Flying The A320 in MSFS2020
Posted: 25 Aug 2020, 16:32
I gave up flying flight sims for fun about 15 years ago with involvement from then on limited to test flights as part of the Radar Contact development team and later, setting up and testing for the Tangmere Museum sims so I rather surprised myself by buying MSFS202 on a whim. Fortunately, downloading went without a hitch and - more by luck than judgement, I think - I managed to get it installed on the drive I wanted.
I've spent the last few days trying out the airliners - mostly the A320 - and re-aquainting myself with Boeing and Airbus flight management systems with flights between Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Gatwick and Heathrow all with real weather and I must say I've been delighted with the results. Here's a trip from Manchester to Heathrow I did in this morning's filthy weather.
I was expecting to have to drag out old charts from wherever I'd dumped them and find some flight planning software but MS very kindly provides a complete lazy man's flight planning sytem as part of the software! All that's needed is to enter the departure and destination, select the type of flight - IFR high-level in my case - and the route appears automatically. Next chose SIDs and STARs and any transitions and they're filled in too. (I have a vague recollection that jets aren't allowed to use the LISTO SIDs from the 23s but what the heck - it's my sim!
In addition to appearing in the flight log and on the map - both undockable windows that can be displayed on a second screen if you have one - it's also loaded automatically into the aircraft's navigation system. Here the A320's MCDU.
The MCDU close up view came from one of the may pre-programmed cameras (CTRL+5 in this case) and there are 9 others such as the overhead (CTRL-0)
the throttle quadrant (CTRL-6)
and the autopilot controls (taken before I'd noticed the In HG - HPa switch!).
The weather at Manchester was not at all pleasant with heavy rain, low cloud and strong winds. Storm Francis making its way across the country, I guess - am I the only one who thinks that giving storms names is the height of silliness?
We broke out of the lumpy-bumpy bits at about FL125...
...and it turned out out to be a rather nice day on top.
The autopilot and navigation display worked perfectly throughout the flight.
Time for descent - the tops were at about FL85 in the London area.
I had planned to vector myself after BNN but the flight management system had come up with a route not too dissimilar to real ATC vectoring so I let it do its thing to see what happened
and I was soon establishing on the ILS.
There was a nasty crosswind from the left (the slightly elevated view here is controlled by pressing the space bar - very useful for landing)
as can be seen in this shot but, once again, the automatics performed well enough to get me in a position from where I could make an 'arrival'.
By the time I was safely tucked up on stand, the weather had started to improve. A very enjoyable experience - I think MS may be on to a winner here.
Was there anything I didn't like? Oh, yes! The ATC - it doesn't seem to have changed since it was introduced all those years ago and still tries to make you fly in the UK with an 18,000ft Transition Altitude and US phraseology. Come back Radar Contact - all is forgiven!
If you're just starting to dip a toe into the MSFS 2020 water, you may like to check out the videos below by Squirrel and A320 sim Pilot which have helped me to quickly get to grips with the sim in general and the A320 in particular.
Squirrel Tutorial #2 - Peripheral Control Set Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DXdGaRgnhU
Squirrel Tutorial #3 - Camera Set Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTUFA33wIEM
A320 Sim Pilot - Real Airbus Pilot tries Microsoft Flight Simulator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jchxsSdBRLo
Have fun.
Pete
I've spent the last few days trying out the airliners - mostly the A320 - and re-aquainting myself with Boeing and Airbus flight management systems with flights between Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Gatwick and Heathrow all with real weather and I must say I've been delighted with the results. Here's a trip from Manchester to Heathrow I did in this morning's filthy weather.
I was expecting to have to drag out old charts from wherever I'd dumped them and find some flight planning software but MS very kindly provides a complete lazy man's flight planning sytem as part of the software! All that's needed is to enter the departure and destination, select the type of flight - IFR high-level in my case - and the route appears automatically. Next chose SIDs and STARs and any transitions and they're filled in too. (I have a vague recollection that jets aren't allowed to use the LISTO SIDs from the 23s but what the heck - it's my sim!
In addition to appearing in the flight log and on the map - both undockable windows that can be displayed on a second screen if you have one - it's also loaded automatically into the aircraft's navigation system. Here the A320's MCDU.
The MCDU close up view came from one of the may pre-programmed cameras (CTRL+5 in this case) and there are 9 others such as the overhead (CTRL-0)
the throttle quadrant (CTRL-6)
and the autopilot controls (taken before I'd noticed the In HG - HPa switch!).
The weather at Manchester was not at all pleasant with heavy rain, low cloud and strong winds. Storm Francis making its way across the country, I guess - am I the only one who thinks that giving storms names is the height of silliness?
We broke out of the lumpy-bumpy bits at about FL125...
...and it turned out out to be a rather nice day on top.
The autopilot and navigation display worked perfectly throughout the flight.
Time for descent - the tops were at about FL85 in the London area.
I had planned to vector myself after BNN but the flight management system had come up with a route not too dissimilar to real ATC vectoring so I let it do its thing to see what happened
and I was soon establishing on the ILS.
There was a nasty crosswind from the left (the slightly elevated view here is controlled by pressing the space bar - very useful for landing)
as can be seen in this shot but, once again, the automatics performed well enough to get me in a position from where I could make an 'arrival'.
By the time I was safely tucked up on stand, the weather had started to improve. A very enjoyable experience - I think MS may be on to a winner here.
Was there anything I didn't like? Oh, yes! The ATC - it doesn't seem to have changed since it was introduced all those years ago and still tries to make you fly in the UK with an 18,000ft Transition Altitude and US phraseology. Come back Radar Contact - all is forgiven!
If you're just starting to dip a toe into the MSFS 2020 water, you may like to check out the videos below by Squirrel and A320 sim Pilot which have helped me to quickly get to grips with the sim in general and the A320 in particular.
Squirrel Tutorial #2 - Peripheral Control Set Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DXdGaRgnhU
Squirrel Tutorial #3 - Camera Set Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTUFA33wIEM
A320 Sim Pilot - Real Airbus Pilot tries Microsoft Flight Simulator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jchxsSdBRLo
Have fun.
Pete