
Blue Crown Airways
Revision 1.2.2
January 20th 2008
(Only for company pilots)

Fairchild DC227 Metro 23
Pilots Manual

A word from the manager
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Dear newcomer.
Welcome to Blue Crown Airways. It is my hope that you will enjoy flying for
us. As a manager I must inform you that the company standards for pilots are high.
We only accept pilots that are reliable and accurate in their profession. If you can
follow our procedures as described in this manual then you are in, otherwise not!
Blue Crown Airways at this stage only operates the Fairchild Metro 23. The Metro
planes are not in these days with many companies. But we see an
opportunity. Weve managed to buy our Metros at very acceptable prices.
Our target customers are primarily the people and businessmen of smaller towns and cities
that bigger airline companies ignore. These customers appreciate our effort to provide
flight service, low fares and efficient transportation to the bigger cities. We
typically dont fly to the biggest airports, but maybe the next aside.
The Metro 23 aircraft is a good performer in terms of speed and can swiftly and
economically transfer up to 19 passengers on short haul routes. But let us keep in
mind that for its size the Metro 23 is a runway consuming and a fast takeoff and landing
aircraft. This makes the Fairchild Metro 23 a challenge for any pilot. Anyone
can jerk a Metro 23 between places, but to fly it smoothly and precisely is the art.
Are you up to it?

My best wishes
P.L. Majorstone Jr.
Blue Crown Airways Manager

Pilot's manual index
1. The Metro23 power quadrant
- Speed levers operation
- Power levers operation
2. Blue Crown flight preperation procedures
3. Flying tips
- Setting the panel in off position
- The Angle Of Attack gauge
- Autopilot tips
- Taxiing tips
- Take off tips
- Climb tips
- Cruise tips
- Descent tips
- Landing tips
4. Checklists

1. The Metro23 Power quadrant
Please take a moment to familiarize your self with the FS2004 Fairchild Metro23 power
quadrant:

Picture 1: The Fairchild Metro 23 FS2004 Power Quadrant.
Speed levers
operation
To move the speed levers move prop lever on game throttle quadrant or use keyboard
Ctrl+F1-F4.
Marked orange between power levers on the left and flap lever on the right on picture 1
are the speed levers. These levers exist in aircraft types that operate the Garret
TPE 331 direct shaft turbine engine like for instance the Metroliners, Jetstream 31 and
Doirner 228. As the Metro23 pilot you must understand the operation of these levers!
Speed levers basically control the rotational speed (RPM) of the Metro23 engines kind of
like a gas pedal in a car controls the RPM of the car's engine. One would step down
the pedal in a car for higher RPM but in the Metro23 you push the speed levers forward for
higher RPM.
Although speed levers are fully scalable levers capable of small incriments back
and forth they are only operated in three predefined settings: Fully backwards in LOW
position (idle RPM), fully forward in HIGH position (100% RPM) and then cruise setting of
97% RPM (speed levers moved tiny bit backwards). This is indeed unusual operation of
an engine, almost like our before mentioned car would be equiped with gas pedal that only
would have two positions, pedal fully up or pedal fully down.
LOW and HIGH settings are labelled on the power quadrant but there are no markings
or labels for the cruise setting of 97% RPM. Pilots will have to adjust speed levers
carefully tiny bit backwards and read the RPM value of the RPM gauge. The 97% setting is
the lower end of the tiny green arc on the RPM gauge.
Picture 2: The RPM gauge 97%, 100% and idle readings
As probably noticed by the reader pilot will NOT be moving the speed levers much around in
each flight, in fact pilot will only touch them about four times per flight. Here is a
more specific description: Pilot will set them to HIGH before take off run (100% RPM) and
maintain HIGH during climb , adjust them litle bit back for 97% RPM in the cruise phase
and decent phase. On final approach pilot will again set them fully forward to 100% RPM
and then fully back to LOW when the aircraft has slowed down to about 60 kts in the
landing run.
Power levers
operation
To move the power levers move the throttle lever on game throttle quadrant or use keyboard
F1-F4.
Marked green on picture 1 above are the power levers. The power levers control power
output or torque for a given engine RPM by altering the pitch of the propeller blades. The
Metro 23 power levers can in some way be compared to conventional throttle levers as the
plane accelerates when pushing forward and decelerates when pulling back. As the pilot you
will be adjusting the power levers more or less through out the flight similar as you
would with the conventional throttle levers.
Please get familiar with the power levers basic layout as shown below on picture 3:

Picture 3: Metro23 power levers basic layout
IMPORTANT AIRBORNE NOTE! Never pull the power levers into the ground beta zone while
airborne. This will result in catastrophic mid air deceleration and might lead to terrain
impact due to an uncontrollable decent.

2. Blue Crown flight preperation procedures
Flight preparation is going to take 5-15 minutes of your time. This flight preperation
procedure is company standard practise. Use real weather settings in you simulator if
possible. At Blue Crown Airways flight preparation consists of following
steps:
STEP
1: Decide your flight departure airport and destination airport.
STEP
2: Optain weather information about your departure and destination airport from a
website providing online METAR information like for instance http://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/index.html
.
STEP
3: Open the FS2004 flight planner and plan your flight in detail. Typically plan your
cruising altitude at 16.000 to 25.000 ft. Flying high reduces in most cases fuel
consumption, even though more fuel is spent climbing.
STEP
4: Still with your FS2004 flight planner open gather information about your departure
and destination airports. This is done by zooming in on the airports in the flight planner
and mouse click the airports. Then a facility information window will display as shown
below. Take note of the following:
- Runway elevation
- Runway length
- Radio frequencies
- ILS frequencies

STEP
5: Make conclusions from the weather information and airport facility information what
runway you expect to use for landing (check also for your departure airport what runway to
expect for takoff).
STEP
6: Still with your flight planner open hit the NavLog button and observe the total
distance to be flown.

STEP
7: Open the Blue Crown Airways L&P sheet (Load
and Performance sheet) "metro23_loadsheet.xls". It is located in the
fs9\aircraft\Metro23 Blue Crown folder. This is an Excel calculating document for Excel
5.0 or higher. User input fields are indicated with the blue cyan color.

STEP
8: In the "Departure" section enter the weather information optained from
the METAR website and airport facility information you've gathered.

STEP
9: In the "Enroute" section enter the flight total distance obtained from
fs2004 flightplanner NavLog, the preferred crusing altitude and the preferred power
settings (60, 70 or 80% torque) and mean enroute wind component (if available).

STEP
10: In the "Departure" section enter the number of passangers of today's
flight and baggage loads.

STEP
11: In the "Departure" section enter the preferred fuel quantity in
accordance with the total flying distance. When flying to remote airports note that A1JET
fuel might not be available. Then fuel forth and back has to be taken in account. Reserve
fuel is automatically calculated in the Enroute section of the L&P sheet and must not
be less than 45 minutes:

STEP
12: Review the L&P sheet and observe if there are any "Attention!"
remarks in the remark section. Take appropriate action to correct if any.
Attention remarks can be any of the following:

STEP
13: Note down some key performance figures that have automatically been calculated on
the L&P sheet as a result of the information input (or use File-Print to print them):

- TOW = Aircraft take off weight
- TOD = Take of distance
- TO torque = Recommended take off torque
- VR = rotate speed
- VLOF =lift off speed
- Enroute = Estimated enroute speed IAS
- LW = Aircraft landing weight
- VREF = reference speed at threshold 50ft above runway when landing
STEP
14: Go to the "Fuel and Payload.." section in the MS Flight Simulator 2004
and configure the Metro 23 in accordance with the L&P sheet:
STEP 15:
Congratulations! All set. You are a Pro indeed!

3. Flying tips
Setting the
panel in off mode
In Flight simulator 2004 engines are running when you enter the plane. If you want
to enjoy starting the plane you have to turn everything off and save the flight. Thats
more fun..

Picture 3: Panel in off mode
To set the panel in off position do the following:
- Cut off the fuel (ctrl+shift+F1), engines will stop
- Drag fully down the power levers (A) and the speed levers (B)
- Turn off all light switches (C)
- Turn off the aviation master (D), the gen1 & 2 (E) and finally the master (battery)
(F)
- Save the flight
The Angle Of Attack gauge (AOA)
- AOA gauge basically helps pilot to avoid stalling the aircraft (red zone equals
stall)
- The AOA gauge needle moves anti clockvise green-white-yellow-red as angle of
attack increases
- The indication of AOA gauge is a combination of aircraft speed and nose up
position, thus the relative airflow
- Try to avoid yellow and red zones of the AOA gauge as the aircraft is then to
slow and nose to high
- In the lift off and touch down it is normal for AOA to enter (or almost enter)
the white zone

Autopilot
tips
- Configure autopilot before taxiing if possible
- The climb performance value in the lower left corner of L&P sheet is a good start value for autopilot
- When autopilot is engaged reduce or increase climb rate to maintain 170 kts. IAS
- Climb performance is reduced as aircraft climbs higher and is tipically 800-1000 ft/min
above 20.000 ft.
Taxiing tips
- Use speed levers LOW setting on ground while taxiing. Move power levers to control power
while taxiing.
- On ground only move power levers within the ground beta zone
- Note that when aircraft is light loaded the aircraft can start taxiing at idle power

Take off tips
- When aircraft is ready for take off, push the speed levers fully forward to HIGH.

- With speed levers HIGH, engine noise increases as the RPM increases.
- Aircraft moves very litle if nothing at this point even though engines RPM setting is
HIGH
- That is because the propeller blades are very flat and produce not much torque
- Advance the power levers forward in steadily manner to the L&P sheet recommended take off torque
- Blade angle increases and power is produced. Aircraft moves forward
- Recommended take off torque depends on aircraft weight, rwy length and air
density and can be 90%, 100% or 110%
- When L&P sheet suggests 90% torque
(long runway) adding few kts to lift off speed is in order for better initial climb
- When VR (rotate speed) is reached (as stated on the L&P sheet), pull the controls and start raising
the nose
- Have the nose raised 15°-20° as the aircraft reaches VLOF (lift off
speed)
- In the lift off keep the needle within the white zone on the AOA gauge for first 200-400 ft then move
towards green.

Climb tips
- As aircraft lifts off keep nose 15-20° in the initial climb and use AOA gauge as guideline (needle on white zone)
- Maintain speed safely above V2 (typically add 10kts to V2min
value on L&P sheet) while retracting
flaps
- Take off power at more than 100% torque is only permitted for 1 minute
- Take off power at 100% is only permitted for 5 minutes
- Reduce power to max continous power (90%) as soon as possible
- As aircraft climbs and more hight is gained the torque drops. Pilot has to move
throttle forward to maintain 90% torque

Cruise tips
- When aircraft is level and cruise speed is gained reduce RPM to 97% (speed levers tiny
bit backwards)
- Typical cruise power is 70% torque. Move power levers accordingly
- Cruise power of 60 or 80% is also an option
Decent tips
- The Metro23 is a hard to slow down in descent even at low power. Watch your speed in
decent!
- Plan your descent and try to maintain 1000 ft/min descent rate or less
- 1500 ft/min descent rate is about maximum without use of flaps
- For speed control in 1500 ft/min descent pull power levers ABOVE flight idle line.
- Pilot will hear a distinct engine/prop sound when prop blades become more flat near
ground beta zone
- Consider that a warning signal and don't retard power levers much further back
- Pilot can use flap1 settings to slow down in a descent more than 1500 ft/min (if speed
is below 215 kts.)
- Flap settings and max speed (IAS) for operation are as follows:
Setting |
Extention |
Max speed operation (IAS) |
Flap1 |
1/4 |
215 kts. |
Flap2 |
1/2 |
188 kts. |
Flap3 |
Fully ext. |
166 kts. |
Landing tips
- Landing gear can be extended at 176 kts. IAS
- The fine pitched blade angle in the ground beta zone has effective braking action
in the landing run.
- As soon as the aircraft has touched down pull back the power levers into the ground beta
zone.
- This dramatically reduces speed, even without applying reverse thrust
- This is in fact sufficient when long runway for landing is available.
- For extra deceleration on shorter runways apply reverse thrust and wheel brakes.
- When speed has reduced to 60 knots pull speed lever to LOW position and taxi to ramp or
gate.

