Is anyone able to recommend any YouTube videos for a total beginner to Xplane? I am looking at getting into flying airliners and I have no idea where to start really.
So, for the completely uninitiated (like me), I've basically spent the last three days watching various YouTube videos to understand the total minefield that is a standard 737-800 (non-Zibo mod). I knew NOTHING about planes, autopilots, navigation, controls and still don't really but after about 10 hours of effort and numerous failed attempts, I finally completed an autopilot journey from Manchester to Belfast International last night.
Others may be able to shed more light on this as I really am no expert, but this did the trick for me. This is basically a quick explanation of my journey and some of the issues I faced and still face. There was one particularly youtuber whose videos helped me immensely though and it would be amiss of me to not link them:
Flight Management Computer (FMC):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4B3aqULnuA
Then the flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylTKY9ZboW0
I understood nothing about navigation or waypoints, so you need to familiarise yourself with
https://skyvector.com/ and
https://www.simbrief.com/ These websites basically show on maps the airport codes, waypoint markers etc that will be vital in setting up you FMC. On Simbrief, simply put your airport origin and destination code into the top and it will automatically retrieve some routes with waypoint markers already. The one I am currently about to attempt is from Manchester to Palma in Majorca. The route suggested for this is (I don’t know how well this will work yet):
Manchester airport code:
EGCC
SANB1Y SANBA N859 HON UN859 ROCAN UN13 LORES LORE3M
Palma:
LEPA
I then put these into SkyVector and plot the route and it gives me:
SANBA N859 HON UN859 ROCAN UN13 LORES
Not sure what SANB1Y or LORE3M are yet, but I suspect its something to do with the Standard Instrument Departure (SIDs) and Standard Terminal Arrival Route (STARs). I think basically you can do an instrument take off and an instrument guided landing - SANB1Y or LORE3M I think refer to the routines used by the FMC to do this. But I’m gonna ignore the SANB1Y one for now, I’ll take off myself and head directly to the first waypoint (SANBA) – over Sandbach. From here my plane will take airway N859 – I think that’s what it’s called – all the way to waypoint HON. I don’t know what UN859 is, but I think we are basically still following the N859 airway but at higher altitude. This will take me all the way to ROCAN which is near the Pyrenees. From there we take UN13 all the way to LORES, due north of Majorca. At this point, I will need to follow an ILS landing routine.
One thing I’m finding a bit annoying is that some of the waypoint markers in X plane are not the same as those in Simbrief or SkyVector. I had particular trouble with this on my Belfast flight with a waypoint called AGLIL which is called PENIL in X Plane 11 (i.e. the waypoint marker simply wasn’t recognised by the FMC). I don’t know why they are different but this took me ages to figure out as you can’t seem to view all of the X Plane map in one go to see what they are….or why they are different. Total pain in the butt that, maybe somebody could enlighten me???
As such, I haven’t yet checked my Majorca route, so it could be that some of those may be erroneous. I know SANBA is fine, for sure though.
So once the waypoints are in the FMC, I go to dep/arr button, click the second one down on the list on arrival airport and choose from the list an ILS approach that will land me on the right runway – probably runway 06L. So this is on a heading of around 60 degrees – you can see the runway labelling on Google Earth or go on SkyVector to see the runway headings. Landing the opposite way down it would be runway 24R which is a heading of 240 degrees.
So once I set my ILS approach, it should programme in a few extra waypoints that will automatically line the plane up for approach. You need to check for discontinuities in the legs – see the video above for help here. Then you need to set your climb and cruise altitude info – again see the videos. I merely copy the info in the vids, there may be better data to use but it gets me by. Save your route in the FMC.
On the autopilot computer (top of your cockpit click the F/D button to on (Flight Director?) and set A-T (autothrottle) to on. Set your speed by the dial to 300 and set your headings to 60 (or 59 degrees) for the landing runway – this will be overridden by the FMC anyway. Set your height to your max cruise height – 18000 feet – though it might be higher to fly to Majorca – TBC.
Pull out of the gate, I use the better pushback mod, then add some throttle to 35% on both engines to taxi to the runway using rudders and brakes for steering. Line up on the runway and set flaps to 5 or 10 and set off down the runway. Once at about 140 knots, pull up and take off. Lift the gear and climb gradually to 1000 feet. Once above about 1000 feet, hit the LNAV (lateral navigation?) and VNAV (vert navigation) buttons then hit CMD command button to set autopilot. It should then follow all the waypoints on your FMC at alt-hold.
Set your FMC to the PROG (progress) screen and it will show the top of descent. Before you reach this point, set your height dial down from 18000 to something like 2500 which is the lowest alt before you use the ILS approach to take over. At the top of descent point the autopilot should throttle back slightly and reduce in altitude gradually till your final waypoint (LORES) – noting that alt-hold switches to V-S and the computer calculates the rate of descent. Just before LORES, (my recollection gets a little sketchy at this point) you need to go to the map (m) and click on the approach arrows to Palma airport for runway 06L – then set your Nav1 and Nav2 to tune to the ILS landing frequencies – this automatically sets your ILS frequencies instead of entering them manually on the computer between the seats. Once you get closer to the airport you should see some purple diamonds on the bottom and side of the computer screen. Once you can see the runway and your plane is aligned, the diamonds will go closer to the middle of the lines, once this has happened switch on the APP (approach) button which will automatically turn off the LNAV. Your plane should then follow the ILS all the way to the runway with a manual landing required at around 400 feet – hit the disengage button at this point and land manually applying the brakes.
That’s it in an absolute nutshell and I don’t really understand everything about what I’m doing and you WILL go wrong maybe 5-10 times before you get it right. I found I could always take off ok and join the route to the top of descent but the ILS bit was all a bit hap-hazard. So I saved my flight when I’d reached the Isle of Man so I could go back and practise just that bit.
Hope that helps but it took me hours just to get to this rudimentary stage.
Thinking about it, it's the piece of gaming hardware I've had the longest for: around 15 years!
