The FCB9o8 is an easy to fly aircraft. All aircraft controls such as flaps, gears etc. are automated. The only thing the pilot needs to do is to tell the aircraft in which direction to travel. This is done using the four arrow keys on the keyboard. A joystick is not needed. The only support for joystick is for braking and steering while on land/water. This aircraft has automations that allow it to complete a whole trip from the moment it leaves the ground until landing on the destination airport.
NB: The arrow keys can only be used to control the plane if the main panel is visible. If you want to control the plane in a view where the main panel is not visible, press Shift-1 to bring up the main panel.
Features
Simple Controls: Only the four arrow keys are required to control the aircraft.
VNAV Hold: This implementation of vertical navigation is capable of guiding the plane from the moment it leaves the ground, up to cruise altitude, then right down to the start of the landing runway.
RWY Hold: Runway hold guides the plane horizontally to the destination airport and lines it up with the landing runway.
Trip Automation: With airport and runway parameters set, applying VNAV and RWY hold will make the plane fly to the destination airport and land on the chosen runway.
Water Handling: This plane can float so takeoff and landing on water is possible. The procedure for water takeoff and landing is the same as it is on land. While on water, fuel will be reduced to 15% of maximum. This makes the aircraft handle better on water and also makes it light enough for a water takeoff.
SPS Mode: In Space Shuttle Mode, the plane can fly up to 100 million feet altitude, and up to 123 thousand knots in speed.
NB: Apart from altitude and heading hold, initially, none of the other autopilot modes will be visible as they are hidden behind these buttons. The purpose of this is for grouping, and to reduce confusion about what mode the plane is in. Explanations on how to access the different modes can be found further down this document.
Quick Start
Taxiing:
When the plane is on the ground and is stationary, the parking brake will come on automatically. Once sufficient power has been applied to allow the plane to move forward, the parking brake will automatically disengage. Increase power to 70% by pressing the up arrow key 7 times. The little horizontal caret on the PFD (Primary Flight Display) will move up as you do this. Once the plane starts moving, reduce power slightly to keep it at a constant speed by pressing the down arrow key. Press the left and right arrow keys to select how fast you want to turn left or right. When power is reduced to 0%, holding down the down arrow key will apply the brakes. Another way to brake is to press the "." key. Pressing the "5" key on the Numpad will centre steering.
Takeoff:
To takeoff, give the plane full power by pressing the up arrow key until the caret on the PFD reaches the top. Keep the plane on the runway using the left and right arrow keys to move it left or right. Once the plane has sufficient speed (about 170 knots on full fuel), it will leave the ground, and the gears will retract. Applying the brakes while on the ground and the plane is over 80 knots will deploy spoilers (can't be seen) and reverse thrust to help stop the plane quickly. Once deployed, spoilers and reverse thrust will disengage when the plane is below 30 knots or when the brakes are released.
In The Air/Space:
Whilst on the ground, the up and down arrow keys serve to increase or decrease speed; in the air they serve to control how quickly you want to increase or decrease altitude. Speed controls are automated and they are selected according to height restrictions and safe/efficient operating limits. In general, the higher aircraft is, the faster it'll fly. The plane will be kept below 30000 feet MSL unless SPS Mode is active. To activate SPS Mode, right-click the LDS button on the PFD. The left and right arrow keys allow you to control how quickly you want to turn left or right.
Landing:
Before landing, the plane's speed needs to be reduced. To do this, click the "LDS" button. The plane will level out and start to slow down extending the flaps (wings). While its doing this, you can not move the plane up or down. It's important to leave enough room for the slowing down process. When the plane has slowed sufficiently for landing, the border light on the LDS button will go out. Now you can guide the plane down to the runway. The landing gears will extend automatically below 1500 feet from the ground and speed is below 190 knots. The gears will retract when landing on water. When the plane gets close to the ground, it will flare itself for the landing and bring itself to a stop. To release the brakes before the plane comes to a stop, tap the down arrow key or increase power with the up arrow key.
Trip Automation:
Before or after takeoff, program the destination airport into the GPS. This can be done with a Direct-To Waypoint on the GPS or with a Flight Plan from the Flights->Flight Planner menu. Once a destination airport has been programmed into the GPS, a brown text area will appear on the left side of the screen. The highlighted area is a button for selecting the landing runway. Use the dials on either side of the button to select the runway. Click the button to toggle the end of the runway to land on.
After takeoff, VNAV and RWY hold needs to be activated. To activate VNAV Hold, right-click the Altitude Hold button (the box opposite the Altimeter on the PFD). To Activate RWY Hold, right-click the Heading Hold button (the box opposite the Heading Indicator on the PFD), then left-click the same button 1 or 2 times until "RWY" appears. To reduce flying times on long trips, activate SPS Mode (right-click the LDS button) to allow the plane to fly higher than 30000 feet (if it needs to) thus increasing speed. To deactivate a mode, right-click their button.
