I don’t know they’ve said anything certain, but there is somewhat of a market saturation for the A320neo with both FBW and inibuilds being free and both being very solid medium fidelity options.
Of course for Fenix it’s not as simple as a few tweaks and push out some neos. I don’t know the list of differences but for sure there will be a heap of small details that will no doubt take a lot of work to stimulate accurately, and Fenix are not going to do anything less than their usual high accuracy.
I for one would buy a neo expansion pack today if they would sell me one, precisely because I love learning about all of those details, but Fenix will need to do a cost benefit analysis to decide if they want to compete in the neo space (and I hope they do!).
The longest flights, barring Hawaii, we do in the 321 (ACTs installed) are probably MIA-SEA.
I don’t usually do those, but I’ve done a lot of East Coast to SFO/LAX/SAN and, while heavy, it’s not that I recall ever being Bleeds Off, TOGA, last brick of the runway heavy.
You don’t cruise very high of course…at least not initially.
As to the 319 takeoff speeds, I kept one of my Perf cards from yesterday.
Weight in lbs.
ZFW: 122k
Fuel: 17.8k
Assumed TO weight: 141.0k
OAT: 23C
Flaps: 1
Speeds: 131/133/138kts
AT: 69C
Bleeds On
No wind
Rwy 04R KBOS
It might be fun to run these numbers in the 319 (I don’t have it).
But, even if they don’t match, it doesn’t necessarily mean much. There’s a lot of tweaking you can do for runway length, for climb gradient, and so on that might make one company’s numbers differ from another’s.
One thing I have learned from this thread is that the Bus (and honestly most transport category aircraft probably) have a lot of options to cater to any number of operator’s needs.
That makes sense of course. But I really didn’t appreciate the scope of it until I started playing with the options here, and reading some of the links.
Our flight planning software may provide them for us preflight (or even step descents, to avoid icing, turbulence, mountain wave, etc). We also may use software on our EFB to determine the optimal altitude based on our updated fuel weights as the flight progresses.
Of course we can always use the FMS to tell us when the best step climb opportunity comes up.
These are all provided, but not mandatory. The Captain can choose which method, if any, he wants to use to get to the destination safely.
I had adjusted those two weights in the airframe and I now don’t get those errors like before. Is there a reason Fenix had those airframes implemented if the MTOW and Fuel weights were off by a few thousand on the A321?
Does the A321 have a strobes problem? They don’t work when airborne it would seem. I haven’t tried the A319 for this yet. They do come on when on the ground funnily enough.
I think what it could be is the Fenix simbrief profile is based on not having the optional additional fuel tank therefore MTOW of 89,000 whereas the standard simbrief profile is based on having the optional additional fuel tank therefore MTOW of 93,000.
But if people are saying they are using the standard simbrief profile and it is working fine in the sim that suggests the actual plane is modelled on having the extra fuel tank.
Is there a setting in the plane to chose if you have the optional fuel tank or not? And then base your simbrief profile on the setting you have chosen?
As far as I know in real life the majority of A321’s have the optional additional fuel tank fitted and certainly for flights like those to Hawaii.
So my preference would be choosing the standard simbrief A321 profile provided that also matches to the physical plane.
Two questions. I’m assuming answers are the same for A319/20/21, but maybe not?
-At what IAS (or ground speed?) should you deactivate the thrust reversers on landing?
-What is the maximum IAS/GS to vacate on a high-speed runway exit?
@Deacon8tor will probably go into detail and might prove me wrong but from some streams of 320 Sim Pilot who now flies B787 IRL but used to fly A320 before I remember the info that full reversers can operate above 70 kts and there’s no limit for idle reversers.
Again pointing out that my company does not use the standard Airbus FCOM, we call out 80 and 60 on landing. 80 to begin reducing the reversers to Idle Reverse and 60 to be at Idle Reverse.
Either stowing them or not is fine below 60. The thing you want to avoid is shoving the throttle forward to stow them, thereby actually putting the engines in forward thrust again before they have spooled down. You’d be surprised at the difference in rollout length when you do that.
Yes on the A320 family you can enter a step altitude without a waypoint into the Step Alts screen and the FMS will calculate the point at which you should make the climb.
You can also use the PROG page to see current recommended and max alts.
Do you guys always fly real world routes, or just pick two airports you like to visit? And do you mix it up which airlines you fly or do you have a favourite?
I’m a sucker for AAL and besides one Condor flight, that’s all I’ve flown under with the Fenix. I typically stick to their real world routes but not the time schedule.
It depends on what I feel like. I joined a couple of virtual airlines a few weeks ago, and it does make it more interesting to bid and fly routes and see your flight on a live map. However, sometimes it’s nice to just pick a plane, origin, and destination on my own whim.
United Virtual (flyuva.org) has a ton of routes on a bunch of different airlines besides United. They are very relaxed in rules, i.e. plane models, sim rate, etc. You can fly an A319/20/21 on a B738 route, for example. But I try to keep it matched, especially with our two new birds.
Fedex virtual (flyfdx-vac.org) is much more specific in routes and planes/liveries to use, and don’t allow upping sim rate.
I usually pick some addon airport I own (I can’t stand generic default airports), I go to flightradar24 and see the recent real flights from that airport and choose one which I replicate (gate to gate). With that usually comes the selection of my aircraft as I try to rotate all my aircraft I actively fly. There are of course also airplanes I fly but they’re gone or they’re very rare now (B727F, BAe146, Fokker F28 etc.) and then I use Flightsim Dispatch software to find some historical routes. Then I have Azurpoly C-160 or Avro Vulcan military aircraft for random routes.
Exactly this. I do this every day. FR24 flight info is a free resource too with loads of info available for each airport and aircraft type. I just find real world flights (either recent/current or sometime soon) for an airframe I have and go fly them (usually only if I have the 3rd party airport for them).
I’ve come across a few times where I have a FSLTL AI doppelganger though or perhaps it’s me who is the doppelganger. Occasionally I’ve been at the taxiway hold point waiting for takeoff clearance with my AI counterpart sitting in front of me, or during flight I have ATC calling my AI counterpart (with same callsign) - one of the joys of using live AI traffic!
