Need some help w/ landing. Especially the A320s.
I’ve seen many youtube videos but I think the problem is with me. The majority of videos use the cockpit cam to land but it just doesn’t click with me. I keep switching over to the external cam.
Any locations that anyone can recommend me that’s sort of basic for landing? Any other tips to stick w/ the cockpit cam?
Why don’t you simply try flying circuits and touch and goes from your favourite airport? And stick to cockpit view if you really want to stay as authentic as possible.
MYNN Runway 14. Not a very complex airport. Has ILS. Runway is 11,000 feet long and 140 feet wide. Surrounded only by some low buildings and trees and ocean so its easy to see from far away. It’s my go-to location for learning a new aircraft. Once I get the basics down, I like to add some heavy crosswind and really try to make the touchdown markers and maintain centerline. Once you master that, you’ll be set for shorter and thinner runways. I used this method for perfecting my technique in the FBW A320 and recently the PMDG 737. As for the views, I recommend just always using cockpit view and pay very close attention to the radio altimeter callouts. Those are your substitute for actually seeing how far away your wheels are in external view.
When using the cockpit cam, have your view down just enough to keep an eye on your airspeed, vertical speed, and altitude.
Hit “B” to set your barometric pressure, and know the altitude of the airport you are landing at, then you will know your actual height above the runway and flair and add or reduce power as needed before touchdown
Fly high in the sky and then go back down with your landing gear down. Try to land 200+/-200 on your landings. Once you get that down you’re golden.
Good luck.
The key to a good landing is a perfect approach.
Im not an airliner fan. I prefer flying more nimble planes that allow for quicker corrections like the TBM 930. Im that way with real life flying as well. In most real life airliners, pilots set them up for an automated ILS or RNAV approach and let the Plane nealry land itself. Hand flying the approach and landing an airliner can be done, but if you dont have a perfect approach, your landing will be frustrating. Its hard to correct a big jet last minute.
Do you have experience flying and landing other aircraft? Always start small and work your way up. Land a Cessna 152 in first person cockpit view before moving to an airliner. Landing in first person is hard as depth percetion on a 2d screen in the Sim takes getting used to. I flew small genral aviation aircraft and know how to land. I struggled in the Sim at first because of the depth perception issue. Practice with a slower plane with good periferal visibility.
Really focus on maintaining proper air speed when landing. Also, as a general rule of thumb, you should be descending at about 5x your ground speed to maintain a -3 degree glide. example 90 knots x 5= -450 ft/ second VS. Descending at too steep of an angle never works out too well. Too slow and youre pulling up last minute and you are in a nose up attitude where you cant see the runway.
Have you done the game’s Basic and VFR training? Get straight A’s doing that in first person. The Cessna 152 is boring… but good to learn in. Also fun to learn in is the Icon A5.
Circuits and bumps (touch and go) are a great way to practice landings (and go arounds).
Approach, touch down, immediately climb out again, fly the circuit, repeat. Do it until you can do it without really thinking about it. Stick with cockpit view as well.
I really recommend doing this with every new aircraft you fly be it a glider or a commercial airliner.
These 2 helped me a lot even with my bae 146… Not sure about airbus, but the basic principles stay the same.
Thanks for that. Concise, to the point. Very helpful!
About “radio altimeter callouts”, how would you do this in a minimally equipped GA?
Thanks again!
Thanks everyone for the tips. I used all the help last night on about 5 flights and I think I got it down. My last 3 landings using cockpit view were smooth.
That MYNN airport is great to practice with! And it looks beautiful I sometimes forget what I’m doing and just fly around.
BTW - is there a replay mode for Xbox? For the smooth touchdowns, I wanted to see a replay on how they looked for an external cam but could not find the option.
Hold the “Share” button in the middle of your Xbox remote when or a few seconds after you touch down. Then, you will get a notification saying “Game clip recorded, hold [xbox logo] to open”
That gives you a replay of your Cockpit Landing.
However, I don’t think you can see your landing in the external view after touchdown.
While of course its just fine to use external cam to get closer to an airliner landing sensation its best to learn to land from the flightdeck.
The key is…your eyepoint in the cockpit. What you need to do is set a hotkey quickview for the default forward view.
*you have to set this up in the menu, your key combo might be different for cam memory position, I made mine as CTRL + numpad 8.
Everyone’s preferred eyepoint is different in the game. So experiment and use yours.
Heres some screenshots from a flight I did showing my preferred eyepoint.
On the next flight you do make a Save Flight when you’re about 3nm from landing. You can then keep reloading this save flight and practice the landing. Even better will be to do pattern work which is tougher but with constant practice will really help.
Other tips, make sure:
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