New video: Goose Bay (Labrador) to Narsarsuaq (Greenland)

[Maurice]

http://youtu.be/jNySVJD_ip8

Maurice

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Brought a tear to me eye, it did.

Good job. Can't wait until I'm able to do that again. I can't tell you how much I've missed it.

[XOrionFE]

Awesome video Maurice!   I really enjoyed it.   Keep em coming.  These are always very inspirational and motivational for everyone.

Can you send the exact routing you used and maybe attach the plate also?   Looks like a fun route to fly.

Thank you,
Scott

[jskibo]

Nice Video Mau! 

Looks like a great view the whole trip!

As Scott said, keep them coming!

Do you by chance have the Vancouver Airport from FSDT?

[MLeavy737]

Awesome video Maurice!  Sim looks great as usual

Hey I think you had asked me about VNAV takeoffs at some point little while ago and I had said that I was unaware that they could be done.. Well as of last month or so we had a training bulletin allowing them to be done on airplanes equipped with that software and the procedure to be used.  They require a little bit of FMC setup on initialization as well as when the performance numbers are uploaded for it  work correctly however once done its great and actually the takeoff and climb require less callouts.

Also noticed you had LNAV armed which works on the ground for takeoff as well however the MCP indications were a little off.  I'll leave that for the avionics developers to figure out though

Love the videos, great inspiration and provide much needed motivation that I seem to be lacking lately!

Mike L

[N737AG]

Stunning video Maurice.

As Mike indicates, it really gets you motivated to continue building

Axel

[Maurice]

Awesome video Maurice!   I really enjoyed it.   Keep em coming.  These are always very inspirational and motivational for everyone.

Can you send the exact routing you used and maybe attach the plate also?   Looks like a fun route to fly.

Thank you,
Scott

Thanks. I got interested in this flight after watching an episode of Ice Pilots where they were ferrying 2 water bombers from Canada to Turkey and had to make a stop in Greenland. They talked quite a bit about the challenges of landing in Narsarsuaq and my first approach using real weather resulted in a landing besides the runway as the crosswind was really bad and it caught me by surprise, so I was not able to correct on time. So I tried the same flight the next day and the conditions were better that time. It was fun anyway.

The route is pretty straightforward and I got it using FSBUILD:
CYYR JC 5752N BGBW

I also got the approach charts from Navigraph but they are also available online:
http://va-transaero.ru/files/charts/bgbw.pdf. I used the NDB+DME 07-1 for runway 07.

I also use some terrain mesh for Greenland that I found on AVSIM. I don't know how good the mesh is on XP but hopefully Greenland has good coverage.

Maurice

[Maurice]

Do you by chance have the Vancouver Airport from FSDT?

Not yet. I've meant to get Vancouver scenery for a long time now but i always end up flying somewhere else it seems 

Maurice

[Maurice]

Also noticed you had LNAV armed which works on the ground for takeoff as well however the MCP indications were a little off.  I'll leave that for the avionics developers to figure out though

Love the videos, great inspiration and provide much needed motivation that I seem to be lacking lately!

Mike L

I don''t know why you need inspiration unless flying the real thing makes a home simulator less than exciting 

But I'm not sure what you meant by the "MCP indications were a little bit off".  The MCP is only an input device so that means I was the guilty party so I don't know what else I should have done.

I find that after I program the FMC, arm LNAV & VNAV, I can take off and follow the fight director cues and everything works out if I hit TOGA switch during the take off run. The PFD indicates FMC Speed and the flight director sets the climb angle to reach the FMC speed.

So if I do all the above, when I switch on the A/P, the plane is already on the correct path, speed & attitude and the A/P keeps following the flight director indications just as I was doing manually.

I'm not saying of course that this is what the airlines do, but this works very well for me and is fairly easy to do for a single pilot. If I don't arm VNAV, then of course I need to adjust the MCP speed manually after I reach acceleration height so that the flight director can guide me to the correct climb angle to maintain the selected MCP speed. And since I am not under ATC control, I also arm LNAV before take off but I could just as easily use MCP heading at first and then LNAV later on.

So, do your new VNAV procedures more or less match what I am doing or is there a better or more common way to execute a take off, taking single pilot operation into consideration? 

