Guide

The 3 things you need to know about air traffic control in X-Plane

Today I’d like to share with you 3 things you need to know to use the air traffic control in X-Plane.

1. You have to file a flight plan before interacting with the ATC. Do so by pressing Enter on the keyboard to bring up the ATC menu, then selecting “File Flight Plan.”
2. Your COM1 radio must be tuned to the proper frequency for whatever ATC controller you want to communicate with. For instance, if you’re at KSEA (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport), this means you need to tune to 128.00 to request clearance, 121.70 to get ground (taxi) clearance, and 119.90 to check in with the tower before takeoff. (If those frequencies are a bit bewildering, don’t worry—you can find them all by searching for KSEA in the Airnav database.)
3. Just like in the real world, you should check in with each controller as you get handed off to them. This tells the controller that you’re ready to receive instructions as necessary.

For a step-by-step guide through a flight guided by the ATC, check out the writeup in the X-Plane 10 manual titled Working with the Air Traffic Control.

Instantly recreate training scenarios using situation files

This situation is essentially a “snapshot” of your flight. It will remember which aircraft you’re flying, its speed, heading, and location (both altitude and latitude/longitude), as well as all the features of the environment (clouds, wind, time of day, and so on). When you load a situation, X-Plane will immediately set all those features to exactly what they were when you saved the situation.

To create a situation (a .sit file), move the mouse to the top of the screen, click File, then click Save Situation. Type whatever name you want to give to this flight into the text box at the bottom of the window, then click the Save Situation button.

To load a situation in order to fly it again, open the File menu and click Load Situation. Find your .sit file and double click on it to load the situation.

This is especially useful for quickly loading and practicing a specific type of approach or emergency situation. The situations can even be sent to other X-Plane users; all they need is the situation file that you created. (You can find the situation file in the directory X-Plane 10/Output/situations/—just have your friend put it in the same folder on their own computer.)

How to choose the simulator that’s right for you

Previously, I’ve shown you the great things you can do in X-Plane 10—how you can use it to practice approaches, simulate ATC interactions, find high-quality aircraft for it on the Web, and more.

But, maybe X-Plane 10 isn’t right for you. In fact, you can run nearly all of the simulations provided in X-Plane 10 using X-Plane 9, and X-Plane 9 is just $39.

X-Plane 10 may not be right for you if you have a very old computer (say, 4 years old or more) or a very low-end computer (one with an integrated graphics card). X-Plane 10 offers the greatest realism in a flight simulator to date, thanks to its new, world-class aircraft models and upgraded global scenery. X-Plane 10 also is the only simulator for which we are constantly creating updates, which add new aircraft, new features, and more. However, if your computer is unable to run X-Plane 10 (meaning you will be unable to benefit from the big improvements we’ve made to the simulator), we recommend purchasing X-Plane 9 instead (you can find it at the bottom of our ordering page).

Preparing for emergencies

Simulating failures

X-Plane can simulate a huge number of systems failures. This lets you experience what happens when important pieces of equipment don’t do what they’re supposed to in flight, making you better prepared for these situations in the real world. You can configure these failures using the Equipment Failures window. To open this window, move your mouse to the top of the screen (causing the menu to appear), then click Aircraft, then click Equipment Failures.

The World/MTBF tab of the Equipment Failures window controls things outside of the airplane, such as bird strikes and airport equipment failures. You can also use the control at the bottom of the window here (labeled use mean time between failures, random failures) to make all systems fail randomly. When this box is checked, the simulator will use the value to the right to determine how often, on average, each piece of equipment will fail. For instance, if the MTBF is set to 1000 hours, X-Plane will decide that each piece of hardware in the plane has about a one in a thousand chance of breaking each hour. Since the airplane has a few hundred pieces of hardware, that means a failure might occur every 5 to 20 hours or so.

The other tabs in this window let you set the frequency of specific failures for hundreds of different aircraft systems. You can even set a system to simply “inoperative,” meaning it has already failed.

The general failure categories available to you are:

• Misc. Equipment
• Instruments
• Engines
• Flying Surfaces
• G1000 (if you have a real G1000 attached to X-Plane)
• NAVAIDs

Signing off now …

If you’re still using the demo, remember that you can upgrade to X-Plane 10 Globalat any time. Doing so will remove the time limit from the simulator, and you’ll get the global scenery package to boot.

Using a flight simulator as a training aid

In the last few years (and especially since publishing the FAA-Industry Training Standards, or FITS), the FAA has placed a greater emphasis on using simulation throughout all stages of flight training. A growing number of research studies using this philosophy show marked gains in student performance. There has never been a better time, then, to start improving your own skills using a flight simulator.

The X-Plane flight simulator has been used for flight training and engineering purposes by organizations such as:

• Piper Aircraft
• Cirrus Aviation
• Fidelity Flight Simulation
• Japan Airlines
• Cessna Aircraft
• NASA
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• United States Air Force
• National Test Pilot School
• Boeing
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Iowa State University

Who should train in a flight simulator?

