Aug 31, 2008

FSX default B737-800 ILS autoland tutorial

Flight Simulator X, some default planes have ILS receiver and CRS, APP buttons, Bombardier Learjet 45, CRJ700, B737-800, A321 and B747 for instance can manage autoland. Not exactly how in reality ILS approach should work, but it is possible for those default airplanes to manage landing automatically as long as any runways supporting ILS signal.

How to set things up? exactly the same procedures I noted about FSX ILS Autoland Tutorial CRJ 700

1: set the right flight plan before taking off, set the final approach straight into the runway. Note the ILS signal (and set the right frequency by Shift + 2) and the CRS (course - written under the ILS frequency on the map).

2: Just like all other planes, default FSX planes do not show the localizer. How do you know when the plane is ready for the final approach? by checking on the GPS screen. (shift + 3).

3: this is how many people cannot manage the plane landing automatically: flying over the runway. This is because plane was far too high when the final approach is about to taking place. Set the WP right on the edge of ILS signal (on the GPS screen, should be written green lines). Check the altitude on the flight plan, try to flight "BELOW". When the plane is ready for the final approach, switch off the ALT HOLD, switch from GPS to NAV. Try not to forget to switch off the auto throttle. Turn off the autopilot (default Z key).

Alitalia arrivederci!!

The world 19th biggest airline with series of both financial and structure problems the company has provided, despite almost 10 years since the beginning of privatization the company has never managed to get it on track. Finally, Alitalia declared bankrupt. "false privatization" as 49% shares held by the Italian government, 49% by workers and the rest 2% held by KLM-Air France, seriously not as privatized as other airlines.

I remember, it was year 2000, when Alitalia was in talk with a possible merger with KLM (Royal Dutch airlines). Alitalia ground staff worker's union and politics refused the plan to go ahead. In recent years, Alitalia could not borrow enough money to buy new airplanes to replace old ones (from my knowledge, Alitalia has too many old type MD-82 and only new ones are A321).

There are many reasons for this sad result, but I doubt only budget airlines should be blamed. The day for mismanagement finally has to pay the prize.

Aug 29, 2008

COP14 will take on the aviation emission

COP14 is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change known as the Kyoto protocol.  In this year meeting in Poznan, Poland, emission from aviation industries will be discussed. There are two solutions for reducing the aviation emission.

First is to create bigger airplanes such as Airbus 380, however not all airlines can afford it or no demand for it.

Second option is to improve the ratio of Embarkation. More than 60% is normally believed to be profitable (depending on routes and airlines), by using smaller airplane such as Regional Jet certainly will improve the operating cost and profitability. For instance, airlines currently using Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 series, it can also be replaced by smaller airplanes.

In any cases, it will be soon the world most successful airplane Boeing 737 will be about to be replaced, more marketing chance will be ahead.

Aug 28, 2008

ARJ21 by AVIC - Aviation Industries of China

ARJ21 is a regional jet will be soon sold to Chinese airliners. Passenger Capacity is around 80, flight range is between 2.200km and 3.700km made for regional flights.

Embraer E-Jets already sold to Chinese airliners, how ARJ21 will be successful? The answer is the price. Without considering Embraer 3 decades of successful leading regional jet market both reliability and maintenance service, ARJ21's price is listed about 20% lower than the same sides of Embraer E-Jets or Sukhoi Superjet. Chinese market is expected quicker growth despite recent concern. Domestic flights will be the next stage for business and transportation demand from the Chinese market. Besides, aviation market is often influenced by politics. There are quite some pro-China nations around the world, mainly providing them resources, those nations are either poor or managing difficult relations with western nations, otherwise I do not believe this ARJ21 will be easily seen in western nations even the price is cheap.

ARJ21

Aug 27, 2008

Embraer E Jets

Embraer E-Jets direct rival of Bombardier CSeries and CRJ. Passenger capacity between 75 ERJ170-100 and 120 ERJ190-200 slightly smaller than Boeing B737 or Airbus A320 but about the same capacity as Bombardier CRJ. Embraer has been sharing the regional jet market with Bombardier. Bombardier CSeries offer bigger passenger capacity model, but Embraer E-Jets have been sold worldwide (very important aspect for aviation makers).

