Done the tutorial, love it, but now how to learn to fly other planes?

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Hi! Firsttimer here, just a bit about my history so you understand where I’m coming from. I play games since about 30 years but always made a big circle around TOO heavily simulation focussed games, although I love virtual realism in games. Played some Jane’s WII Fighters years ago, but that was really more arcady and never again really came into flying games.

With the great graphics and live weather, live airtraffic, beautiful real landscapes I just had to go for this one. Had some spare money, and went directly for the deluxe premium bundle.

I started out a few days ago knowing next to nothing about how to fly a plane, I started with the tutorials, and they were eye-opening. Had to do them over a lot. But low and behold I was actually able to complete them all. I know most of you probably didn’t even have to go for the tutorial but for me I find it to be a great accomplishment. It really feels like I am one great experience richer. (EDIT: Nearly forgot, this thread helped me a great deal btw: Anyone else having issues in trimming and maintaining their altitude? - #2 by BarbedJungle585)

So when I was able to complete the 8th I became kinda cocky and wanted to try another aircraft… well, let’s just say it didn’t go that well :wink: Now I know a little(!) about the Cessna-152, great. I had to fly the tutorials over and over, sat in the same plane, and was very slowly and therefore quite extensively led into how to fly it. Very well done. But the other planes really fly completely different as far as I can see.

How to learn them? I would love for some paid plugins or something that give me the same experience as with the tutorial and the Cessna. Is there something like that? How am I possibly able to ever comprehensively learn about how to fly the other aircraft? Feels like I know only QBasic and having to code object-oriented C# middleware to make a comparison for the other ITers here :wink:

For example: I do not know what I am doing wrong but I always overstress the machines, thereby getting a malfunction mid-flight although the engine is not on full throttle. Furthermore I don’t recognize much on the dashboards of the other planes. I feel like I know nothing sitting in them. I would really actually love tutorials on the other planes in the same way it was done for the cessna-152. Will something like this come available at some point?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

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Hey man.

Firstly, welcome to the world of flight simming. I have been around it for years but have been on a large hiatus before MSFS piqued my interest and drew me back.

In terms of the training that the game has available, I agree that it’s somewhat lacking. But it’s day 6 of release so I’m sure more will come. Plus, as you allude to, it’s likely that a 3rd party developer will put together some form of “mission series” to teach you how to fly some of the other stuff or fly things in more detail.

As for your specific subject though, as non-committal as this is going to sound, it’s just a case of reading, watching, learning and geeking. You mention that you don’t recognise much in the cockpits of some of these other planes compared to the 152 and that’s likely because they have glass cockpits. But rest assured that all of the functionality of the normal gauges is there in the glass cockpit. For instance, in most cases, the left hand screen will be showing your Artificial Horizon Indicator (the yellow wings in the middle vs the brown/blue of the land and sky). It’ll also be showing your speed (left hand side) and your altitude (right hand side). Once you’ve got these basics, that should get you off the ground. Then, you can watch a few videos on youtube about the operation of the autopilot (I found this one really good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu3Fc1zeqjU&t=57s). That’ll teach you some of the basic principles of using it which should help with controlling the aircraft for most of the flight.

Finally, when it comes to overstressing things, I think it’s most likely that you’re overspeeding the aircraft and causing a “crash”. Since you’ve finished the flight training, I’m going to take it you can fly straight and level so that leads me to the thinking that it’s the speed that’s the problem. Most aircraft have enough power that on the straight and level, full power will cause the aircraft to speed up to such a point that the airframe cannot stand the loading it’s subjected to. With that in mind, just dial back the power to a point where the airframe is comfortable (usually indicated by a green band on the speed indication - both gauges and glass cockpit) and then trim for straight and level flight.

Once you’ve got those basics, it’s just a case of continuing to learn and develop. Subscribe to some real life pilot youtubers (Captain Joe is good for technical explanations) for more insight to learn more and it’ll become more and more second nature.

Hopefully this helps.

Happy flying.

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FSX had their whole “transitioning to jets”, “helicopter introduction”, “taildraggers” tutorials and I think many new players would love to have something like that in this. Especially since this is a lot of peoples first flight sim.

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@SkillfulRob Thank you for your tips and also this link. Very helpful! Goes already very much in the direction of what I was looking for.