Student pilots

If you are a student (or pre-student) pilot, a flight simulator can provide a safe environment for learning procedures and building basic stick-and-rudder skills. Under the guidance of a certified flight instructor (CFI) or a training curriculum like Bruce Williams’ “Scenario-Based Training with X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator,” you can get most of the benefits of training in a real aircraft without the associated cost or stress. Furthermore, because you control the simulator world, you can minimize distractions from whatever you’re currently practicing, such as bad weather, other aircraft, and so on. Then, once you’re actually in the air, you’ll be more prepared and more confident—you’ll spend less time in the air (saving you money) and you’ll be safer doing so.

Private pilots

If you’re a private pilot, staying current and proficient—whether for a flight review, instrument proficiency check, or simply your own peace of mind—is very important. Using a flight simulator, you can practice takeoffs and landings, instrument navigation, using an autopilot, and so on. Furthermore, you can prepare for tricky or dangerous situations: instrument failures, crosswind landings, navigating storms, and more.

One of the more often overlooked features of a flight simulator is the ability to play back a flight or visualize its trajectory. Doing so allows you to evaluate your takeoffs and landings after you’re through.

Flight instructors

If you’re a flight instructor, you can assign “homework” to students so that they’re better prepared at your next meeting. You can even test student knowledge of the procedures you’re going to fly

What do you need to get started?

In order to practice with a home flight simulator, you’ll need a few things:

• A fairly new, fairly fast Mac or PC
• A yoke or joystick
• Flight simulation software

You may also want an iPhone or iPad, which you can use as an EFIS flight display with the Xavion app. This is especially true if you use Xavion in your real aircraft as an instrument backup, synthetic vision system, or emergency lander. (Xavion even interfaces with X-Plane for training!)

What kind of PC do you need?

Many flight simulators can run on older computers with the bare minimum level of performance and visuals. However, you’ll want a relatively fast computer to achieve the highest realism. We recommend the following system specs or better:

• a 3 GHz, multi-core CPU,
• 4 GB of RAM,
• a DVD-ROM, and
• a DirectX 10-capable video card with 1 GB of on-board, dedicated VRAM.

The 27-inch iMac from Apple has these specs, as does the high-end Macbook Pro laptop. For Windows PCs, the Asus Republic of Gamers laptops have excellent specifications, as do the high-end CyberPowerPC desktops.

What kind of flight controls should you buy?

While you can use a flight simulator with nothing but your mouse and keyboard, this can be cumbersome and unrealistic (for obvious reasons). We strongly recommended, though, that you use at least a joystick or yoke.

We recommend choosing between a joystick or yoke based on the type of flight controls found in the aircraft you typically fly. Thus, if you typically fly a Cessna 172, you probably want a yoke, whereas if you fly a Cirrus SR22, you want a joystick.

If you don’t have flight controls, we recommend Saitek’s X52 joystick and throttle system, as well as CH Products’ Flight Sim yoke.

Where should you buy flight simulator software?

Since Microsoft stopped work on their Flight Simulator line, X-Plane is the only general-purpose flight simulator still under active development. In fact, we publish new updates and improvements (including new features and aircraft models) to the simulator every few months.

You can find X-Plane 10 Global (including over 40 aircraft models and the full global scenery package) at X-Plane.com.

If you don’t have it already, you can download the free X-Plane 10 demo from our web site. That demo is almost identical to the full version of X-Plane, except that it will stop accepting input after 15 minutes of flight (after which you’ll be forced to restart the simulator in order to fly more). It also includes scenery only for the Seattle-Tacoma area, rather than the full global scenery.

 If you don’t have X-Plane already, be sure to install the free X-Plane 10 demo. You may also want to sign up for guide for new users of the simulator.

Fly a better approach using a flight simulator

Today, I’d like to help you fly a final approach to an airport. Doing so will allow you to keep your stick-and-rudder skills sharp, and also practice landing in rough weather. Moreover, we know of CFIs who recommend that their pilots practice just like thisbefore coming in for a flight review—it saves the pilot money, and it saves the instructor time that they can be using with other students.

The beauty of practicing in a flight simulator is that we can have the sim instantly transport us to the airport we want to land at, and we can instantly set up an approach to a particular runway there. This means you can spend more time practicing the approach itself and less time setting it up.

Note: If you haven’t already, you’ll want to get X-Plane set up, with your yoke or joystick working properly. This means installing the free X-Plane 10 demo (if you don’t have X-Plane already) and setting up the controls by following the instructions in the section “Configuring Essential Yoke/Joystick Functions” of the user manual. You’ll also want to choose an airplane, per the instructions in the section “Setting Up a Flight.”

Choosing an airport

First things first—we need to choose the airport that we’ll fly in to, and get ourselves a few nautical miles away, lined up with the runway.

If you’re new to X-Plane, you have probably used the Quick Flight Setup feature to choose your airport. However, this isn’t the only way to do it. In fact, using the following method, you can select not just which airport you go to, but also where in that airport you start.

So, move your mouse to the top of the screen (causing the menu to appear). Click on Location, then Select Global Airport. Just like in the Quick Flight Setup window, you can search for an airport either by name or by ICAO identifier. Unlike in the Quick Flight Setup window, though, the bottom half of this window displays rows of “quick start” buttons. The buttons in the “Takeoff” column (on the far left) will transport your aircraft to the specified runway—we don’t want to use these right now. Instead, to the right of the Takeoff buttons are the “Final Approach” buttons. Clicking one of these will transport your aircraft to the specified distance away from the runway indicated on the button’s left.

