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Can this aircraft be flown manually?


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Love this airplane. But when I try to fly it manually, the throttle levers and the trim don't appear linear or smooth, thus over or under response of the throttle levers, and erratic behavior of the trim.

Currently, I have to have the throttle on autothrottle, and fly it without using the trim buttons.

I am a Boeing person, and very new to bus.

Any help would be appreciated.

tc

 

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

It would be great if you could specify the exact aircraft type and also the engine variant. Or does it happen with all the smaller Airbus aircraft?

The aircraft should be smooth to operate and I haven't noticed this issue before. Is it on all phases of flight (departure, cruise, approach) and all configurations or just some? Could you take and post a video when this issue is happening. That could maybe give us a better idea what is happening.

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There is more of a transition from Boeing to Airbus than one might imagine, and I clearly remember my own transition about 12 or so years ago and thinking I would go from a far less automated aircrash (lol) to a very automated one without any issues at all.  Boy, did I learn my lesson.

 

While the Airbug can be more automated than the Boeing, it's also an entirely different design philosophy which goes far below the lights out = normal part.  The Airbus has a FADEC so you may move the thrust levers but really the best way to fly it is placing the levers in the Climb Detent after departure and inserting the speed.  Manual control of thrust will lag a bit compared to the Boeing so be prepared for that.

 

Trim is completely different in the Airbus. 

In the A320 side-stick is fly by wire and the pilot doesn't feel when trim is needed because, in normal law (which is what we modeled) the ELACs (computers) will adjust the elevator and stabilizer to achieve a neutral position for the side stick.  Again, unlike Boeing and because this is a fly by wire aircraft, you'll find the trim wheel also lacks a mechanical link and instead in provides input to the ELACs to adjust adjust trim - but not in the Normal mode as that is automated.  So, hands off the trim after you've setup for departure.

 

Along with the product we provide an excellent introduction to the Airbus (Vol8-Weird and Wonderful Logic) which is very helpful for guys transitioning from a Boeing to the Airbus.

 

I hope this is helpful to you!

 

Best wishes.

 

 

 

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Ok, perhaps I am not doing it correctly. Usually, when I first purchase a new aircraft( in this case the A320 Pro), I use the quick start method to get a feel of the plane. It's what I did with this plane. Since (I've flown various sims since the early days and am a real pilot) the aim was to take the plane for a ride to see how it handles manually, I assumed that all variants of this aircraft behave the same, given two variables: throttle control and trim wheel.

I cannot fully answer your question, because initially I picked the first aircraft on the line up(Air Lingus?) in the aircraft menu. And now I am not in front of the sim.

Again, the plane handles beautifully; it's just that a slight movement of the throttle levers ( my mechanical levers) translate into full throttle and viceversa. The trim wheel( I have an analog trim wheel on my quadrant) is useless.  And when I use two sim  buttons for elevator trim, they don't do anything.

The only thing I can think of is that I am supposed to program the FMC before I can fly it manually.

I have no problem going to the manual if this is a prerequisite.

To sum it up, I just wanted to go for a quick flight on manual.

Thanks again.

tc

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Thanks, DaveCt. I suspected that this was the case, especially with the throttles. With the trim, I knew that with the airbus once the nose is positioned in flight, the the trim is set automatically. The reason why I am asking these questions is that, at least with the trim issue, the plane will not remain in its pitch position without my holding on to the yoke. Once I let go of the yoke, the plane usually goes into a shallow dive---as if it were trimmed poorly.

thanks for the help.

tc

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7 minutes ago, flyforever said:

Thanks, DaveCt. I suspected that this was the case, especially with the throttles. With the trim, I knew that with the airbus once the nose is positioned in flight, the the trim is set automatically. The reason why I am asking these questions is that, at least with the trim issue, the plane will not remain in its pitch position without my holding on to the yoke. Once I let go of the yoke, the plane usually goes into a shallow dive---as if it were trimmed poorly.

thanks for the help.

tc

 

You are most welcome.... I envy you the learning journey. I hated Airbus before I learned them (and I'm NOT an expert). In fact, I'm a old guy so I still gravitate to MD whenever I can.

 

We should have Connected Flight Deck working again in a few weeks and you could do far worse than making a flight or two with one of our experienced guys in the Aerosoft Flight Sim Community.

 

Best wishes!

 

 

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