After VNAV and RWY hold are activated, the plane will fly to the destination airport and land on the selected runway; Nothing else needs to be done until after the plane has landed. The plane will climb, level out and descend as required. It won't follow the programmed flight path (that's a job for GPS Hold). Instead, the plane will fly direct to the Turn-In-Point near the airport, then it will turn to line up and land on the selected runway. A trip half way around the world (eg. NZCH-EGLL) will only take 1 hour in SPS Mode.
Primary Flight Display (PFD)
Heading Indicator/True Heading Select: The box with 3 digits on top of the crosshair. White text = magnetic heading; Blue text = true heading.
Airspeed Indicator: The box with 3 digits opposite the LDS box.
Altimeter: The box with 5 digits on the right of the crosshair.
Heading Hold/Horizontal Mode Select: The box with 3 digits on the bottom of the crosshair.
Landing Speed Hold: The box labelled "LDS".
Altitude Hold/Vertical Mode Select: The box with 5 digits on the left of the crosshair.
Vertical Speed Indicator: The horizontal green line.
Rate of Turn Indicator: The vertical green line.
Ground Proximity: The horizontal light green bar (not visible in above picture).
Vertical Speed/Power selector: The little horizontal pink caret.
Turn Rate/Steering selector: The little vertical pink caret.
Fuel Indicator: The very small white dot on the vertical line of the crosshair.
Glide Slope Indicator: The blue circle on the vertical line of the crosshair.
Localizer Indicator: The blue circle on the horizontal line of the crosshair.
Runway Bearing: The brown dot on the big white circle.
Runway Heading: The small square on the big white circle.
Wind Indicator: The "v" on the big white circle. Green = 0-9 knots; Yellow = 10-19 knots; Red = 20-29 knots; Brown = 30-40 knots; Blue = 40+ knots.
e Numbers: Gray numbers that appear on top of digit boxes. They represent the number of zeros to add to the number in the box. Eg. 123e2 = 12300.
NB: The Glide Slope and Localizer indicators only show when they are within range. Runway Bearing and Runway Heading only show when a destination airport has been programmed into the GPS. Ground Proximity shows when the plane gets close to the ground.
Airport Information Display (AID)
This is the brown text area that appears on the left of the screen after a destination airport has been entered into the GPS. It displays the following information:
DESTINATION: The name of the destination airport.
DISTANCE/ELEVATION: Distance to the selected runway / Elevation relative to the plane's altitude. Eg. -500 means 500 feet below the plane's altitude.
RUNWAY/HEADING: This is a button for selecting the landing runway. Use the dials on either side of the button to select the runway. Click the button to toggle the end of the runway you want to land on.
Radio Stack
This is located on the bottom right corner of the screen. It consists of a communication radio and a navigation radio. The nav radio also acts as an Approach Hold button (mouse over the middle of the box that contains the nav radio frequency). If you've entered an ILS frequency into the nav radio and that frequency is within range, left-clicking the button will activate Approach Hold. You can also right-click the button to go into ILS Select. This can only be done if the destination airport in the GPS has an ILS runway. ILS Select show available ILS runways. Use the dials on either side of the button to select the ILS runway and left-click on the button to enter the selected ILS frequency into the nav radio. Right-click the button while in ILS Select to exit ILS Select without entering the frequency into the nav radio.
Garmin 500 GPS
Details on how to use the GPS can be found in FSX help.
Dials
These are boxes that when moused over on the left or right edge show a hand icon with a (+) or (-) sign. Left-click on these to increment/decrement the value slowly, right-click to increment/decrement the value quickly.
Buttons
These are boxes that when moused over in the middle show a hand icon. They allow for the selection of different settings and different autopilot modes. Left or right clicking a button will have different effect depending on the type and state of the button.
Mode Select
To select different horizontal modes, go into Horizontal Mode Select by right-clicking the heading hold button. Different modes have different prerequisites and they will only show if the prerequisites are met. See the Autopilot section below for the prerequisites of the different modes. Once in Horizontal Mode Select, you can left-click on the button to cycle through the different available modes. Right-click the button to dismiss and disengage the selected mode. Available horizontal modes are LOC, GPS and RWY.
The only vertical mode that can be selected is VNAV. Once the prerequisites are met, right-click the altitude hold button to select VNAV hold.
Use right-clicks and left-clicks on the LDS button to select different speed modes. Available speed modes are LDS and SPS.
Autopilot
The autopilot on this aircraft is different from the others. Selecting a particular mode will automatically engage the autopilot. There is no need to press the "AP" button so one does not exist. The autopilot will only engage when the plane is in the air.
Altitude Hold:
Left-click the Altitude Hold button to hold the selected altitude.
Heading Hold:
Left-click the Heading Hold button to hold the selected heading.