So, let’s fly a full final approach. Search for KSEA (the default airport, included with the demo), and click one of the buttons labeled 10 nm. X-Plane will put your airplane 10 nautical miles from that runway, at a decent altitude. Note: If your aircraft is moved to an area that does not have any scenery installed, you will see nothing but water and maybe a small runway. Since the demo doesn’t include the global scenery (which is only available by buying X-Plane 10), you probably want to stick to the default airport in Seattle (whose identifier is KSEA), where you do have scenery installed.

Changing the weather

For your first approach in the simulator, you probably want to stick with nice weather without much turbulence. In the future, though, you can set a crosswind or even bring up a storm! For a detailed breakdown of how the weather in X-Plane can be controlled, check out the section “Setting the Weather” in the X-Plane 10 manual.

Flying the approach visually

At this point, you should be 10 nautical miles out from the airport, in line with whichever runway you chose. Your goal is to slowly descend down to ground level, while keeping your airplane lined up with the runway. If you’re in a small, general aviation airplane (like the Cessna 172SP), you want to keep your speed a bit above stalling speed. (For the 172, stalling speed is about 65 knots, so aim for 90 knots or so, lowering your speed as you get closer.) By the time you get to the runway, you want to be right at stalling speed, with your power at zero and flaps at full. Follow a shallow glide path in to the runway—that is, point the nose down between 3 and 5 degrees. Right before the craft reaches the ground, raise the nose up to about 7 degrees for a gentle touchdown.

Did you make it?! If not, just reload your approach (using the Select Global Airport dialog just like before) and try again!

Flying on instruments

If you’ve gotten the hang of the visual approach, you might be interested to try an instrument approach. You can find all the details in the portion of the X-Plane 10 manual titled “Flying an Instrument Approach in X-Plane.”

Using your plane’s autopilot in X-Plane

Everyone wants to know how to use their aircraft’s autopilot. This is as much a concern in the real world as it is in X-Plane—the fact is, many pilots don’t take the time to learn to use their autopilot properly.

Using the autopilot is as simple as turning it on, deciding which of its features you need (Do you need it to take you to a specific altitude? Keep the wings level? Change your heading?) and then turning that feature on.

Turning the autopilot on

To turn the autopilot on, locate the switch labeled “Flight Director Mode” in the cockpit (it may instead simply be labeled “FLIGHT DIR”). It has 3 modes: off, on, and “auto.” When it is set to “on,” the autopilot will give you a set of wings on your HSI which you can fly by hand in order to track the suggested path. However, the mode you probably want to use is “auto.” With the switch set to “auto,” the autopilot will physically move the aircraft’s controls for you, so you can sit back while your plane flies itself.

Which autopilot feature do you need?

Now, which autopilot feature do you need? The most common features simulated in X-Plane are as follows:

• The WLV button is the wing leveler. This will simply hold the wings level while the pilot figures out what to do next.
• The HDG button controls the heading hold function. This will simply follow the heading bug on the HSI or direction gyro.
• The LOC button controls the localizer flight function. This will fly a VOR or ILS radial, or to a GPS destination. Note that the GPS may be programmed by the FMS (discussed in the section of the manual titled “Flying an FMS Plan”).
• The HOLD button controls the altitude hold function. This will hold the current or pre-selected altitude by pitching the nose up or down.
• The V/S button controls the vertical speed function. This will hold a constant vertical speed by pitching the aircraft’s nose up or down.
• The SPD button controls the airspeed function. This will hold the pre-selected airspeed by pitching the nose up or down, leaving the throttle alone.
• The FLCH button controls the flight-level change function. This will hold the pre-selected airspeed by pitching the nose up or down, adding or taking away power automatically. This is commonly used to change altitude in airliners, as it allows the pilot add or take away power while the airplane pitches the nose to hold the most efficient airspeed. If the pilot adds power, the plane climbs. If they take it away, the plane descends. SPD and FLCH are almost identical functions in X-Plane—they both pitch the nose up or down to maintain a desired aircraft speed, so adding or taking away power results in climbs and descents, respectively. The difference is that if you have auto-throttle on the airplane, FLCH will automatically add or take away power for you to start the climb or descent, whereas SPD will not.
• The PTCH button controls the pitch sync function. Use this to hold the plane’s nose at a constant pitch attitude. This is commonly used to just hold the nose somewhere until the pilot decides what to do next.
• The G/S button controls the glideslope flight function. This will fly the glideslope portion of an ILS.

Note that, by default, not all aircraft will have all these features.

Summary

So, once again, to use the autopilot:

1. Turn it on by moving the Flight Director Mode switch to “auto.”
2. Decide which autopilot mode you need. (E.g., if you just want the autopilot to keep the same altitude and heading, you want wing-leveler mode. If you want the aircraft to fly a particular glideslope down to a runway, you want the glideslope mode.)
3. Press the button corresponding to that mode, located somewhere on your instrument panel (probably near the Flight Director Mode switch).

This work is copyrighted. I do not own anything. Credits go to Laminar Research and X-Plane

The Unofficial Guide for X-Plane

OK Quick Lesson!

Hit B to turn off the brakes, F1 and F2 for throttle, or drag them with the mouse.

Click on the CENTER of the windshield with the mouse to fly with the mouse!Move the mouse to the top of the screen to see the menus!

