New to flight sims. What is AOA? Whatever this is, its causing a constant buzzing sound.
Having a lot of trouble gaining altitude. I pull back on the yoke but the AOA beep again. Tried adding throttle but it doesnt help. This is in the training with the cesna.
Also when adjusting trim, what on the aircraft is that manipulating? I dont really get what the point of this is compared to the yoke.
AOA is angle-of-attack, the angle which your wing is at the airflow.
Too high AOA and your wing will stall, hence the stall warning sound.
There is an indepth tutorial by Squirrel on flaps that has a detailed explanation of AOA.
Watch this (and related tutorials): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_AGr1ELvBU
Is this when you are departing?
Dont simply pull back and expect a 172 to zoom up at 10-15 degrees nose up.
Raise the nose slightly and allow the airspeed to grow. Climb at say 5-10 degrees nose up.
Make sure you do not have flaps out.
Perfect thanks
Im a noob. Idk what flaps out means or how to make them not out. Lol
Ok depending on where you start your flight will say where you are at.
If at the stand with no engines on your flaps will be up by default.
If you spawn on the runway with engines running they will be down for take off.
Now the keyboard defaults to extend flap is F7 and retract is F6. So when you are climping out you can bring your flap right up using F6.
You will see the lever moving near the throttle. This will then reduce the drag and help increase speed.
Thanks. Looking into flaps now. Sounds like when i was constantly getting that stall warning i must have really messed up either leaving flaps out or something with the airspeed. It just wouldnt let me get anymore altitude.
Do you know how to live pause the game? Just saw someone do that in a video.
So when the game tells me to adjust the trim, which on the xbox controller is hold y and dpad up or down, is that effecting the flaps on the wings, or is that something to do with the tail?
Active pause is pause break on the keyboard by default.
The trim is on the tail and has nothing to do with flaps
Not sure what you mean by pause break on the keyboard.
Ok so trim is the tail. Alright so i guess i need to find out how to manipulate the flaps on the xbox controller.
Well I used to be a noob during the FSX days and I had my fair share of research I did to understand the flight mechanics. So I will share what I have accumulated and has helped my in my flight sim hobby. Gonna simplify a lot of terms and it may not be accurate terminology so as to avoid confusing you.
Breaking down your queries:
AOA is angle of attack, i.e. the angle at which your main wings (the ones with the engines etc. for instance on A320 or Boeing 787 etc.) hit the incoming air. When the plane moves forward there is airflow through the wings and this is what causes lift (you can research more on this). So when you angle the wing up or pitch up the airplane moves up and vice versa it moves down, however there is a limit to this. When you pitch up so high, the airflow is interrupted or hits or attacks the wing at at a steeper angle and it drops lift.
When you pitch up the airplane needs more thrust (engine power) or speed to maintain airflow and when you pitch down the air flow increases and you tend to speed or over speed if that makes sense.
So s higher AOA or pitch up means you need more thrust or engine power as the speed falls or you need to reduce AOA to gain speed (laws of physics). This is a delicate balance so don’t expect full thrust or throttle to give you super climb speeds, this depends on aircraft engine etc. So your Cessna’s engine must be able to output enough power and your AOA must be in the right range for a smooth climb. The sound is when there is no enough airflow and airplane speed is low so you may stall, i.e. the airplane does not have enough airflow over the wings to generate lift and you can drop out of the sky.
Flaps are extensions to the wing, at lower speeds since the surface area of the wing is more - more air flows through it thereby giving better lift and in landing it helps in maintaining lift at lower speeds for smooth a approach. However at higher speeds it causes drag (a column of air lopping behind the wing lets say - more research can be done for the physics of this) it affects performance and impacts fuel consumption so its only used during take off and landing for lower speeds. More over high speeds or aerodynamic forces can damage flaps. The flaps are on the main wings and not on the tail wings.
Now coming to trim, remember I mentioned the main wings - they are stationary and can only be moved up or down with the whole aircraft or it’s angle or AOA. However the wings in the tail can be adjusted in angles up or down or it’s own AOA without moving the aircraft up or down, this change in angle of the movable tail wing is achieved by using the trim wheel. This helps the pilot to ease the pressure and avoids you from fighting the airflow or controls too hard as you make the tail wings adjust to the requirement to pitch up or down and is mainly used to level the aircraft so that you have to adjust the controls for a level flight … sort of base lining the whole ordeal for steady flight and you make adjustments with your pitch as required.
Hope it helps, I know a lot of pro simmers and real world pilots may have a lot of disagreement so take my comment with a grain of salt to help you research better and remember this discounts many other parameters, lets say wind - a major player for instance and my comment is a very basic and a general approach here.
Let me know if you have any queries. Welcome to the amazing hobby and happy landings!!.
Im super amazed by how many new simmers are coming into this hobby.
I love it but also feel really old haha. Been creating videos on YouTube going back to the FSX days…Then X-Plane and P3D now MSFS.
Well they dont come out with these sims too often, so when one drops theres always a new influx of people like me. I actually fly drones a lot so thats my interest in it. Plus I love the beauty of the world. AND Im afraid of flying, so this helps me do that without the anxiety lol.
I started a long time ago, but I also remember what it was like, both exciting and frustrating.
Unlike when I had to learn, now there is you tube.
Someone posted to Squirrel , and while he is good [and I do watch him time to time], this video might be a little better for you.
Edit: Also there are just two videos, but, they are well done. he is currently making a whole set of tutorials.