Mitsubishi Regional Jet and Sukhoi Superjet seem like those newer planes made to compete with Embraer E-Jets. MRJ is more for fuel efficiency, Sukhoi Superjet is more for the price. Embraer E-Jets offer somewhere between targeted by new comers.

In any case, Embraer E-Jets are well sold, very popular commercial airplanes today. How Bombardier's CSeries will manage which is very interesting.

PMDG 747-400X on Windows Vista

PMDG is one of the best add-on payware companies for FSX or FS9. PMDG 747-400X is a product for FSX add-on. Basically as I use Windows Vista 32bit and DX10. When I first tried this product, with the same modification not only the product did not work well, together with DX10 and GameCam V2.1, FSX was shut down.

For my FSX PC, it was impossible to run DX10 and PMDG payware. I am not sure what exactly went wrong but mainly due to Windows Vista OS, PMDG 747-400X program, GameCam or DX10... I shut down DX10 and lower the graffic modification a bit, then the PMDG program worked fine.

I strongly recommend for Windows Vista users to lower the FSX configurations as much as it should be for running the PMDG 747-400X, otherwise the FSX is NOT working.

Now its time to know how to fly this very nice PMDG 747-400 on FSX.

Airliners.net

Airliners.net is the most well-known commercial airplane photos and news site mainly too many photos.  I am not plane spotter (more tech, commercial airplane savvy) but the site is really full of airline maniacs and the news posted there is very quick.

Aug 25, 2008

FSX ILS Autoland Tutorial CRJ700

There have been quite many questions "How to autoland CRJ?". There are some YouTube videos about ILS autoland, however nothing about CRJ or A321 (both default airplanes).

For managing perfect ILS autoland you need the following:

1. Land on any airport which actually supports ILS landing (autoland, in case bad weather) - very important as the most of airports which do not have the ILS facility. This can be checked on the flight plan.

2. Set the right flight plan before flying!! Even without any proper flight plan, ILS autoland can be managed via ATC (air traffic control), but then you need to change the ILS frequency as often as the ATC tells you which runway to land, often it can be visual land. Any runway with ILS facility is available, you can find the green line.

3. Master GPS autopilot!! There are two modes, GPS and NAV (mainly ILS based autopilot). When the switch is on GPS, the plane flies exactly as the flight plan. When NAV mode is on, plane is practically manual, unless the plane catches ILS signal (ONLY INSIDE the GREEN ILS line on the flight plan).

4. Flight navigation log tells exactly which ALT the plane should be, in order to receives the ILS signal. Fly the plan right until the plane hits the green ILS line on the GPS screen AND ALT also should be the right ALT (otherwise the plane might fly over) - normally 2.800 ft above the runway, ILS signal can be caught. Be ready to set the right ALT.

5. When ILS signal is caught (can be seen on the GPS screen), APP (Approach) switch should be ON (except default B747 - APP should NOT be switched on).

As long as you set up the right ILS frequency (Shift 2) and CRS (should be somewhere - B747 is on the PDF screen), following the GPS autopilot mode on the right flight plan and the right ATL for the landing, its hard to miss the ILS autoland.

Any question is welcome, please ask me here or on my YouTube channel.

Also

Default A321 ILS autoland complete autopilot guide

Aug 24, 2008

Sukhoi Superjet 100

Russian Aviation giant Sukhoi has launched new regional jet to the market Sukhoi Superjet 100 Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) is between 53 seats RRJ-60 (two class configuration) and 98 seats RRJ-100 (one configuration) with the range around 1600-2400NM enough for both regional and short range flight.

The biggest asset is its price. The catalogue price of $27.8 Million, around 20% cheaper than relative regional jets such as Embraer E-jets series or CRJ (I believe Bombardier C-Series no longer regional jet). The only problem (or rather problems) should be the maintenance network, operating difficulty (as new airplane) and very much to do with politics regarding to Russia especially in Europe. In any case, we welcome this brand new regional jet.

