Why was A320/321 not fully modeled?

[Edday 0]

As an A330 Second Officer I would like to thank you guys for creating this... no other company replicates FBW and Airbus better then you guys and I cant wait for the 330. Because of intense competition, increased standards etc., and lack of experience in handflying especially I consider it a must to own a HOTAS & a decent home sim for actual sim prep (we do it every 3 months).

 

For my company because we only sit on the right seat above FL 200  I think a $100 add on for at least engine failure after takeoff, fire etc and other abnormals would be great and I presume a few thousand other FOs and SOs would agree.

 

As you said this is not a systems simulator and it sucks to hear that Airbus doesnt provide assistance as I believe these sims help me and other pilots greatly. I think releasing an expansion with Engine failures, Memory Items, & a few extras would be amazing and I do take this Sim seriously it has improved my instrument scan immensely...I always practice manual thrust landings so when I am in the sim I am comfortable with the automation and I have the handflying skills to be a competent pilot if God forbid an Emergency happens at Cruise and I cant buzz the Captain immediately. 

[Emi 5161]

Edday, this might be more of a complaint to your airline. The way it reads it sounds like serious safety issues with your airline if their pilots feel uncomfortable to handfly their planes.

 

This is nothing any flight simulator addons can cope for, your airline is the only contact who needs to change this! The way it reads better change it earlier than later before an accident happens.

[Edday 0]

2 minutes ago, Emanuel Hagen said:

Edday, this might be more of a complaint to your airline. The way it reads it sounds like serious safety issues with your airline if their pilots feel uncomfortable to handfly their planes.

 

This is nothing any flight simulator addons can cope for, your airline is the only contact who needs to change this! The way it reads better change it earlier than later before an accident happens.

My Airline is fine sir as we keep a very high standard... what I am alluding to is where the industry is headed with less experienced pilots jumping on to bigger planes with less than average flying skills. Autothrust will not help when you have unreliable speed or you lose two hydraulic systems, but these home sims actually help with the instrument scan and manipulation of controls I notice my workload is less when I practice before the actual thing...Im just stating that they can be valuable to Professinal Pilots especially those starting out and it is a toy in the end but used in the right way it helps with the real thing.

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

We got a professional department and our Airbus is already used in training, but those are version that are specially made for those customers. We have no intention of moving that complexity to the 38 euro product and the market for far more expensive products is not something we are very much interested in. 

 

Just keep in mind that we get multiple support tickets every single day from people who say that 'the autopilot does not work'. Of course it works fine but they do not understand the modes of the A320. With every increase of complexity you get more people who are not able to handle it. Not strange as flying an A320 is a normally done by two highly trained professionals and not a slightly overweight guy with a glass of wine in his hand (aka me).

 

Last, but not least, we always said we intend to make flight simulator add-ons that simulate the actual task of flying the aircraft. We do not want to simulate the simulators that pilots use to train non standard procedures. You mention the loss of two hydraulic systems. As far as I can find that only happened on single time in the many million hours that the A320 family flown. As a professional you know that problems with toilets are far more common (I once landed on Iceland when two toilets failed). Medical emergencies are the biggest cause of unscheduled landings. So if realism is the key, those are the things that should be simulated. Not RAT extension that has happened only one single time.

We could also say our Busses are realistic. You will experience dual hydraulic system failures in a completely realistic interval. If it did not happen after 500.000 hours contact our support.

[ErichB 155]

On 3/30/2015 at 3:48 PM, Mathijs Kok said:

It would raise the price to PMDG levels and we are not sure that's a correct thing to do. When we do our market research and ask customers how often they use a fire extinguisher system they might say they used in one time to see how it works but never after that. You are paying a lot of money to have that included. We focus on simulating the work of the pilot, not the aircraft systems. It's a flight simulation after all and not a systems simulator. It's just a different way of handling things and proving to be extremely succesful for us. It might not always get all the headlines, but it sure seems to work with customers.

 

Or put in another way. While fire systems are vital in an aircraft it is hundreds of times more likely a flight is cut short or aborted because of a problem with the toilets then because of a fire. And I have never seen any developer model that. I have had two (!) flights not landing at the destination because of a medical emergency and I never seen that modeled in a aircraft.

 

Or put it in another way. We secretly have included all those emergencies, we just did not tell you. They will happen in realistic intervals. So an engine will fail every 500.000 hours and you might get a double engine failure every few million hours (it happened only one time in the real aircraft after all). Emergencies have very little to do with realism. While I find it cool that PMDG models a stall of all four engines on a 747 it never happened, not in the many many millions of hours flown.

 

 

Very good reply

[ErichB 155]

2 hours ago, Mathijs Kok said:

 and not a slightly overweight guy with a glass of wine in his hand (aka me).

 

 

 

All the pilots I know fit that profile 100% :))

[amahran 601]

On 4/27/2016 at 1:46 PM, Mathijs Kok said:

Not strange as flying an A320 is a normally done by two highly trained professionals and not a slightly overweight guy with a glass of wine in his hand (aka me).

 

Oh don't bash yourself too hard 

[g7usl 22]

On 3/30/2015 at 3:48 PM, Mathijs Kok said:

It would raise the price to PMDG levels and we are not sure that's a correct thing to do.

No Mathijs, It wouldn't. I hope you continue as before. I for one can no longer afford to pay PMDG prices any more. Since P3D appeared their priced products have soared.

[MatzeH84 88]

On 3/30/2015 at 3:48 PM, Mathijs Kok said: I have had two (!) flights not landing at the destination because of a medical emergency and I never seen that modeled in a aircraft.

 

 

Very good reply

Obviously you have not flown the A2A Stratocruiser ;-)

They created an atmosphere with live passengers and crew that I still haven't found anywhere else.

However it is kind of a niche product for lovers of the old kind of flying, so most simmers will never see this.

[FSX-A321PilotPhilippines 13]

The only emergency I can think of is fuel starvation. But then again, everyone is always concious about their fuel required in the route.