Have a joystick? Ok,Go to Joysticks, Keys and Equipment in the settings menu

(X-Plane v9)


OK Quick lesson!

Hit B to toggle the brakes.

F1 and F2 for throttle!

[ and ] for trim!

(X-Plane 10.20)



How to fly a plane the FUN way! -Ace Combat Assault Horizon style

Evade missiles using counter maneuvers, blow up other aircrafts, precision bombings, stealth raids, aerobatics, and many more!

Basic Flying maneuvers (BFM)

Split-S: Invert the aircraft then pull down the stick to level out. Hit the flare/chaff in case of a missile lock.

Immelman: Pull a 1/2 Loop and then level out. An easy tactic of reversal, more of the opposite of the Split-S

Inside Loop: Pull up continuously at maximum or minimum throttle to form a loop. The radius depends on the speed of the aircraft

Barrel Roll: Roll to the left or right and pitch up if necessary. Hit the brakes and he'll fly right by (Enemy is chasing you on your six and eventually over shoot)

"I'll hit the brakes, he'll fly right by..." Maverick

Dive Bombing: At FL 15 make a 70 degree dive towards the desire target and place the bomb reticule or velocity vector on the desired target. Hit the bomb release and pull up sharply at around 1000-2000 feet. Accelerate to avoid the blast!

Terrain Masking: Fly low to the deck as low as possible. Useful if you want to avoid a swarm of missile or if you run out of flares/chaff, or on a mid battle landing approach to resupply

Arrowhead approach: Attack the enemy head on. Timing and missile firing have to be precise or else you are risked being killed or crashed into.

Check your six: Always remember that you are on a battlefield and anyone can kill you. Check your six to see if you are locked on by an enemy fighter jet.

Avoid the jetwash: Do not pursue an enemy plane too close or else you may risk your RIO's life. Kill him first with your gun.

"Iceman's jet-wash had killed Goose and upset Maverick's confidence in Top Gun"

Use the right weapon! DO NOT USE LONG RANGE WEAPONS FOR CLOSE TARGETS! DO NOT USE MULTI-LOCK MISSILES ON LESS THAN 4 TARGETS!


"It's too close for missiles, I'm switching to guns..." Maverick

Weapon Guidelist

SAAM: Semiactive Air-to-air missile
Long range air to air missile, once fired the target must stay inside the steering circle in order for it to hit

AIM-7 Sparrow

XMAA: Advanced Medium Range Air-to-air missile
Medium range air to air missile that can be locked on to 4 targets.

XMA4/4AAM: Can lock on to 4 Targets
XMA6/6AAM: Can lock on to 6 Targets, but with longer range (XLAA Range)

ODMM: Omnidirectional Multi Lock Missile
Medium range multipurpose missile that can lock onto 4 targets

AIM-120 AMRAAM

XLAA: Advanced Medium Range Air-to-air missile

Long range air to air missile that can be locked on to 4 targets.

AIM-54 Phoenix

QAAM: Quick Maneuvering Air to Air Missile
Short range missile that will stay on the target's six once fired within 50 degrees radius.

AIM-9X Sidewinder

 LASM: Long Range Anti Ship Missile

AGM-84 Harpoon

 XAGM:/4AGM: Ground attack missile that can lock on to 4 targets. CAn also be used on helicopters

AGM-65 Maverick

 SOD: Standoff Dispenser
A missile that carries multiple bomblets and will dispense them while flying towards its targets
Useful for strafing runs and targets being placed in a straight line.
TIP: Target the last target and fire the SOD. The SOD will dispense bomblets and eventually destroy the targets lined up in front of the desired targets

Storm Shadow

 UGB: An unguided Bomb
Depending on the weight and size, it will deal a larger radius and amount of damage

FAEB: Fuel air explosive bomb: A bomb which incorporates a high concentration of explosive fuel air. Can cause a large amount of damage. Found on Su-37 and A-10

Mk-82 Free Fall Bombs

GPB: Guided Precision Bomb
A bomb which locks onto the desired target and eventually flies towards it. Deals with a small amount of damage

GBU-12 Paveway

USE THE RIGHT PLANE!!! IT IS CRUCIAL IF YOU USE THE RIGHT PLANE FOR THE DESIRED MISSION!

Dont tell me you are going to fly a bomber in Ace Combat Zero always?

Fighters
They are highly maneuverable and fast so as to outmaneuver the enemy off your ass and kick his one instead

F-22 Raptor
"The Best fighter in the world....first look, first shot, first kill...'
SP Weapons: XMAA, 6AAM, GPB, QAAM, SOD

Attackers
They are usually slow, equipped with  powerful air to ground ordanance. They cannot react as fast as fighters and moreover, they are heavily armored

A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthog
" The tank killer that we used to know...."
SP Weapons: FAEB, XAGM, RCL, SFFS

Multiroles
They are a good combination between the attributes of fighter and attacker. They have good armor, short range weapons and useful for interdiction missions.