@BubblyDruid56 Exactly, that would be awesome! I hope this will be recognized as something this software would benefit from many times over. Fingers crossed!

If any reader has other such helpful links like the one Rob posted, don’t hesitate to post it, I can definitely see myself getting into this more with some great “to-the-point” tutorials.

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Well, the fundamentals of stick-and-rudder are pretty much the same for all planes. They might be more or less responsive, but you do the same things to get the same sort of results, as far as pointing the things around the sky.

The main differences between the 152 and most other planes are:

  1. Speed (about the only things slower are the Shock Ultra and the Icon)
  2. Systems (all the glass panels and way more buttons)

The way you learn about the airframe itself:

  1. Read the real plane’s POH (if you can find it–some you can, some you can’t) to at least get its important numbers for speeds and power settings. Stall speeds clean and dirty, level and banked. Rotation speed, flaps/gear operating speeds, best climb speeds, best cruise speed with associated power settings, approach speed and when to use how much flaps, etc. There’s a lot more info in the POH, much of which really isn’t applicable to the game unless you turn on in-flight failures, or if you want to start cold and dark but the in-game plane lacks sufficient checklists.
  2. If you can’t find a POH, ask a real pilot. Somebody in this forum is almost certainly a current or former pilot of every plane in the game, so pose an airplane-specific question in the forum and likely somebody knowledgeable will answer.
  3. Once you know the important numbers, try flying the plane around just to get the feel of it. Spawn on the runway to start with and just get used to how she handles, and also to get used to significantly higher speeds perhaps.

The way you learn the systems:

  1. If the plane has Garmin avionics, go to the Garmin site and download the user guide for the system in that specific plane. For instance, many planes have a “G1000” but the installation is very different in a Caravan than in a DA62. So read this to get a basic idea what the system does and how to make it do it. Of course, not all real systems are represented in the game, and some that are in the game don’t work like the real thing, but reading the manual will really help you understand how things work.
  2. Watch some tutorial videos on how to use the various Garmin systems in the game. I highly recommend the work of P Gatcomb. He covers most of the in-game systems in great depth and also has a good series on just basic flight instruction. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWd_NMbp7GxMg4bZO65heQ/videos
  3. Get in the game and start cold and dark. Use the “evaluated” checklist mode (AI copilot set to help with checklists) to learn where the various knobs and buttons of importance are. Then start trying to set up flight plans from inside the plane, using the glass systems rather than the World Map.
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Hi,

Welcome back to flight sims :slight_smile: I am exactly in the same situation like you (except that my last „serious“ flight simulator was Falcon 3.0 back in the days - compared to the current (and past) MS Flight Simulator rather „arcade“ - but Falcon 3.0 was revolutionary for its day!)

To state the obvious: „start with the easy airplanes“ :slight_smile: So here I am giving you rather „practical“ (from my point of view) tips how to „approach a flight simulator“, rather „real world tips“. Reading manuals as suggested above can be fun when you have reached the „now I want to know more, get me the real stuff!“. In fact, I occasionally did so myself already!

But usually one wants to have some „quick and dirty success landings“ before going on in greater depth… so here we go:

  • Start with the most basic airplanes, e.g. the Icon A5 (a „fun flyer which can land on water“ - the „car in the air“) or the Zlin Shock Ultra - „Can land anywhere“), basically anything that has just one propeller and has a cruising speed lower than, 120 knots or so
  • Learn basic flight maneuvers: especially the „Doppeldecker“ reacts very sensitive (but is fun to fly): climb, level, turn, descent (just what you have learnt in the tutorial already)
  • Mind you: especially the smaller aircrafts are very easy to „overstress“ (as you have noticed already): in most cases you have to cut the throttle to full idle before slightly pushing down the nose - avoid overspeed (most speed gauges have a gree, yellow and red area: „red = dead“).