Thanks,
Maurice

[MLeavy737]

But I'm not sure what you meant by the "MCP indications were a little bit off".  The MCP is only an input device so that means I was the guilty party so I don't know what else I should have done.

I find that after I program the FMC, arm LNAV & VNAV, I can take off and follow the fight director cues and everything works out if I hit TOGA switch during the take off run. The PFD indicates FMC Speed and the flight director sets the climb angle to reach the FMC speed.

So if I do all the above, when I switch on the A/P, the plane is already on the correct path, speed & attitude and the A/P keeps following the flight director indications just as I was doing manually.

I'm not saying of course that this is what the airlines do, but this works very well for me and is fairly easy to do for a single pilot. If I don't arm VNAV, then of course I need to adjust the MCP speed manually after I reach acceleration height so that the flight director can guide me to the correct climb angle to maintain the selected MCP speed. And since I am not under ATC control, I also arm LNAV before take off but I could just as easily use MCP heading at first and then LNAV later on.

So, do your new VNAV procedures more or less match what I am doing or is there a better or more common way to execute a take off, taking single pilot operation into consideration? 

Thanks,
Maurice

Maurice,
  Sorry, another thread I took forever responding to.. sorry..

Don't bash yourself, you did nothing wrong! That's exactly what our new procedures are these days.  Company prefers a VNAV takeoff now which can be done either in the L2 or L3 methods. Once Perf numbers are in and your VNAV climb speeds are entered VNAV is armed at the gate before pushback. 

As far as LNAV departures, that can be armed at the gate as well once the FMC is loaded properly with a RY and first segment of route entered.

The MCP when you think about it is not just an input device really. You can also think of it as  an indication device.  If something is not lit its telling you that its not engaged or in the case of ILS approaches, when the APP light goes out it means the GS has been captured and its driving down the course to the runway.

having said that there are actually a few different types of VNAV takeoffs with a mix of LNAV and HDG modes as well for the initial turn at 400 feet. In these cases the MCP  lights actually mean something and are not just on for the whole takeoff roll.

Ill throw a bone to the avionics developers here in saying that on takeoff roll, after you hit TOGA with LNAV previously engaged the LNAV light actually goes out and the system is in an LNAV armed mode until 400 feet. That when the Light comes back on and LNAV begins to track the course.

Like I said there is a few different VNAV takeoffs and the lights react differently on takeoff as well however ill let them do some digging in the books to figure that one out

Mike L

[Maurice]

Thanks Mike. It's good to know I'm following correct procedures at least during the initial climb. Now I wonder how long do you let VNAV control the descent and/or at what time do you switch to V/S? I find that by the time I am down below 10,000 ft, V/S works better than VNAV and by that I mean it is more accurate than VNAV and I can get to the correct altitude more consistently than if I continue on VNAV.

I'm sure that VNAV works much better in real life than it does with any home sim software but is there a particular time or altitude where you usually disconnect VNAV or disconnect the A/P altogether?

Thanks again and I'm not expecting a quick answer

Maurice

[MLeavy737]

Maurice,
  Your right on target again! That's what I do as well. I keep VNAV engaged until either 10,000ft or the last fix on an arrival.  Not saying you cant use VNAV for descents after that its just easier to use VS and get what you want.  Also you have a visual on the speed window instead of being heads down in the box adjusting speed as ATC directs.

I do use VNAV a lot on approaches however. All visuals are done LNAV/VNAV as well as non precision approaches. Those are done in LNAV/VNAV or LOC/VNAV.

Mike L

[Maurice]

Maurice,
  Your right on target again! That's what I do as well. I keep VNAV engaged until either 10,000ft or the last fix on an arrival.  Not saying you cant use VNAV for descents after that its just easier to use VS and get what you want.  Also you have a visual on the speed window instead of being heads down in the box adjusting speed as ATC directs.

I do use VNAV a lot on approaches however. All visuals are done LNAV/VNAV as well as non precision approaches. Those are done in LNAV/VNAV or LOC/VNAV.

