I just made it out of my local GA airport with an A320 after several weeks with a C172. It was quite a blast!
As far as basic control inputs, the A320 feels so forgiving. It’s way easier when it comes to control inputs but way more complex when it comes to the number of buttons.
It feels like the flying aspect is more a suggestion to the airplane.
I’d say that’s a pretty accurate observation, at least in terms of banking and pitching.
What I find fascinating about the big airliners is that I feel relatively proficient to hand fly basic manoeuvres (turns, climbs, descents).
Where the airline pilots really earn their money is all the non-standard maneuvers (engine outs, emergency descents, etc etc) that you don’t see every day but they need to do right first time every time.
The great thing about sim flying is you can generally make it as hard or as easy as you want. It’s what’s kept me interested for years.
Yeah, the basic hands on flying feels more video game like. You can let go of the controls and it just maintains. But I dare not land it just yet.
In the C172 I can spend a few minutes trying to fuss with altitude or heading but I don’t think an airliner should be that fussy that anyway.
I also had been avoiding an airliner as I’ve seen many a mention of them being more sensitive to frame rates and such in VR. But if anything it was even smoother.
It’s a different kind of fuss. Especially when you’re flying with the FBW A32NX aircraft. There’s a whole lot of different thing to fuss about when flying it. Things like operating the MCDU flight computer to input the number of passengers for payload weight. setting the IFR flight plan and understanding the IFR procedures. The proper amount of fuel you need for your flight.
Setting up the proper SIDs on departure the STARs on arrival, and tuning the aircraft systems to do the way you want it to when things don’t go according to plan.
Sure, the aircraft kind of “fly itself” but it can only do that properly when you actually know what and how to make the aircraft “fly itself” without it, the aircraft won’t behave and fly as you expect it to.
So you still need to be fussy with it, but it’s a different kind of fuss.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.