How to transition from GA to airliners?

[Niffstippels]

Hey, did you just call me a weed?

Haha yeah i learn fast and like to pass it on. I too get stuck in those “over think” bubbles at times, kinda silly as i had no qualms jumping in an F-18 and F-16 in the other sim.

Kinda funny to think back, i have flown sims for well near 30 years, but only the last year or two have been where growth has been in both MFS and DCS. First last year i started using charts and navigraph etc lmao.

But nearing 40 i recon i should do it right haha.

Glad you keep check

[Halivan1]

Agreed, just jump on the plane you want to fly. Some people are taking this way too seriously. I sit in front of my PC with a beer or a good whiskey, download a checklist from our favorite freeware site and just learn as I go. Watch some YouTube tutorials on my spare time to increase my knowledge.

You don’t need 1000 hours in a “lesser” plane to work your way up. Unless you want to.

[AirPorkOne]

Hmm. Feels like it’s the FMC that stops me from using my airliners fully. I find it very, very hard to learn - and quite many steps before you get up in the air. I would have been fun / not realistic at all / if you could get the flightplan from FS into the 737 for example. Then you can take it from there, but on the other hand - its better to learn right directly. But as I said, I find it very hard. Step-by-step is the way to go, you cant learn it all at the time; there is also a LOT of buttons and switches to conquere.

[VBHBAU]

Caravan is a good GA to airliner conversion.

[TinnyPaladin232]

… or the King Air (in particular the Black Square / Just Flight steam guage version)

[talgmar]

I would suggest WTCJ4 → CRJ → PMDG737/Fenix

[VBHBAU]

No it’s a way harder plane to fly. I’d be flying that after the Airbus.

[Speed1994]

Are you a Boeing man by any chance?

What is it again that flightdeck2sim says when he’s in the A320?
“500 feet, autopilot engaged, Captain’s tray table deployed!”

But yeah, once it’s set up, as long as nothing unexpected happens it flies and lands
itself lol

I love the PMDG DC-6, now there’s an aeroplane you actually have to fly!

[TactiCol6826]

Throw yourself in at the deep end (That’s what I did). Forget all the talk about going from one plane to another and working your way through them. Learn each aircraft you intend to fly individually and spend a lot of time with each one before moving on.

I picked up the PMDG 737-800 with not a great deal of knowledge regarding flying the airliners (I’d had a play with A32NX previously).

I’m sat in a cold and dark state at a gate in my brand new shiny 737 and my first questions were How should I set up my flight controls and "how do I start this baby up?

Youtube vids and articles on separate monitor with PDF checklist and pretty soon I had the startup procedure on lockdown through repetition. Next was how do I prepare the plane to go from and to destinations and how do I get out of my current parked “engine started” situation?

Back to youtube and articles. How to program a flight plan in the 737 and simbrief integration. I mess around with the CDU a bit and get my flight programmed in. What are my lights, aircon, probes and APU settings etc on the overhead for and when do I utilise them. Back to youtube and articles. Good, I am now ready to go somewhere and my engines are ready. What’s next?

I need to tell my aircraft what I would like it to do. Now it’s time to learn about the MCP and flight automation. Back to youtube, articles, PMDG forums and the like. After a couple of hours I feel like I’ve learned enough to get me going to the runway.

I’ve done my flight plan, performance init, cruise, climb and descent behaviours. My MCP and CDU is fully programmed. My lights/flaps etc are set for takeoff. I am ready to roll: Airspeed alive: 80 knots, V1 rotate and I’m out of there. Gear up, adjust flaps and prepare to hand over control of the aircraft to the autopilot. I repeated this process several times until I felt I had it locked down.

Then I moved on to learning the instrument panels and what the information is I am receiving in flight and how best to interpret that. Back to videos and articles but, that’s cool, because the plane is now flying itself. I have managed to get this far now all I need to know is how do I bring this baby back down again safely?

Back to youtube… You know the drill by now. I do this for each and every plane I fly and although I am the master of none I am certainly something of a jack of all trades at this point and am relatively competent in all the aircraft I currently fly.

Airliners are not as difficult as some make out to learn how to fly and in all honesty, a greater part of the enjoyment of a simulation of this nature is the learning process itself. There is as much joy in learning to do something as there is actually doing it IMHO.

Good luck and happy flying!!

[Niffstippels]

Haha good read.
Tbh playing without the AFO is less realistic anyways. No need to feel bad to begin with for using him.

I remember those FSX days, where most airliners a fordable for me then used the simple GPS.
had a funny momend in DCS learning Case 3 and fly like a 10nm radial, untill it dawned on me it is nothing different then a normal VOR type of flying.

Oh well, as they say, never too late to learn.

Just don’t tell me you are bald as well. That would be scary

[StanTGM]

My 2 cents:

After small GA ac, try something intermediate, faster and heavier, like rhe Kingair 350. then, transition to business jets, after that to the big airliners.

I think, i RL the s is s how it’s dine more or less…

[SpectraHeli]

@Red81Trekker

Default neo for starters.

No need to go through the default neo IMO, since the FlyByWire version is freeware and can actually be flown just as simply as the default neo (spawn on the runway with engines running, go fly), or more realistically system-wise as knowledge progresses. My 2c.

[Red81Trekker]

Yep yep, totally. Keep forgetting about all the little intangibles y’all get to enjoy on PC

[autopylit88]

Those who say just get the FBW A320 mod are right, its free and fairly complex, so start there and then spend money on the PMDG 737 once you have the basics of the FMS and Autopilot down. Going from GA to Airliners, there’s many differences, but the FMS / AP are a big one you need to understand to be able to fly any modern airliner. Again, Youtube youtube youtube.