In general, those are the basic „flight simmer noob rules“:

  • Don‘t overspeed - cruise usually means 75% throttle (and use „trim“ to level your flight (just as seen in the tutorial): map „trim up“ and „trim down“ on some convenient buttons on your joystick, if available)
  • Set flaps before landing (keyboard F5 (retract flaps), F6 (raise flaps), F7 (lower flaps), F8 (full flaps)
  • Set flaps before starting („Flap 1“), depending on aircraft
  • Don‘t forget the gear! (if retractable - key G by default)

The advantage of starting with a very simple airplane such as the Icon A5: it features the most important - and basic, of course - instruments that every airplane has in some sort or another. So when switching to a new airplane, try to identify the following instruments - which may now be on a „digital glass panel“ instead of a „hardware gauge“.

To my understanding the most important instruments are:

  • Altimeter: measures the altitude above sea level in feet (so you may hit the ground before the needle goes to zero, depending on the terrain altitude above sea level :wink:)
  • The altimeter depends on the setting of the barometer which represents „air pressure on ground“ (I believe). You can (and should, especially on long-distance flights) re-adjust the barometer by pressing B, especially before takeoff. That‘s probably considered „cheating“, as you‘re supposed to get that data from actual weather reports before the flight, or from „ATIS“ in-game… oh well :man_shrugging:t3:
  • Speed indicator in knots - the airplane info in the game (airplane selection) already tell you cruise and max speed
  • Vertical speed indicator - tells you the climb or descend rate in feet per minute - important for landing (the perfect descend rate depends on the airplane and airport/published glide path angle, e.g. 3 degrees: convert that to feet per minute, which depends on your current speed in knots… and you‘re good to go :wink:
  • Compass - well, what boy scouts and girl scouts use
  • Attitude indicator - your airplane‘s attitude relative to the horizon (one tutorial was about this point, I believe)
  • Heading - which direction you are flying. Basically a compass again

That‘s it! The rest is pure luxury :wink:

Wikipedia in general is a good source:

Flight instruments - Wikipedia

Once you managed a few successful visual landings with the smaller aircrafts (they fly slow, approach speed is usually below 80 knots, so you have plenty of time to align to airports) you probably want to learn about autopilots and „fly from A to B“: I chose the Beechcraft Kingair (for no particular reason, other that it flies sufficiently fast, but slow enough for me to still enjoy the scenery). Whatever airplane you choose, stick to it for a while and study its autopilot features and other more complicated instruments and „glass panels“.

For this simply search for „FS2020 autopilot“ and you‘ll find a couple of YouTube tutorials. Choose the one which comes closest to your chosen airplane.

This one is quite comprehensive:

Autopilot is BROKEN! (or is it?) - Microsoft Flight Simulator - YouTube

Hope that helps a bit.

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I made a very quick/adhoc video about basic VFR airport pattern/circuit work that might be helpful to people with no real world experience. Game audio was recorded too quiet, will fix that if I do more of these.

It is entirely adhoc and not intended to be all encompassing, but does cover some basics. I just kinda did it off the cuff to help out a friend, but might be useful to some of you also… I am going to do a more carefully crafted series (maybe if time allows and people are interested) .

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I’m pretty much in the same situation - I used to play FSX and have taken several years off. So much so that when I got MSFS I knew I was starting from scratch, except I could remember some very basic things from my earlier training. FSX training and missions were super helpful. I learned the how’s and why’s in the training and it was broken down into Student, Private, Instrumental, Commercial and Airline. The missions added on to the knowledge with training from ultralights to jumbo jets. I would love to see that duplicated here.

In the meantime, I found the original lessons from FSX here: http://krepelka.com/fsweb/learningcenter/lc_index_lessonsmain.htm

And YouTube videos of someone flying the lessons - for example https://www.youtube.com/c/KHXInfiniteGaming/search?query=fsx
Then I would fly the lesson myself in MSFS to help solidify the lesson.

I’m currently working through the Private Pilot lessons having completed the Student. But sometimes I just want to fly around my town in a Cessna or do a leg of the bush trip.

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Agreed with all the comments here, FSX had great training missions that I hope come to 2020. I remember the frustration of having to fly within a narrow range of altitudes when doing one of the licences, only to cross a town with a lot of thermals throwing you 500ft up and falling the mission. Really satisfying when you nailed it though and a great learning tool.

Just a little advice if you’re new to flying and something that helped me a lot. Try to control your altitude with your throttle, and your speed with your attitude (nose up /down) when trying to fly straight and level. It may sound counter intuitive at first but reduces the amount of inputs you need to make.