Flying larger aircraft.

[djrisc]

Hello all,
So I've been flying Cessna's on X-Plane for awhile now, and am interested in starting to learn larger aircraft to fly.

Does anyone recommend any tutorials out there for transitioning? How did you go about learning larger (commercial) aircraft for simming?

So for example learning the FMS. Do most people just fumble around with it until they figure it all out?

Just curious as to the best and most efficient way to get started.

Thanks!

[Piotr]

Take a look at Angle of Attack's training. I'm currently going through their 737 NGX programme and it's really great. That's FSX only however.

[Keith Smith]

The CRJ-200 is a great step-up airplane. The manual and video explains the basics of programming the FMS. It doesn't have autothrottle or VNAV, so the automation is pretty easy to learn (there isn't much of it!)

[djrisc]

Thanks for the feedback!

I picked up the CRJ-200 and practiced with it this weekend. Still not comfortable enough to fly with it on PE, but I'm working on it.

Thanks again!

[Keith Smith]

Just be warned, the ability of the FMS in the CRJ-200 to cross a specific radial and then fly a heading to join another course (very common on SIDs like the PEBLE out of SAN and PORTE out of SFO) is not very accurate. There is an issue with magnetic vs true courses, which breaks a lot of the intercepts. For that reason, I would strongly recommend either flying RNAV SIDs where available, or use NAV1/NAV2 until you have simple point to point navigation, at which point the FMS does a great job. The 'nav source' knob (to the left of where the Captain's left knee would be) requires a great deal of travel to move between the 4 positions (OFF/NAV1/NAV2/FMS).

[rgrazian]

First of all, I love the CRJ. Keith's suggestion is spot on. I now fly most SIDS manually the NAV radios and VORs as KS described. I had a pretty rough go one morning on PE relying on the FMS. Although a little more whiskey in the coffee helped me on the second attempt with the SID.

[djrisc]

Awesome, thanks for all the notes!

It's definitely fun to fly, but it's been awhile since I have done the IFR ratings on PE, so I'm going back through them in a GA aircraft first before I brave the CRJ.

So happy to be back on PE.. yay.

Brett