But unfortunately Propdefs is now locked up in MSFS 2020 (see subsequent posts in link referenced). Just for laughs, I used spb2xml.exe to decompile the tutorial 5 on landing in FSX and one can see in the resulting XML file the various triggers for that FSX tutorial that cause you to fail the FSX tutorial (although they’re only given as indirect references).
I don’t see why the MSFS 2020 tutorials cannot at least provide in an auxiliary file a list of the criteria for each tutorial that need to be met at trigger locations in each stage of a flight, along with any tolerances in meeting the criteria. It would give the learner something to shoot for rather than fumbling in the dark.
OK. I figured out what I was doing wrong in tutorial #5, corrected my behavior, and succeeded.
My basic problem was for the 2nd turn , I was looking at the pattern in the sky (the red X) and not the pattern on the ground (the red arrow) and consequently turning too late. Once I turned before the first promontory in the ridge to the left of the runway end , I was able to successfully complete the pattern. The engine was at about 10K rpm with full flaps down, airspeed about 60 kts or so for final approach for the landing.
The other thing that prevented success is somewhere along the line I lost braking in my Thrustmaster TFRP rudder pedals. So I used the “*” and “-” keys in combination on my keyboard numeric keypad to brake. You can’t come to a complete stop on the runway or completely cut your engine as you have to taxi off the runway to the right after landing before you can get a thumbs up from the instructor.
I think the other thing that was messing up my thinking is “the crosswind turn” is actually into the downwind leg when flying crosswind, “the downwind turn” into the base leg when flying downwind. I had expected the name of the turn to be the part of the pattern that one was going to be in AFTER turning, not the part of the pattern that one was in BEFORE turning. Once I got the names of the turns straight, I was better able to perform all the right turns at the right time according to the floating markers and distances displayed virtually in the air.
I just watched sizzlingpopcorn’s youtube video on the FS 2020 C152 takeoff (lesson 2) at Sedona.
She let him do things I never was allowed to do: He was all over the runway without being on the center line at start. Then he got way past the white marks before he hit 55 knots and rotated. She has never let me do that - typically saying we are too far and aborting my takeoff.
You are correct: It would be great to know the pass/fail triggers.
I suppose that somebody will eventually write a guide book or pre-flight tutorial so that we can train more efficiently.
I completed tutorial #7. It’s a relatively long tutorial, something like 24 minutes and I would say the best way to succeed is to FIRST practice, practice, practice the required landing at the end of the tutorial flight at the Flagstaff-Pulliam airport. You can do this by taking off from Flagstaff-Pulliam in free flight, slewing around until you’re just before the downwind turn into the base leg (the “y” key option), resort to flying again, and then save an .FLT file while pausing in the air to allow you to spawn in the air repeatedly and practice until you’re familiar with useful landmarks, the right time to reduce throttle, increase flaps, etc. The trickiest part of the landing is there are some very tall trees on the final approach. It’s a very long runway (for a Cessna) so you can easily overfly the trees a bit and still have lots of room to land. By starting at the end, you’ll also learn something useful about the elevation of your destination (Flagstaff) relative to your starting point (Sedona).
In the actual tutorial just do the climb out from Sedona to 5800 ft, then do a 180 and head back over the center of the runway to Munds. Click the timer Start as the AI instructor advises. I have airport tags turned on in the Options, Assistance, and all the needed markers show up in the sky. Arriving in Munds by the golf course, the AI instructor advises to follow the highway, which is off to the left (343 deg heading). I reset the timer and started it again as advised. But for the longest time on the way to Flagstaff, the objectives still said I needed to follow the highway (I was flying parallel to it) and I still needed to reset the timer, according to the objectives list. Within a couple of nautical miles of Flagstaff-Pulliam, I decided to fly directly over the highway rather than just closely parallel to it and I think for good measure I may have reset the timer yet again. Maybe just because I was getting close to the airport, the Follow The Highway and Reset the Timer finally went out and the Downwind Turn objective appeared - I was flying parallel to the runway on the left in the downwind leg and with all the earlier practice flying around and landing at Flagstaff-Pulliam from that location, it was easy to recognize where I should be relative to landmarks and then complete the landing and after waiting, waiting throughout the 22 min+ trip to Flagstaff, I wasn’t suddenly surprised by the tall trees at the end of the runway on the final approach, screwing up, and then having to redo the entire 22 min plus tutorial again. You have to taxi a bit down the runway towards the control tower (on the right) before the AI instructor will give you a thumbs up (which came just as I was beginning a turn into a taxi lane near the control tower).
One other little thing is that the base altitude of the Sedona airport is about 5,000 ft. That of Flagstaff about 7,000. So if you just trimmed the aircraft out of Munds, pointed it in the direction of Flagstaff, and decided to take a 15 minute coffee break, you’re probably going to meet some trees well before the final approach to the Flagstaff runway. I have a terrible sense of how far down the ground is in the sim but I managed to climb to about 8500 to 9000 ft on the way to Flagstaff to feel safely above the ground (maybe there are some higher points than Flagstaff in between?). So if you fly by the seat of your pants like I did, you might want to descend to closer to 8,000 ft or less as you get within a few nautical miles of the Flagstaff airport so you won’t be dive-bombing the runway on your base leg and final approach.