F-35 Lightning II
" The next generation of naval fighters with VTOL capability and stealth..."
SP Weapons: QAAM, GPB, SOD, LASM


Click the links to learn more about aerobatics!!!
Aerobatics and counter maneuvers
Basic Flight Maneuvers- BFM
Tight Loop/Kulbit
Pugachevs Cobra: Only F-22



How to land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier? -everything2.com

In some ways aircraft carrier landings are a zen experience. For the fifteen to twenty seconds you are on final approach, there are only three things in the entire universe you care about: Meatball, lineup, and angle-of-attack. Everything else fades into irrelevance. It's a very simple existence.

But we'll come back to that. I should probably explain how you get yourself set up in such asituation.

First, you'll have to join the Navy*. And you can't just enlist, either - you have to be acommissioned officer...

Okay, I'll skip forward a bit. Carrier qualification comes quite far into your training as a NavalAviator. You'll have had an extensive ground school, on the order of about 150 hours of dual instruction, a couple of dozen hours solo. You'll have gone through an intense syllabus ininstrument flying, aerobatics, and formation flying. You'll have completed a dozen or so flights devoted to fclp ("field carrier landing practice") during each of which you will have done a dozen or so practice approaches to a carrier deck sized box painted on the runway, with every landing graded by the landing signal officer, or LSO. You have to convince the LSO that you won't kill yourself or scare anyone unduly before they let you fly out to the ship for real.

The daytime traffic pattern at the carrier is an ovoid "race track" with the downwind leg at 600 feet, 180 degrees opposite to the "Base Recovery Course" on which the ship is steaming. (Procedures at night are totally different, and I'm blowing them off for this w/u.) Civil aircraft and the Air Force practice a box-shaped traffic pattern, with crosswind, downwind, base, andfinal approach legs. The Navy, though, has found that timing, spacing, and interval are more easily controlled with the race-track pattern, where the planes make a constant, semi-circular turn from the downwind leg to the final approach.

You enter this traffic pattern by flying at 800 feet right up the wake of the ship, passing close-aboard to starboard. You'll be at about 250 knots, or faster if you're a show-off, and, unless the plan is for "touch-and-go" landings, your tailhook will be down. You must spot any other traffic in the pattern, and extend upwind appropriately to allow the proper time interval. You must allow any plane ahead of you from 30 to 45 seconds, to give them time to taxi clear of the landing area and reset the arrester gear.

Now comes the fun part. It's called a "break" turn. It's a full aileron-deflection leftward snap roll over to a 70 to 90 degree angle of bank, accompanied by a chop of the throttle to idle, andextension of full speed-brakes. This should be a very crisp, head-snapping maneuver. You are being watched, after all, by irritable old men in pay grades far above yours. As you bank over, you pull back the stick to about a 3 to 4 'g' pull. You must be careful to keep this high-g turn level. You will swiftly decelerate to the airspeed at which you can extend the landing gear andflaps. And you must be very careful to roll out of this turn on the proper reciprocal, downwind heading. As you slow down and approach the proper heading for the downwind leg, you candescend out of 800 feet for 600. After gear and flap extension you decelerate even more rapidly. You must come back up on the throttle to halt this deceleration at the proper speed for the approach (on which more in a moment.) You will be constantly trimming the aircraft as appropriate for the landing configuration. Once established on the downwind leg, you will complete your landing checklist. It should be apparent that you have an awful lot to do in a very few seconds.

Now, the "Navy way" here is to decelerate to and maintain the optimum airspeed for final approach. The complication is that this airspeed varies rather widely with things like remaining fuel load, unexpended ordnance, and so forth. So you don't use your airspeed indicator. You use an "angle-of-attack," or AOA indicator, which measures the angle at which the airfoil of thewing meets the oncoming airstream. It's a little bit of aerodynamics for business majors, but there is an optimum AOA you can fly that will put you at the optimum approach airspeed, no matter what your aircraft's gross weight. The indicator you use for this is a small array ofcolored lights atop your instrument panel, arranged thusly:

v
o
^

If the center 'o', colored yellow, is lit, you're 'on speed', or at the proper AOA. If the upperchevron, colored green, is lit, you are slow, and must pitch the airplane nose-down a bit to speed up. If the lower chevron, colored red, is lit, you are fast and must pitch nose-up a bit.

And here we get into what was, for me at least, a little counter-intuitive. Because you control your airspeed with your pitch attitude, and you control your rate of descent with the throttle. It seems a little backwards, doesn't it?

If you've done everything right, you'll pass down the ship's port side at about 1 to 1.25 miles. You begin your turn to final approach when "abeam" the stern of the ship (this position is called the "one-eighty" because you have that many degrees to turn...except that's not exactly true, as I'll describe in a moment...)

You should be "on speed" and trimmed up for hands-off flight. You pull back the throttle just enough, while maintaining your AOA by minute pitch angle changes so that the aircraft attains about a 250 foot per minute rate of descent. You establish maybe a 15 degree angle-of-bank turn. I always used to take one last quick glance at the landing-gear indicators to make sure all three were down and locked.

And then you basically "hold what you got" until the "90", which is 90 degrees of turn off the downwind heading. You should be passing through 450 feet altitude, still on speed. Your rate of descent, again controlled by the throttle, can increase to 400-450 feet per minute. The plane ahead of you in the traffic pattern should be touching down. Don't look at him, you've gotta pay attention.