Aug 21, 2008

Bombardier C Series

Bombardier is a Canadian heavy industry corporation which is also known for smaller commercial airplane maker. Already learjet (business jet) and CRJ (Canadian Regional Jet) 700 or 900 (1000 basically based on 900) series very popular demand from the market.

Bombardier brand new CSeries is the new and bigger airplane (slightly smaller than Boeing 737 and A320. 100 or 149 seats, range between 2.200NM and 2.950NM almost middle range, competing with the ERJ 190.

This brand new airplane will challenge seriously B737 and A320 as the fuel efficiency and currently the most popular commercial airlines demand. A little bigger than CRJ, so this is NOT regional jet (the price is almost double than smaller CRJ).

New generation of turbo-fan engine is supplied by Pratt & Whitney

Embraer E-Jets and Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 series are main rivals at the moment.

Aug 18, 2008

Aviation fuel surcharge does not have the limit

ANA announced today about new fuel surcharge from October (to December), long haul flights will be once again charged due to higher fuel price. What really annoys every travelers should be the difference between the ticket price and the surcharge which will be possibly more surcharge than the air fare.

Flights from Tokyo to Europe or to US, new fuel surcharge will be "held" (as they claim the charge should go more) somewhere below 40.000 Yen / single (but for the high fuel price, ANA claims 44.000 Yen / single should be the right charge). The cheapest RETURN fare is sold for 53.000 (excl tax), this means that the fuel surcharge will be much expensive than actual ticket price, totally ridiculous.

Aviation industry brings not only businessmen but also too many tourists. This whole silly price war on international crude oil markets has caused not only poor people in need of riots, but it is so obvious that aviation logistics will be massively damaged. Less demand of tourism will cause many people jobless, it is only the matter of time.

Aug 17, 2008

AirAsia X

Malaysia Kuala Lumpur based budget airlines, which is a part of Malaysia Airlines, plans to fly to Japan. Haneda (Tokyo), Narita (Tokyo Int'l), Sapporo, Ibaraki, Shizuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka or Saga possible destinations. Already flying to Gold Coast (AUS) and in 2009 to London (Stansted) by using A340-300 or A330-300.

There have been several plans for cheaper airlines in Asia. Flying to Japan, especially to cities with lower demand but huge capacity such as Osaka or Nagoya (unlike Narita or Haneda always too busy). It is very interesting to see how cheap airlines will manage their business.

Anyway here is the link

http://www.airasia.com/

Aug 6, 2008

Smaller regional airplanes should replace bigger Boeing 737

High fuel price is damaging everything, but when it comes to airlines, high fuel price is a massive blow. Many regional routes or between smaller airports have been considered the first to be gone. If more fuel efficient and smaller airplanes will be used, such as CRJ 700 or 900 series or later MRJ, even the installation of new planes will cost the airliners but smaller and fuel efficient airplanes will be the key for all airliners.

Aug 5, 2008

MRJ - Mitsubishi Regional Jet

MRJ - Mitsubishi Regional Jet is a latest project for a Japanese heavily industry giant Mitsubish corp, currently involved with the Boeing 787 wing. MRJ will be the first commercial passenger airplane since NAMC YS-11 model. MRJ 70, 90 and 100 (seats) with the range of around 3,000nm with the sales target set at 300 MRJs with the advice of Boeing (although Mitsubish is believed to be in talks with Boeing over Yellowstone project Y- 1 (new version of B737 class - narrow body and short range 100-200 seats).

Bombardier CRJ and Embraer E-Jets are two market leading regional jet makers. Just like CRJ and E-Jets, MRJ offers between 70-100 seats. The difference will be the energy efficiency (according to Mitsubishi 30% better fuel efficiency than the "current" model - sounds like CRJ but not sure which current model), although the price of MRJ will not be as cheap as the current model.

The price for the airplanes, politics and running cost friendly. The cockpit will be similar to B777 - 787 high tech for the regional jet and Toyota is already involving this project. The first commercial flight will be planned for 2013 by ANA (only one airliner has already pre-ordered 15 MRJs and 10 as options). The demand for the regional jet market will be expected to increase, so there will be much chance for new markers.

MRJ rivals Embraer E jets, Bombardier CSeries, CRJ

MRJ official site