing in 100s of waypoints!

A few flights today... Been serving the greater Florida region as Comair: