The primary controls for the FCB9o9 are the four arrow keys on the keyboard. The only support for joystick is for braking and steering while on land/water. Whenever the mouse cursor changes to a hand over a button/dial (GPS excepted), both left-click and right-click can be used. Depending on the button/dial and the state of the panel, these clicks will perform different operations. Apart from altitude, heading and LDS hold, initially none of the other autopilot modes will be visible as they are hidden behind these buttons (requiring a right-click for access). Autopilot modes can only be selected when the plane is in the air, and selecting any autopilot mode will automatically activate the autopilot. When the plane is on water, fuel will be reduced to 15% of maximum.
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 180 knots on full fuel), it will leave the ground. Applying the brakes while on the ground and the plane is over 80 knots will deploy spoilers 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. When the plane is stationary, click the "WRS" button for a vertical takeoff.
In The Air/Space:
When the plane is in the air, the up and down arrow keys control how quickly you want to increase or decrease altitude. The left and right arrow keys allow you to control how quickly you want to turn left or right. 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 is limited to 30000 feet MSL unless SPS Mode is active. To activate SPS Mode, right-click the LDS button on the PFD.
Landing:
Before landing, the plane's speed needs to be reduced. To do this, Left-click the "LDS" button. The plane will level out and start to slow down extending the flaps. While it's 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. 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 (if required) 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)
WRS Button: Used for activating short range (takeoff) Warp mode.
WRP Button: Used for activating long range Warp mode.
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/Speed Mode Select: 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.
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 Indicator: The brown dot on the big white circle.
Runway Heading Indicator: The small white 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.
Radio Stack
The communication radio is on top and the navigation radio is on the bottom. Left-click on the dials to increment/decrement the fraction part. Right-click on the dials to increment/decrement the whole part. The nav radio frequency box also acts as an Approach Hold button and ILS Select. 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. If the destination airport in the GPS has an ILS runway, right-click the nav radio frequency button to go into ILS Select. 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 runway frequency into the nav radio. Right-click the button to exit ILS Select without entering the frequency into the nav radio.
Nav radio with Approach Hold on.
Nav radio in ILS Select.
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.
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.
Autopilot Modes
Apart from Warp modes, all other autopilot modes can only be selected when the plane is in the air and the mode's prerequisites are met.
Warp Modes
These modes flies the aircraft at Warp speed (a significant fraction of the speed of light with almost instantaneous acceleration). Warp modes can be activated by clicking their button when it turns green. Once activated, a Warp mode will only deactivate when its objective is met.
WRS Mode:
Prerequisite: Plane is on the ground and stationary.
WRS makes the plane takeoff vertically at Warp speed for a short distance. If a destination airport has been entered into the GPS before activating WRS, WRS will activate all the autopilot modes (SPS, VNAV & RWY) necessary to fly to the destination airport before deactivating itself.
WRP Mode:
Prerequisite: An active flight path programmed into the GPS with the last waypoint being an airport.
WRP will fly the plane to the destination airport and land on the selected runway at Warp speed. It takes just a few seconds to get to any airport in the world. Strange things happen due to time distortions in WRP mode. You'll see things that have passed and things that are yet to transpire. The plane will flip upside down, and when it arrives at its destination, things will look blurry for a while.
Speed Modes
These modes control aircraft speed.
LDS Hold:
Prerequisite: Plane is below 24000 feet.
Landing Speed Hold is used to slow and maintain the plane's speed within a range that is safe for landing. Click the "LDS" button to activate Landing Speed Hold. The plane will level out and start to slow down. While it's 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. If VNAV is active, it will activate LDS before landing.
SPS Mode:
Space Shuttle/Supersonic Mode will allow the plane to fly higher than 30000 feet (up to 10000e4), and fly at speeds up to 123e3 knots. Maximum speed is reached at about 23000e3 feet. There are two ways to activate SPS Mode; The first is by right-clicking the LDS button; The second is by activating a hold for an altitude that is greater than 30000 feet. At heights higher than 30000 feet, 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. Speed readings shown above 30000 feet are ground speed and doesn't take into account rate of ascent/descent. When descending through 400k-250k feet at a high rate, the shields will activate to protect the windows from the heat of re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. If SPS Mode is deactivated when the plane is higher than 30000 feet, the plane will descend to below 30000 feet.
Vertical Modes
These modes control the aircraft's vertical movements. They are grouped under the Altitude Hold button.
Altitude Hold:
Altitude hold will make the plane climb/descend to the selected altitude and hold that altitude. Left-click the dials to increment/decrement by 100e. Right-click the dials to increment/decrement by 1000e. Left-click the Altitude Hold button to activate Altitude Hold.
VNAV Mode:
Prerequisites: An active flight path programmed into the GPS with the last waypoint being an airport.
VNAV is used to navigate vertically to a destination airport. Right-click the Altitude Hold button to activate/deactivate VNAV. VNAV controls how high and how fast the plane climbs, cruise altitude (if any) and when and how fast the plane descends. It is accurate enough to guide the plane to the start of the landing runway where the Autoflare takes over and lands the plane. VNAV will always try to achieve a -900ft/min descent onto the runway by the start of the runway. If you want a steeper descent onto the runway, deactivate VNAV after it has activated LDS, stay level and wait until the plane is closer to the runway before reactivating VNAV. VNAV will not descend to the runway at more than -1800ft/min.
GS Hold:
Glide Slope Hold is not user selectable. It displays when approach hold is holding the Glide Slope.
LAND Hold:
This is not a user selectable mode. When it displays, it shows that Autoflaring is active. The Autoflare activates whenever the plane gets close to the ground and LDS is active. When Autoflare activates, it will reduce thrust to idle, flare the plane to the ground and apply the brakes until the plane comes to a stop; Reverse thrust and spoilers will also deploy. Autoflare can handle a descent rate of up to -1800ft/min onto the runway.
Horizontal Modes
These modes control the aircraft's horizontal movements. They are grouped under the Heading Hold button. To select LOC, GPS or RWY, right-click the Heading Hold button to go into horizontal mode select. A mode will only show (be selectable) if its prerequisites are met. When in horizontal mode select, left-click to toggle the different modes and right-click to deactivate the mode and exit horizontal mode select.
Heading Hold:
Heading Hold will make the plane turn to the selected heading and hold that heading. Left-click the dials to increment/decrement by 1. Right-click the dials to increment/decrement by 10. Left-click the Heading Hold button to activate Heading Hold. If the heading indicator displays true heading, heading hold will hold true heading. If the heading indicator displays magnetic heading, heading hold will hold magnetic heading.
LOC Hold:
Prerequisites: A valid Localizer/ILS frequency dialled into the NAV radio and the frequency is within range.
LOC Hold will hold the localizer to keep the plane lined up with the runway. "LOC" will also display when Approach Hold is holding the localizer.
GPS Hold:
Prerequisite: An active flight path programmed into the GPS.
This holds the flight path that has been programmed into the GPS.
RWY 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 lines 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 (turning to line up with the runway when the time arise).
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. It can be activated by either clicking the Approach Hold button on the Radio Stack.
Autoland
The Autoflare will land the plane automatically whenever the plane gets close to the ground and LDS is active. Use any combination of the previously mentioned autopilot modes or the arrow keys to guide the plane vertically and horizontally to the runway. VNAV will activate LDS automatically; All other methods will require LDS to be activated before landing.
Nav radio with Approach Hold on.
Nav radio in ILS Select.