LDS Hold:
Landing Speed Hold is used to slow and maintain the plane's speed within a range that is safe for landing. When you left-click the LDS button, it will activate Landing Speed Hold. The plane will level out and start to slow down. While its doing this, the border light on the LDS button will be lit and you can not move the plane up or down. When speed is within acceptable range, the border light on the LDS button will go out and you once again have control of vertical movements. LDS mode must be activated before landing otherwise the plane's speed will be too high for the landing gears to safely extend.
SPS Mode:
Space Shuttle/Super Sonic Mode will allow the plane to fly higher than 30000 feet (up to 10000e4), and speeds up to 123e3 knots. Maximum speed is reached at about 23000e3 feet. To activate SPS Mode, right-click the LDS button. At heights higher than 30000 feet, the plane will enter a state where it's unaffected by weather, so no sounds will be heard. In this state, the plane uses rocket fuel instead of conventional fuel. The rocket fuel is of the type that's used for interstellar travel, which is very powerful and efficient. If SPS Mode is deactivated when the plane is higher than 30000 feet, the plane will descend to below 30000 feet.
GPS Hold:
Prerequisite: An active flight path programmed into the GPS, and plane is below 30000 feet.
To hold the flight path that has been programmed into the GPS, go into Horizontal Mode Select and select "GPS". See the Mode Select section above for details on how to select the desired mode.
Localizer Only Hold:
Prerequisites: A valid Localizer/ILS frequency dialled into the NAV radio and the frequency is within range.
Holding the localizer will keep you lined up with the runway. Line up approximately with the runway. When the localizer appear on the PFD, go into Horizontal Mode Select and select "LOC" to hold the localizer. See the Mode Select section above for details on how to select the desired mode.
Approach Hold:
Prerequisites: A valid ILS frequency entered into the NAV radio, and the frequency is within range.
Approach Hold will hold both the localizer and the glide slope. The button is located on the NAV radio. See the Radio Stack section above for more details. Line up approximately with the runway. When you see the localizer on the PFD, activate approach hold. As the plane move towards the runway holding the localizer, the glide slope will appear on the PFD. Keep the plane level and activate LDS mode to prepare for the landing if this hasn't already been done. The glide slope will start to move down, and when it has nearly reached the middle of the crosshair, approach hold will pull the plane down onto the glide slope and hold it.
VNAV Hold:
Prerequisites: An active flight path programmed into the GPS with the last waypoint being an airport.
VNAV Hold is used to guide the plane vertically. It can guide the plane from the moment it leaves the ground, up to cruise altitude, then right down to the start of the landing runway. Select the runway to land on using the AID that appears after you've programmed the GPS. Go into Vertical Mode Select and select "VNAV" to perform VNAV hold. See the Mode Select section above for details on how to select the desired mode.
Runway Hold:
Prerequisites: An active flight path programmed into the GPS with the last waypoint being an airport.
RWY Hold will guide the plane horizontally to the destination airport and line it up with the selected runway. It's only interested in the final waypoint destination airport programmed into the GPS, and it will take the shortest direct route to that airport. Select the runway to land on using the AID that appears after you've programmed the GPS. Go into Horizontal Mode Select and select "RWY" to perform runway hold. See the Mode Select section above for details on how to select the desired mode.
Autoland:
Automatic landing requires vertical and horizontal navigation to guide the plane on the correct path to the runway and an automatic flaring system at the end to flare the plane onto the runway. The automatic flaring comes on when the plane is close to the ground and LDS mode is active. There are three combinations of vertical and horizontal navigation that can be used in order to achieve automatic landing. Each one has its pros and cons.
The first combination is GS/LOC which is achieved through Approach Hold. This method gives accurate landing provided the glide slope has been caught early enough to give the plane time to settle. The disadvantage with this system is that it requires that the landing runway have an ILS. The ILS range is usually no more than 20nm, and you've got to put the plane in a good enough position in order to catch the localizer and glide slope.
The second combination for automatic landing is VNAV/LOC. This method can also land the plane accurately. The advantage of VNAV over GS is that VNAV can operate at any distance and angle to the runway. VNAV also activates LDS mode automatically below 3000 feet from the target runway. The range of the localizer and the issue of catching it is still a limiting factor.
The third and final combination to achieve automatic landing is VNAV/RWY. This method is not as accurate as the previous two in terms of landing the plane on the centre line in calm condition, but it's more accurate in windy conditions. This method is very flexible. VNAV/RWY can be used at any height, angle or distance from the intended landing runway. This means that they can be used to automate the whole trip straight after the plane leaves the ground. It doesn't need an ILS so it can potentially autoland on any runway. VNAV/RWY is so flexible, you can take off from an airport, immediately program that same airport into the GPS as the destination, activate VNAV/RWY hold, and it will loop back and land on the selected runway of that airport. Landing with RWY Hold may not be what you're used to. It usually approaches the runway in a slight curve instead of a straight line as with Localizer Hold.