4. FS2004 Metro 23 Checklist
PREINSPECTION
[ ] Main doors - Closed and secure (ctrl+E)
[ ] Parking brakes - ON
[ ] Power levers - FULLY BACK
[ ] Speed levers - LOW
[ ] Generators - OFF
BEFORE STARTUP
[ ] Battery - ON
[ ] Navigation lights - ON
[ ] Avionics - ON
[ ] Rotating beacon - ON
[ ] Fuel flow - ON (mixture rich or ctrl+shift+F4)
STARTUP RIGHT
[ ] Starter - ENGAGE
[ ] RPM rising - CHECK
[ ] 2000 RPM - IGNITION
[ ] Fuel flow - CHECK OK
[ ] Oil pressure in 30 sec - GREEN
[ ] Generator - ON
STARTUP LEFT
[ ] Starter - ENGAGE
[ ] RPM rising - CHECK
[ ] 2000 RPM - IGNITION
[ ] Fuel flow - CHECK OK
[ ] Oil pressure in 30 sec - GREEN
[ ] Generator - ON
BEFORE TAXIING
[ ] Altimeter - SET
[ ] Autopilot - SET
[ ] Taxi lights - ON
[ ] Passenger speech
WHILE TAXIING
[ ] Flaps - SET FOR TAKE OFF
[ ] Elevator trim - SET AS REQUIRED
[ ] Pitot heat - ON
ON RUNWAY
[ ] Strobe lights - ON
[ ] Landing lights - ON
[ ] Autopilot - CHECK RWY HEADING
[ ] Altimeter - CHECK
[ ] Engine instruments - CHECK
[ ] Clock - CHECK TIME
TAKE OFF
[ ] RPM - 100%
[ ] Torque - 100%
[ ] Positive climb - GEAR UP
[ ] 400 feet - FLAPS RETRACTED
[ ] Autopilot - ENGAGE
CLIMB
[ ] Torque - 95%
[ ] Speed - 170 KTS
[ ] Below 10.000 feet - SPEED < 250 KTS (IAS)
[ ] 10000 feet - LANDING/TAXI-LIGHT OFF
[ ] 18000 feet - ALTIMETER 29.92
CRUISE
[ ] Speed levers - 97% RPM
[ ] Power levers - CRUISE POWER
DESCENT
[ ] 18000 feet - ALTIMETER TO LOCAL QNH
[ ] Below 10.000 feet - SPEED < 250 KTS (IAS)
BEFORE LANDING
[ ] Landing lights - ON
[ ] Taxi lights - ON
[ ] Gear - DOWN AND LOCKED
[ ] Speed levers - HIGH
[ ] Flaps - AS REQUIRED
[ ] Speed - 140 KTS
[ ] Speed at threshold (50ft) - VREF + 10 KTS
(see VREF on L&P sheet)
AFTER LANDING
[ ] Speed levers (at 60 kts) - LOW
[ ] Flaps - RETRACT
OFF RUNWAY
[ ] Landing lights - OFF
[ ] Strobe ligths - OFF
SHUTDOWN
[ ] Fuel flow - OFF (Mixture cut off or ctrl+shift+F1)
[ ] Rotating beacon - OFF
[ ] Avionics - OFF
[ ] Navigation lights - OFF
[ ] Battery - OFF
[ ] Generators - OFF
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