Hi there, I was wondering which aircraft in your opinions take the longest time to configure? Any help is greatly appreciated. TIA
For me the longest is the CRJ where setting up the FMS can take me 5 or 10 minutes, though I expect others could do it much quicker.
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A310 from inbuilds takes quite a while to prep
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The AN225 by far is the hardest if you aren’t a pro.
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All relative.
- How proficient you are
- What procedures are you following (real world checklists, real carrier SOP, etc…)
- Are you using ATC (sim VS VVATSIM where you need to get clearances and are waiting on controllers dealing with other aircraft)
I follow real world ops / SOP’s and checklists to a T. (including doing a walk around) and only fly on VATSIM. So when learning a new aircraft, the cold and dark to takeoff can take me a long time as I familiarize myself with the aircraft.
As I get more hours on it, I can do it a relatively short amount of time.
Airliners are more or less the same in terms of startup procedures, what has to go first, etc… Of course there are differences between aircraft and their variants, it’s more less the same.
Just a matter of learning where everything is, the correct order, the values to watch for during startup, etc…
In the CRJ and Fenix A320 from cold and dark to take off clearance. About 40 minutes.
Again, I follow all the real procedures, use GSX in real time, etc…
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Any time I have to manually enter the flight plan it takes a while.
PMDG 737 takes a while, maybe 15 minutes to go through the whole checklist to takeoff roll, with no walkaround or ATC (VATSIM or otherwise).
Agreed the CRJ is similarly long, but both this and PMDG benefit from Simbrief and using their downloader.
But maybe the slowest of all is the Black Square Analog King Air, if you choose to go through the entire set of checklist to include the Runup (75 items IIRC on that list alone!). My abbreviated version is much faster (5-7 mins tops).
For me Leonardo MD-82
DC-6 PMDG and MD-80 Leonardo
Black Square King Air might be the longest for me. Setting up a flight plan in the GPS or on the RNAV unit, and running through the full tests for every system in the airplane takes probably 20+ minutes.
The Concorde is my longest pre-flight time aircraft. You have the F/E station to set up and go through as well as the front panel.
With the Fenix A320 and GSX for boarding (but with instant fuelling) it usually takes me 12 minutes from C&D fo push-back.
It has taken me a lot of practice to allow me programming the MCDU plus all the pre-start chores in this amount of time - including a drone camera walk-around.
If I used a more realistic fueling it would take me 8 minutes longer, but I am happy the way I do it now. Takes me ca. 20 minutes from C&D to runway, configured and ready for TO.
Back in the P3D days for me it was the Tu-154B-2 due to a mandatory engine warm-up period, and of course having to manage an aircraft with a dedicated flight engineer and navigator on my own.
In MSFS the An-225 at least involves the most seat changes and takes some time, but I would also put the Leonardo Maddog/MD-80 up there.
Fenix and PMDG takes at least 10 min, mainly because you have to wait for INS alignment. With flight plan generated in Simbrief setting up the plane takes a few minutes. I don’t bother with checklists, these planes are in perfect condition every time I load them.
The PMDG has IRS options for “Fast” Alignment (1 minute?) and “Instant” Alignment. I think the realistic alignment is around 8 minutes. I’m not sure if you can enter/import your flight plan and do PERF settings while it’s aligning, or if any of those are dependent on alignment completion.
You can enter/import flight plan but have to wait for alignment to calculate take off performance.
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For a thorough startup in the BAE 146 from C&D to ready for takeoff I need almost 20 minutes.
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