Mike L

You are confusing me a bit Mike or probably I don't know the real meaning of 'approach'? When you say " I do use VNAV a lot on approaches", are you talking about when you are still above 10,000 ft or so? When does an approach start... on your first descent?

Thanks,
Maurice

[sagrada737]

Great video Maurice!  Certainly inspiring for those of us still in the "building phase" of our Sim projects.

Question:  I noticed on landing (nice by the way), that you didn't arm the Speed Brake, or utilize it after touch-down.  Was that pilot preference, or some other reason?

Once again - nice video tour.

Mike

[Maurice]

Question:  I noticed on landing (nice by the way), that you didn't arm the Speed Brake, or utilize it after touch-down.  Was that pilot preference, or some other reason?


Mike

Actually, if you watch carefully, I did arm the spoiler although it was a bit early. The spoiler did deploy automatically on touchdown but you can't see it because my arm was in the way. It did also retract automatically when I applied power again when taxiing but I edited a portion of the rollout so you could not see it retract.
In case it is not totally obvious, this is a home made TQ by the way so you can't hear the nice clunking sounds that a real TQ or a commercial replica makes when you move the levers

Maurice

[sagrada737]

Hello Maurice,

Thanks for the explanation on the Speed Brakes.  You make flying your Sim look easy - the mark of experience. 

Even in our simulators, we can "get behind the airplane".  Just throw in a few system failures under the wrong conditions, and it doesn't take long to lose the ship - just like in the real world.   The good news is...  we don't do ourselves in - we simply hit the Reset button and start again :-)   Anyway, thanks for the video.

I would like to learn more about how you built your TQ.  From scratch?

Mike

[Maurice]

I would like to learn more about how you built your TQ.  From scratch?

Mike

Well, that's a long story that started several years ago (2006 or 7 I think) when I just wanted something a bit better than a CH throttle. I started with 2 sticks of wood and somewhere along the way, I thought I should try to make it look like a 737 TQ ( in hindsight, big mistake - Jack was much smarter with his choice)

Then, somewhere along the way again, I thought about motorizing it after seeing how a gentleman in Florida (Rob Howard) motorized a 747 TQ. And then, I had to design my own logic circuits to interface with Phidgets hardware.

It eventually got finished somehow after about a year but it wasn't built to industrial standards and it really is showing its age now. I ended up removing the motorized trim wheels because my TQ is wider than the real one and the wheels get in the way when programming the CDU (they had no function anyway). I had no real TQ dimensions at that time so I just estimated the dimensions by looking at pictures in airliners.net, so I did not get it quite right.

Anyway, here are a few pics including the handles I started with

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Mau's TQ is an amazing home built unit,
Yep I do not not like the 73 Tq but replicating it (motorized) out of nothing is something!

[sagrada737]

Bonjour Maurice,

Je viens de visualiser vos photos de votre 737TQ. Félicitations pour cet excellent résultat. Quel magnifique projet et les résultats merveilleux! C'est vraiment incroyable ce qui peut être accompli avec une forte volonté et le désir de surmonter les obstacles.

Excuse my French (actually Google translator).  Impressive project!  I would have guessed that you needed to design and construct some of your own logic into that project.  The 737TQ sim-mod is more than a few switches and pots - let alone building one from scratch!  Nice piece of work!

I would like to learn more about the electro-mechanical details of this project. 

Mike

[Maurice]

Hi Mike,

I have trouble believing this was a Google translation but if it really is, that is quite impressive

As far as the electro-mechanical aspects of my TQ, all I had were photos neatly organized on Webshots but the company was replaced by Smile and all my pics are jumbled & made private so I have trouble finding any myself.

Anyway, all I had were pictures of the innards and no construction drawings of any kind since I was winging it as I went along. I do have some schematics but they would not be of any use to anyone now anyway unless they also used Phidgets software & hardware.

At any rate, there are much better ways these days with motors instead of the servos I used in my TQ. I would be doing things very differently if I were to start again (perish the thought 

Cheers,
Maurice

[MLeavy737]

You are confusing me a bit Mike or probably I don't know the real meaning of 'approach'? When you say " I do use VNAV a lot on approaches", are you talking about when you are still above 10,000 ft or so? When does an approach start... on your first descent?