At the "forty-five" (I bet you can guess where this is in the pattern) you should start to pick up the "meatball," AKA the optical carrier landing aid. This is basically a Fresnel lens, described in another write up, but the upshot is that there's a light array, about 6 feet high, just to the left of the landing area on the flight deck. It has a horizontal row of green lights, called the "datum lights", and an orange light, or "meatball," that rides up and down to indicate your situation relative to the optimum glideslope, for example:

   | |
   | |
ooooOoooo 
   | |
   | |

...indicates you're on the 3-degree glide slope, and...

   | |
   |O|
oooo oooo  ...indicates you're above it.
   | |
   | |

...Also, the lowest cell on the display is red, to indicate that you're about to be in trouble. TheLanding Signal Officer, or LSO, will invariably give you a "wave-off" if you're too low. He does this by triggering a button on a hand-grip he holds, (called the "pickle".) This makes the the meatball array flash , and is your signal to add full throttle, abort the descent, climb back up to the traffic pattern, and go around for another try. As I say, you'll begin to pick this display up at around the "forty-five" position. You'll announce that you see it with a very concise radio announcement, as follows:

"...Gambler 703, Viking ball, 8.6"

Which translates to: This is Gambler 703 (Gambler would be my squadron callsign, 703 would be the number painted on the tail), I DO see the ball, and I'm an S-3 Viking, and I've got 8600 pounds of fuel remaining.

The LSO will reply: "Roger ball."

You'll continue turning and descending. If you're high you'll increase descent by pulling back on the throttle while maintaining optimum AOA. If you're low you'll decrease rate of descent by advancing the throttle, again maintaining optimum AOA. When the meatball is properly centered, you'll make appropriate throttle adjustments to re-establish the proper rate of descent to stay on the glideslope. Minute stick and throttle adjustments are constant from this point forward. They must be subconsciously automatic, which is one reason why you did so many practice approaches back at the field.

And at this point you've also reached your final approach heading, and should roll out of your bank. You should be established on the extended center line that runs down the landing area on the flight deck.

Which, as I hinted earlier, is NOT aligned with the course the ship is steaming! Modern carriers have angled flight decks...the landing area is canted 10 degrees to PORT of the ship's keel (and the course it steams on). This is so that, if you miss a wire, you can simply roll off the end of the angled landing area, safely clearing the planes parked on the ship's bow, and go around again for another try. This means that, as you approach the final leg, you'll cross the shipswake at a shallow angle, and continue your turn for another 10 degrees to align with the landing area. It also means that, as you come down on final, the ship is constantly moving from your left to your right. So you have to make tiny, subtle corrections to stay on the proper line-up. Aren't you glad you signed up for this duty?

So now you're on final approach, about 15 to 20 seconds out. An ideal carrier landing will be a ride down a 3-degree glide slope all the way to touch down...the pilot will see a centered meatball with no deviations, and airspeed will stay "pegged" at the optimum AOA. To maintain this you'll have to make constant, rapid, tiny corrections. You do NOT look at the landing area - this is called "spotting the deck," and is a no-no. The plane ahead of you will either taxi clear of the landing area in time, or not. If he doesn't, the LSO will give you a wave-off, and you'll go round for another try. Your attention constantly bounces from the meatball, to your line-up, to your AOA gauge. Ahh, this is sublime.

There is no "flare" at the end of the approach like you see airliners, light planes, and air-force pilots do. You fly the glide-slope until the deck gets in the way. So you hit the deck with a good solid thump. And, since you're watching the meatball, not the deck, the exact moment of every landing is a surprise. The ship has four arrestor wires, and, if you do it right, you'll put the point of your tailhook down in the middle of them, i.e., between wires 2 and 3. The ideal landing is therefore a "3-wire".

At the moment of touchdown, you do another thing that's a bit counter-intuitive when you first learn of it: You JAM FULL THROTTLE!

This is because your hook can MISS the arrestor wires. In fact, you can make a PERFECT approach, and your hook can occasionally bounce over the wires. This is called a bolter, and it's no big deal provided you can climb away as you roll off the end of the landing area. Jet engines can take a few seconds to "spool-up" to full power, though (they've gotten a lot better in recent years; the early ones were really dangerous). So you want to apply full-throttle on touchdown in anticipation. The arrestor wires will still stop you just fine, even at full throttle. Only once you're sure you're aboard do you pull throttle back to idle, and look for the "yellow-shirt" for taxi direction to your parking spot.

It is, as they say, an "E" ticket ride. You go from around 140-150 mph (a bit slower, maybe 130 in S-3's) to a dead stop in a bit over a second. When you CQ, or carrier qualify, you typically have to do 5 or 6 of these in succession...which means you trap, then launch from the catapult, go back around immediately and do it again. Back in the day I was, as they say, a whisper-thin lad, and I'd always have bruised collarbones from the shoulder-straps at the end of the day.

Every approach is graded; the LSO de-briefs you on any excursions you made from an optimum approach (they have their own shorthand notation they use to denote and record this). They're very hard to please; the best grade you can possibly get on an approach is called "OK". There is provision in the system for an "OK UNDERLINED", which would denote either a particularly flawless approach, or a heroic feat of airmanship while damaged, on fire, etc, for which you can expect to be awarded an air medal. The typical, competent approach will get you a "Fair." Or, if you're flailing, you'll get a "no-grade." Get too many of those and you're looking for other work.