[ANCRM114]

PPL > IFR > Multi > Commercial > 1500 hrs > Regional > Legacy

Oh in MSFS.

Cessna 208 > Beechcraft 350 > Cessna CJ4

You could probably skip the turboprops and go right to the CJ4. Also the Aerosoft Bombardier CRJ700 could be a replacement or a step up from thr CJ4.

I’d give the CJ4 (WT Mod) a try and see how you do. If it’s to foreign try the turboprops.

I would not bother with stock airliners. The new Airbus 310 notwithstanding after it gets some reviews. Go with the FBW A320 for freeware, Fenix A320 or PMDG 737 for payware.

[ZooMotorPool]

In real life, you transition from single engine to instrument rating and then multi engine, and then you go to jet rating of your choice - my friend got a scholarship to learn with C172, and then got into the airline to earn his CPL and finally ATPL plus the type rating. He now flies the 737NGs.

Like many others have said… in MSFS, you can just jump right away to big jets, no problem. Just don’t do weird difficult approaches like A320NEO into Paro (VQPR) or 747 into Hong Kong Kai Tak. Keep it simple, just fly regular normal routes where the lands are flat, e.g., SFO-LAX or LHR-FRA for instance.

Regional turboprops or jets like ATRs or E-jets for me are more like a choice, not a necessary “transition”. They don’t offer any transitory gap lesson to “bridge” you into flying full size passenger jets like A320 or A330. Sure, the turboprops might be slower, but it is still a jet engine spinning a set of propeller blades. While you forego piston engine’s fuel-air mixture/choke control, you still have to deal with pitch, rotation, etc etc etc - you also have the prop brake and all sorts of modes. That is an additional complexity over the simple jet engine that simply blast hot jet air to propel the craft.

We currently have BAe-146 from JustFlight and CRJ from Aerosoft, they are just as fast as the big jets and as complicated. The CRJ for example, it could be said that they are a bit more complicated than the A380, since it has no autothrust. One of the few things simpler there is the auto-spoiler that you don’t have to setup.

[bauau]

Thank you all for the great suggestions! Some of you even wrote comprehensive walkthroughs of your learning path which I’ll be reviewing in more detail in a future reply.

In this one I’d like to address two suggestions that were recurring, noting that my views are totally biased by personal preferences (and quite possibly misconceptions) and that all suggestions I received make absolute sense to consider. As for everyone reading this thread with the same questions as I have will surely gain valuable insight.

@Red81Trekker

Default neo for starters. Lots of YouTube. Use the FMC.

@Portalearth420

Start on the default a320 then move to the Flybywire version when you’re comfortable on the vanilla one.

@autopylit88

Even then you’ll need a lot of YouTube and tutorials but you’ll have a basic understanding or the FMS and autopilot systems already which will make the study level planes easier to transition to.

@autopylit88

Those who say just get the FBW A320 mod are right, its free and fairly complex, so start there and then spend money on the PMDG 737 once you have the basics of the FMS and Autopilot down. Going from GA to Airliners, there’s many differences, but the FMS / AP are a big one you need to understand to be able to fly any modern airliner. Again, Youtube youtube youtube.

This first main line of though suggests starting with what’s more readily available — either default or free. Regarding the default options, I’m not a fan of any of the default aircraft that ship with the simulator. They either lack the systems depth and/or the level of visual quality (texturing, 3D model, etc) that the other options have (mostly payware). Thus I find myself always looking for 3rd party aircraft as usually you get what you’re paying for (yes, unfortunately that it’s NOT always the case. There’s lots of expensive stuff out there with subpar quality). But my point being that an in depth rendition of any aircraft requires years of dedication, development and passion and that usually translates to not being offered for free or bundled as default aircraft. But while I’m mostly referring to the default aircraft, I confess I know nothing about the FBW apart from the good impressions I read everywhere so I guess I should really give it a try as it can be one of those rare exceptions where passionate developers deliver an awesome product for free.

@SpectraHeli

No need to go through the default neo IMO, since the FlyByWire version is freeware and can actually be flown just as simply as the default neo

@Niffstippels

Just get the FBW or any airliner that actually interests you and learn that one. No need to clutter you brain with other “inbetween” planes.

@Halivan1

Agreed, just jump on the plane you want to fly.

@TactiCol6826

Throw yourself in at the deep end (That’s what I did). Forget all the talk about going from one plane to another and working your way through them. Learn each aircraft you intend to fly individually and spend a lot of time with each one before moving on.

I identify myself a lot with these suggestions. It was always the case and main motivation behind getting into DCS and now MSFS. Systems complexity was never an obstacle, it was actually the challenge I was looking after. Time and again I advised other users to pick the aircraft’s they liked the most as that is the main limiting factor to having the patience and curiosity to learn complex systems and heaps of information. So I think I’ll take your advice (and the one I gave others on so many occasions).

I’ll be reviewing my options and your suggested aircraft on my next reply

[Speed1994]

And we all completely forgot about the ‘Study Level’ iniBuilds A310 that was released today for free!
(As part of the 40th Anniversary Update)

That would be a very good choice too!

[Niffstippels]

If you can live with the FPS loss that is.

[Portalearth420]

going from GA planes to a full fidelity airliner would be like playing your first pickup basketball game at the Y to getting drafted to the NBA