by Chris “BeachAV8R” Frishmuth The final aircraft in our line-up is the venerable Boeing 727. First flown in early 1963, the 727 was the most successful commercial aircraft ever produced until the 737 came along and unseated her. The “old three-holer” is definitely a hands-on aircraft. With a relatively simple auto-pilot and very little in […]
Back To Page 9 The sounds are top notch with excellent engine and warning sounds. I’ve had the good fortune of riding on the Airbus A320 jumpseat many times while exercising my jumpseat privileges and I can tell you that the sounds are spot on. One of my more memorable rides on the jumpseat […]
Back To Page 8 I elect to hand fly the aircraft down the ILS since I’m completely unfamiliar with the approach modes of the A320 and it is a bit too late to learn them. Unfortunately the cross style flight director bars are useless to me (where are the V-bars!? Please!) so I basically […]
Back To Page 7 Soon the route end comes into sight on the MAP display. The English Channel crossing lies ahead between SOVAT and SANDY intersections. At the MCDU derived top of descent I reach up to the FCU and dial in 11,000′ and the aircraft responds by pitching over and reducing thrust to […]
Back To Page 6 The PSS flight model breaks down a bit at this point. The PSS flight model goes a bit wacky once the Alpha Floor warnings are ignored and continued back pressure on the stick will result in a stall. As airspeed dips into the red zone (Alpha max) the airplane drops […]
Back To Page 5 Above 1500′ (1170′ radar altitude) I ease the nose down a bit to accelerate and note the red bar on the airspeed indicator indicating the maximum flap speed in our current configuration (Flaps 1). I retract the flaps and maintain runway heading until passing 8 DME then enter the right […]
Back To Page 4 As we taxi out I tune in the ATIS and listen to the winds and set the QNH pressure to 30.12. The eyebrow panel contains many of the controls we will use to fly the A320 when coupled to the auto-pilot. Airbus calls this area the Flight Control Unit (FCU) […]
Back To Page 3 There are several other steps to programming the MCDU and soon I’m ready to consider engine start. Looking at the upper and lower ECAM displays I note the advisory information on the upper display and wait for the doors to be shut as displayed on the lower display. The center […]
Back To Page 2 Consulting the checklist I start the process of bringing the aircraft to life. Hitting the dual battery switches provides power to the cockpit and the displays light up giving some insight into the vital statistics of the various systems. The cockpit is dominated by the Primary Flight Display (PFD), the […]
Back To Page 1 PSS also has a payload editor which did leave a bit to be desired. While the design is nice the implementation was a bit buggy. After entering the data for my charter flight and saving the configuration I found that when I entered the Airbus within Flight Simulator my airframe […]
by Chris “BeachAV8R” Frishmuth Phoenix Simulation Software has been in the game for some time now. With a diverse collection of aircraft ranging from the Airbus A330/340, the Concorde, the Dash-8 and the Piper Seneca, PSS have tackled aircraft large and small. For our purposes we will be looking at the PSS Airbus Pro package […]
Back To Page 7 The beautiful LD767 in the landing configuration. At 1500 feet radar altitude the autopilot senses that conditions have been met to allow for auto-land capability and the green LAND 3 light illuminates so I sit back and stir my coffee. The aircraft tracks flawlessly down the ILS staying precisely on […]