They post the grades for every pilot, no matter the rank, on a "greenie board" in your squadron's ready room. Junior officers can and do out-score senior ones, which leads to awkward situations. But the system has an integrity that you have to respect, because if you screw up too badly, you die.

And sometimes, you can do everything PERFECTLY and STILL die.

*Fellow poster doyle has dutifully reminded me that Marine Jet aviators also sometimes land on carriers. This is true; there were several Marine officers in my car-qual classes in flight school. During my years of service in the 80s, however, it was very unusual to see any Marine air units deployed on a carrier. It has happened a couple of times in recent years with A-6 and F/A-18 units, and has been noted as a novel experiment. Of course, Marine helicopter andAV-8 Harrier units deploy on their own specialised amphibious assault carriers, but the landing and takeoff procedurs are completely different from what is described here...

The Basics of Flying an Aircraft- Walkthrough

8) OK, now for cruise out of the airport! Reduce the throttle to around 75%,adjust the flight director/autopilot's heading and altitude according to your preferences. Fly out a ways, holding a constant heading and altitude. (Set Flight Director to AUTO and adjust the HDG and ALT knobs respectively)

7) Climbing: Leave the power at full,and a 10 degree nose-up to climb quickly,adjust accordingly to hold a suitable speed for the best climb. Make sure that the flaps and gear are retracted

6) Post Takeoff- Raise the landing gear and retract the flaps. Stay below 250kias when below 10,000ft.

5) Level off: Once the craft is a few feet above the ground, level off to build speed so as to prevent stalling when climbing to cruising altitude

4) Rotate: Once the craft reaches a safety takeoff speed (160kias) pull back on the stick. Take care not to pull too hard as this may cause your plane to stall

3) Increase the throttle to the max!

2) Pull down the flaps about 1/2 of the way to gain lift for takeoff

1) Turn off the brakes

Pre-Flight: File Flight Plan: We'll open the weather briefer (v8 and v9) to check the weather conditions at both departures and arrivals. Then we'll set a cruising altitude (MSL) and FILE. Afterwards, pick up your flight plan by Tuning your COM1 Radio to the "Request Clearance" Frequency, they will assign you a squawk number. Tune as accordingly and contact ground. They will ask you to taxi and hold short of a designated runway. At the threshold, you contact the tower for takeoff clearance,and depart, maintain runway heading and climb to flight level.You will be handed to center which will direct you throughout the flight

PS: I HAVE PLACED A COPY OF THE QUICK WALKTHROUGH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MAIN PAGE! ANYONE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO FLY CAN SCROLL DOWN AND READ!

BUT I do recommend downloading the FULL manual if you want to use for realistic flights X-Plane Manual

X-Plane 10 View commands

Flight controls are as identical as the previous version but you can always configure the joystick and yoke and rudder pedals

W : FORWARD WITH PANEL
SHIFT W : FORWARD WITH HUD
CONTROL W: FORWARD WITH NOTHING

SHIFT 1 : MOVING SPOT!!! (EXCLAMATION MARK BECAUSE IT MOVES!!!!)
SHIFT 2 : HOLD AT A LOCATION ("@" SIGN TO HOLD A LOCATION)
SHIFT 3 : ON THE RUNWAY! ("#" TO BE ON THE RUNWAY, NEAR THE NUMBERS!)
SHIFT 4 : CIRCLE ALL AROUND THE AIRPLANE ("$" BECAUSE YOU SWIRL ALL AROUND A VERTICAL ROTATION AXIS! THE $ LOOKS LIKE THE ROTATION PATTERN AROUND THE VERT AXIS!)
SHIFT 5 : TOWER VIEW. "%" KEY BECAUSE SOME PERCENTAGE OF YOUR TAX REVENUE WENT TO PAY FOR THAT TOWER. (HEY... YOU CAN REMEMBER IT NOW, RIGHT?)
SHIFT 6 : RIDE-ALONG: THIS IS A CAMERA MOUNTED ANYWHERE ON THE AIRPLANE! TRANSLATION KEYS TO MOVE IT!, ROTATE KEYS TO ROTATE IT! THE "^" IS A LITTLE CAMERA AIMING DIRECTION.
SHIFT 7 : TRACK ANY FIRED WEAPON! "&" BECAUSE THERE IS A CAMERA ON THE PLANE >AND< ON THE WEAPON! 
SHIFT 8 : CHASE! THE "*" LOOKS LIKE THE EXHAUST STACK OF AN AFTERBURNING ENGINE, WHICH IS WHAT YOU WILL SEE WITH THIS VIEW ON A FAST-JET. 
SHIFT 9 : 3-D COCKPIT, TRANSLATION AND ROTATION COMMANDS TO MOVE ABOU 
SHIFT 0 : 3-D COCKPIT, TRANSLATION COMMANDS TO MOVE ABOUT, MOUSE TO LOOK ABOUTT (O-key to hold an angle to hit a control with the mouse or something) 

VIEW MODIFICATION: THIS IS POWERFUL, BECAUSE YOU CAN TRANSLATE, ROTATE, AND ZOOM, IN ALMOST ALL VIEWS, WITHOUT USING STRANGE KEYS NOT FOUND ON LAPTOPS!
ARROWS: TRANSLATE LEFT, RIGHT, UP, AND DOWN AVAILABLE IN MANY VIEWS!
< AND >: TRANSLATE FORE AND AFT! AVAILABLE IN MANY VIEWS!
+ AND -: ZOOM IN AND OUT! AVAILABLE IN MANY VIEWS!
Q,E,R,F: ROTATE AROUND! AVAILABLE IN MANY VIEWS!