Thanks,
Maurice

Yeah I guess its easy to mix up some of these descent, arrival, approach terms!  Heres the way i see it and use day to day.

first off your up at cruise in VNAV. You have the arrival loaded in the box and center clears you for the the XYZ arrival. Usually they clear you to descend via that arrival so you go ahead and set the lowest altitude at the end of the arrival where the procedure terminates. Usually around 5 to 10k feet. If still in VNAV the airplane starts to descend at the calculated top of descent and follows the path on way down meeting all altitude and speed restrictions in FMC.  if you want to leave cruise early and start descending to the catch the path on the arrival at a later time you hit the Descend Now prompt on the Descent page. That will start a 1000fpm descent until the idle descent path is reached and will then follow that.

Ok so now were at say 10k feet just passing the last waypoint on the arrival. There is always either a heading to the fly or approach control gives you a heading for vectors for some kind of Approach. That is when ill usually come out of VNAV and just use LVL CH or VS. Its more heads up and easier to manage the assigned speeds and configuration because as soon as you start adding flaps at some point if your in VNAV the airplane will slow to the min maneuver speed for that flap setting. Your always flying 250 below 10k or some type assigned speed. You do NOT just start slowing down whenever you want because there is usually someone right behind you on the same arrival and vectors.

So now you getting vectors for an "Approach". In this case we can call it a visual for our VNAV chat. An ILS will just be done in APP mode. Well I shouldn't say always because sometimes the controllers have you capture far out and if you just use LOC mode at that point the airplane tends to wander and make continuous turns due to the weak signal which is annoying. In that case ill use LNAV to capture and sometimes VNAV to capture the path until closer to the FAF. Then go ahead and hit APP mode on MCP the capture Glideslope. Works perfect and no wandering

So back on track. Your getting vectors for a visual approach. say your on a 45 for the final at 3000ft, 10 miles out not configured yet at 210 kts.  Approach control clears you for the visual.  Lets also say the FAF alt in the FMC is to cross it at 3000ft.  At that point you extend the centerline from that FAF, hit LNAV for the capture, hit VNAV then set the MCP to ZERO.  Sounds wild right? lol  That will maintain your current heading until intercepting final, maintain your current altitude until passing the FAF, capture the descent path to the runway, and all you need to do to slow down is add flaps. Like I said before when in VNAV flap extension will override any speed in MCP and slow airplane down to the min Maneuver for that flap setting.   

So theres a little info on VNAV use for arrivals and approaches.  To answer your quote,when I say approach phase I mean some type of approach to the runway such as a visual, ILS, RNAV etc.  Arrival phase is what brings you down from cruise on some type of procedure usually.

Hope this makes sense, Just got in from a late trip.. Headed to bed let me know if you have any questions or you can just have me over to show ya! lol

Mike L

[Maurice]

Hope this makes sense, Just got in from a late trip.. Headed to bed let me know if you have any questions or you can just have me over to show ya! lol

Mike L

Thanks for the very thorough explanation Mike and yes, it does make very good sense. The only problem I see in a sim is that VNAV does not work quite as well as in a real plane so relying on it below about 10,000 ft is very problematic at best. V/S is much more accurate & dependable and usually gets me to where I want to be at the correct altitude but the speed control is not as dependable so I tend to slow down much earlier than I should to avoid overspeeding which is always a big problem with FSX.

Anyway, I'm glad I understand the real procedures much better now, but if you happen to be in this area sometime, it would be great to have you over...with free bed & breakfast of course

Thanks again,

Maurice

[Jetcos]

Mike will have a few stops if he gets our way.

Always welcome to stop by FDS Mike! I might even be the guy to drive you to Maurice's.

[MLeavy737]

Mike will have a few stops if he gets our way.

Always welcome to stop by FDS Mike! I might even be the guy to drive you to Maurice's.

Steve I would love to visit!! I feel like I have all this extended family ive never had a chance too meet lol.   Would also love to see the mother ship up there you guys call FDS oh and some sim time would be fun too!

thanks for the invite guys!

Ohh Maurice don't feel bad, VNAV in the real thing doesn't always work the best either so maybe your avionics are spot on lol

Mike L