Reheat in Concorde was controlled entirely by the switches, an on or off thing. Main throttles only pushed the engines to maximum dry power.
The autothrottle in MSFS is tricky to apply to Concorde as it’s not really designed for that airplane. MAX CLIMB in autopilot using AT does result in the reheats engaging, which would not have happened in the real airplane below 24,000ft ( where the climb to supersonic cruise in reheat began ) with reheat disengaging at Mach 1.7 when clear of the high-drag regime portion of the flight envelope.
Jack’s coded the AT to as close as he can in terms of climb rate, Mach and range to ensure Concorde can reach altitude and Mach 2, as a compromise. So, in short, if you want the AP and AT to do it all for you, it’s required to just let it do what MSFS commands it to. Me, personally, I’d use AP without AT as it’s more fuel efficient. MAX CLIMB shoots for 3,000ft per min as standard, which is too much for some parts of the climb profile. It’s all a compromise really, MSFS autopilot isn’t naturally cut out for Concorde.
For #1 same issue, binding toggle afterburner doesn’t seem to work.
For #2, you would normally activate max climb when reaching your acceleration point, for example KESUP if you do EGLL>KJFK, and reheats should stay on until you reach Mach 2.
Correct all but the last - reheats were turned off at Mach 1.7, which was usually reached by an altitude of about 40,000ft. Concorde then enters cruise-climb, very shallow ascent, slowly accelerating as fuel is burned off and she gets lighter and faster. Rarely every reached 60,000ft, but often made Mach 2.04 in winter ( not always in summer ).
So for MSFS purposes IF using AT, just let it use reheat and disregard it? OK… I seem to remember it working differently in P3D, but that’s P3D.
Also… Whatever I set up on Fuel and Weight in Map screen is NOT what is true when the aircraft loads. I have to re-configure fuel and load page again. Somehow those settings don’t see to transfer over.
Essentially, yes - the Prepar3D flight model and engines / AP were more flexible than what we have in MSFS.
I wasn’t aware of there being a discrepancy between the fuel load in Map and flight start - given that MSFS only supports 11 tanks and we figured out how to create 13 ( or rather Jack did ) I suspect that’s the reason. Just another Concorde quirk really. I’d fuel up once on the ramp or gate and save yourself the hassle - it’s fun watching the fuel truck trundle out and the hoses plug into the airplane, same for GPU truck.
She sure is a beautiful bird once you’re up in the air. Its funny this whole debate about what is and what isn’t ‘study level’ in the sim. It strikes me that to get the most out of Concorde you’re really going to have to put at least a bit of studying into it. Good interesting fun though.
One thing I noticed this evening was that the sim was behaving really badly with the sheer amount of people trying it out of Heathrow. I could barely load it up. It was a busy place.
Looking on Volanta there are a large number of Concordes either on ground at EGLL/KJFK or enroute. I’d say there have been a fair few interested parties picking this up, so well done Dean and team!
CTP will have quite a few supersonic participants this weekend too, no doubt. Hopefully everyone is proficient in their aircraft before they join that particular circus.
I’ll be buying soon, but for now, the working day awaits…
Purchased earlier today and have been reading through the manual. I fly in in VR and the only problem I have in the G2 is reading the labelling/writing on the AFCS panel. Could they be made clearer in the future please.
Now remember you have to limit your speed when flying the Pepsi Concorde as she’ll start to overheat without her regular white paint job at speeds of over M1.7
I am not promoting anything. I am posting my experience with the aircraft and walking through some checklists. You are welcome to not watch it, so go ahead and spiral out on your merry way. Some people may enjoy my content. It’s not for everyone.
The goal here is to discuss the Concorde and help each other figure out the best ways to fly it and hopefully get some questions answered.