ONE YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROTATION, TRANSLATION, AND ZOOM, AND SEE HOW MANY VIEWS THESE KEYS CAN BE APPLIED IN, YOU WILL START TO LIKE THE NEW KEY ASSIGNEMENTS!
You can translate and rotate, all at the same time, while choosing from a wide variety of views, to get some pretty nice youtube videos out there.


FLIGHT CONTROL:

/ : PROP BETA TOGGLE
SHIFT / : PROP OR JET REVERSE TOGGLE
1,2,G,B : FLAPS UP, DOWN, GEAR AND BRAKES TOGGLE


MISC COMMANDS:

CONTROL R : REPLAY TOGGLE
CONTROL P : FLIGHT-PATH TOGGLE
SHIFT P : FLIGHT-PATH RESET

CONTROL M : SHOW THE FLIGHT-MODEL FORCES
SHIFT M : CYCLE-DUMP THE FLIGHT-MODEL FORCES

CONTROL SPACE : TOGGLE QUICKTIME MOVIE RECORDING
SHIFT SPACE : TAKE SCREENSHOT


Of course there are a hundred more key commands, all listed in the josytick and keyboard windows, but those are the basic ones that I use the most often,
and the camera control you now have is pretty darn nice.


Things to Consider when flying mobile phone flying games

See Flight Appendix above

To turn the aircraft left or right, tilt the device left or right. This is because when the wings bank up and down and the fuselage stays pointed is referred as ROLL

To climb or dive, tilt the device up and down,as this is because when the wings stays pointed and the fuselage pitches up and down is referred as PITCH

As some flying games have a rudder slider,tapping it yaws the aircraft left or right,good for ground operations.This is when the centre of Gravity of the fuselage stays pointed and the direction of the plane changes.This is referred as YAW.

While some flying games doesn't have a rudder input (Unlike a twisting handle or rudder sliders), the simulator will attempt to stabilise the rudder.


APPLIES TO MOST FLIGHT SIMULATORS
Takeoff-
Mixture to FULL RICH
Flaps about 1/2
Full Throttle
Level off plane after a few feet after takeoff to gain airspeed so plane would not stall when climbing, +5 Degrees

Climbing-
Flaps: Raised
Full throttle (Afterburners not required)
Gear Up
AOA- +10 Degrees for a standard GA Plane

Cruising-
Throttle to 75%
Autopilot preferences, such as HDG, ALT and ATTR

Combat- See Combat Tactics

Descending to approach-
Speedbrakes on if required
Throttle to 25%
Autopilot off
AOA: 3-5 Degree GS
Follow ATC approach pattern

Final-
Contact Tower
Corresponding ILS Frequency
Aligned with runway,3-5 Degree glideslope
Flaps: Full
Gear: Down
Throttle: Adjust power to hold 180-200 Knots
Raise nose +7 Degrees before touchdown
Brakes: On
Chute or Reverse thrust: Deploy if needed. Stop/Jettison at 60 knots

Contact ground and taxi out. Don't worry if the plane in front of you hadn't taxi out. The most you will get a wave off

A WORD OF WARNING: WHEN FLYING TAILDRAGGER LANDING GEAR CONFIGURATION, LAND AT NOSE HIGH ALTITUDE, FULL STALL SPEED (FOR WW2 FIGHTERS IS 85 KNOTS AVERAGE). BE SURE TO HOLD THE STICK FULL AFT ON THE TAKEOFF RUN TO HOLD DOWN THE TAILWHEEL FOR STEERING AUTHORITY.
IT IS NORMAL FOR PISTON ENGINED AIRCRAFT TO ANGLE LEFT ON TAKEOFF DUE TO THE TORQUE PRODUCED BY THE ENGINE. SET RIGHT TRIM AROUND 1/4 FOR WW2 AIRCRAFT


X-Plane 9- "Cheat Sheet" for default menus and keys

Access Menus= Move mouse to top of screen
Quick flight= File> Quick Flight Setup
Load Situation- File>Load Situation
Load Aircraft= Aircraft> Open Aircraft
Load Airport= Location> Select Global Apt
Weather= Environment> Weather
Configuration of flight controls= Settings> Joystick Keys & Equipment
Pilot Logbook- Aircraft>Logbook or X-Plane 9/output/logbooks/x-plane pilot.txt

Logbook Example

Forward View- W
Chase view- A
Tower- T
Transparent Cockpit- ;
3D Cockpit- Command-O
HUD- Shift-S
No HUD, full screen- Shift-W

Zoom In/Out= +/-
Look Around- Arrow Keys

Throttle- F1/F2
Flaps down/up a notch- 1/2
Speed brakes- 3/4
Elevator trim- [/]
Aileron trim- 8/0
Pause- P

Fun Airports
LOWI- Innsbruck Austria
KVNY- Van Nuys,CA
KOSH-Wittman Regional, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
KASE- Aspen,Colorado
KAVX- Avalon,Catalina,CA
[H] AZ36- Grand Canyon, AZ