Another weird observation is the Cessna throttle is a lot more quickly responsive in External View from behind the plane rather than in cockpit view. So during much of the base leg and final approach, it’s easier and faster to adjust the throttle from External View and just switch to Cockpit View for the final glide down (the END key will toggle between the two views). Perhaps all the instrumentation in cockpit view bogs down computer response. Turning on the cockpit dome light (1st toggle switch on left in switch panel under pilot yoke) also helps see the instruments a bunch more clearly as the tutorial is apparently taking place between about 6:10 to 6:30 pm local time - it’s pretty dusky by the time you land.
The tutorial #7 flight between Sedona and Flagstaff with associated elevation uncertainties makes learning to use something like LittleNavMap and associated navdata all that more appealing to me.
Just to illustrate what Little Navmap can add to one’s understanding of a flight, here’s the elevation profile of a flight similar to that in tutorial #7 from Sedona, AZ to Flagstaff-Pulliam, AZ using the default aircraft performance profile supplied for Little Navmap and importing MSFS 2020 scenery, airport data but using the built-in Navigraph for procedures, offline Globe data for base elevations. TOC is top of climb, TOD is top of descent. Perhaps if I actually flew the route, I wouldn’t come as close to the ground on my climb as I did from just picking a route on the map ~the same as tutorial #7.
Here is the route corresponding to the elevation profile and ~the same as advised in tutorial #7. One can zoom in on the map in Little Navmap and see elevation contour lines at a high level of detail.
Bonjour, pour réussir la formation finale il faut impérativement respecter le protocole de décollage sortir à main gauche pour repasser sur la piste à une altitude demandée
A la verticale de la piste engager le chrono et prendre le cap sur la point de passage puis reprendre le cap sur la destination en engageant à nouveau le chrono, puis respecter les consignes affichées sur les objectifs.
Ledouk
I am just 2 evenings into the sim. Have only little experience over the years with different sims.
1st flight I failed because I landed at the end (bumpy landing), rather than hand off control.
Then 1-7 on first attempt.
First attempt at 8, it han quickly. Shutdown for the night.
Next day I could not find golf course, they should have marked it on the map, so after giving up, on the way to final runway I looked it up and found it. Had been so close trying to fly the 162 degrees., but did not realize it was the dark green area. Nice smooth landing, and tutorials all done.
Next step was a flight from nearest airport to home (25km each way), picked the King Air, but it killed engines on overspeedng. Then C-172. All went well, slightly bumpy landing. Taxiing, but never got to where it wanted me to stop. Tried commecial and GA areas. Guess I need to enable cues. Did turn off engine, but did not get to where it would log my flight
We need some more info in the tutorial. One for ATC, which was easy to figure out once the window is there, and one for finalizing your flight.
Hi! New to this forum and FS2020. Hope I am not bad for bumping an old thread but it sounds like some things have changed since August. With version 1.12.13.0, Tutorial 1 only covers pitch and roll, Tutorial 2 flight attitudes, and Tutorial 3 take off.
First, Tutorial 1: The pitch instructions are backwards! It tells you num8 for climb and num2 for descend. Is there somewhere to report this? A lot of noobs like me gonna crash! At default settings the pitch and roll controls are super touchy, which is fine, as a quick tap, sometimes followed by num5 to reset, does the job. BUT, that wont turn the tasks green. By the time you hold the key long enough to turn the task green you are almost out of control. The tutorial is harder than the actual.
Tutorial 2: The f2 and f3 keys for throttle are whack. When it tells you to reduce to 1800 RPM, taps on the f2 do nothing. But if you hold it until the tach needle starts to move, you will have pretty much shut it down! Slow to respond then over-responds. Again, to increase throttle you have to hold it until it is going to go full throttle.
Anyway, I hope you won’t mind I bumped this. I would like any tips on these that you may have, and I wanted the information here for other noobs like me who might get help to keep from crashing these. After the lessons are over I can pretty much fly that little Cessna all day, but trying to pass the tutorials is like taking my life in my hands every time.
I was having the worst time with the first Tutorial until I figured out what they press x meant.
Here is a guide I put together solving each of the Tutorial mysteries as I progressed.
Sorry, I noticed your helps are more designated toward a joystick than the keyboard, so the comments below might not apply. Your Tutorial 3 notes are somewhat short. My problem is I can’t get the da**ed airplane lined up on the center line using the zero and enter keys. One quick push on either key makes it go wildly in that direction, especially if I have it close and try to start down the runway, only to find out I am a bit off. Then hitting the other key sends it wildly in the other direction! And trying to reach the 5 key to re-center it usually results in hitting the wrong key, and I can never get back lined up. So I get to hear the SAME schlock about a mile of runway over and over and over again. Apparently a mile of runway is what I need to get straight with these keyboard controls.
Yeah, I can keep it on the straight and level more or less in the sky, but anything else is crazy. SO what is the point of the keyboard controls? Was Microsoft’s intention in excluding the mouse that we should all go out and buy yokes and pedals? I just wanted to fly it like I flew FSX. And I’d like the F-18, the Grumman Goose, the helicopter, and a few other things restored as well. Looks like they went all in for graphics and none for fun.
It’s plenty of fun! I didn’t even bother with yoke and pedals. My X-Box controller is currently sufficient enough. Just no keyboard. You won’t look back. Sims are just NOT for keyboard flying. Keyboard is there to control SOME things in addition to the main controller. But the core must be something with AT LEAST two axis bindings.
