First flight today, LGKR-LGAV

[Benjamin Friederichs]

I have been nervous since yesterday, but today I finally did my first flight with ATC. Watched a lot of Videos of real pilots flying online, took my steam gauge KA350 and gave it a try.

Thanks to all the patient controllers all over Greece, as I have been more than one time unable to copy the instructions or frequencies the first time and struggled what to read back, but in the end all went well and I could also comply to the instructions to fly as fast as possible in descent, because there were jets incoming. I burned a lot of rubber on the runway decelerating from 250 kts already on the ILS, but I think the next time I will choose some Airliner with a little mightier FMS to aid my navigation and speed. 

But i feel really comfortable in the King Air managing engines, descent and all that myself. The AFL KA350i is my absolute favorite GA plane in X-Plane!

Now I have to decide on the next Event to fly...

[Tobias Dammers]

Well done you!

If you like the King Air and feel comfortable flying it, I'd just stick with it for a while.

Remember that to ATC, you are no less important than those tubeliners, and it is their job to make it work. You most certainly shouldn't need to maintain 250 knots on final. In fact, that would be pretty fast even for a large jet - typical speeds for intercepting the localizer are 180-210 knots, and most jets will be able to slow down to 140 knots or so at least.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Generally, you fly your approach at the speeds you are most comfortable with.  If ATC needs you to maintain a certain speed to a certain point, they'll tell you.  If it's faster than you feel is comfortable, tell them "unable" followed by a brief description of the best you feel comfortable doing.  If they can make that work, they will.  If they need to send you or the aircraft behind you around to do so, they will.  Fly the plane the way you know how and let them worry about the separation.  It's not a bad idea to practice "maintain best forward until {xxxxx}" in case you need it, though, where {xxxxx} might be anywhere up until about a 4 mile final, usually.

[Benjamin Friederichs]

Thank you for your support, I thought about participating in the Nürnberg fly-in this evening in a B753 from Italy or the UK, but I think I will try it again in my Beech KA, where I can be sure to keep 30+ frames/s, even in clouds or in approach. Perhaps a little shorter route from Dortmund or Hamburg. 

[Andreas Fuchs]

The advantage of turboprop aircraft is that with the help of the props you are able to reduce your speed quickly by reducing your power to idle. With a propeller aircraft you are able to maintain a much higher speed for much longer than a jet aircraft with its sleeker wings would allow you to. In conclusion: with a propeller plane you will be able to keep up a really good speed until 5 or 6 DME, then reduce to idle and consequently configure the aircraft for landing in one go, once you are below the limiting speeds for flaps and gear. It will help ATC to squeeze in as many aircraft as possible and you will have some fun as well.

I highly recommend testing this flight tactic offline: compare the deceleration in level flight vs. the deceleration on a 3 degree descent path (e.g. standard ILS glideslope). Every type of aircraft is slightly different and maybe your Kingair needs 1 or 2 extra miles compared to another prop aircraft. Basic line: know your aircraft, know its limitations, but also know your personal limitations.

I used to fly a Citation 560XLS and you could easily have it going 250 KIAS until 7 or 8 DME. With the Falcon 2000EX EASy that I have been flying since this is not possible without a short level-off and maybe a bit of help of air brakes.

Edited November 28, 2020 at 11:53 AM by Andreas Fuchs

[Benjamin Friederichs]

Now I tried the fly-in to Nürnberg, but in the last phase of the flight X-Plane just KILLED my framerate. It fluctuated between 45 and 17 fps. So I constantly had to look upwards or downwards to avoid being disconnected from Vatsim. It‘s some issue that only happens if the sky is completely overcast, I flew the same route offline this afternoon without any issue. I already tried lowering my settings but to no success. 

I have an i9 iMac with Vega 48 graphics and 64 Gb of Ram, but even in Metal an overcast sky is a framerate killer. Someone X-Plane developer should look after this problem asap.

I think I have to find some place with better weather than Germany for now... 🤔

[Andreas Fuchs]

I had similar issues. After disabling all addon scenery (including Meshes) and Lua scripts I ran X-Plane, good frames. I shut XP down again, deleted all Shaders (X-Plane 11\Output\shadercache) and then re-activated all sceneries and scripts. That solved the issue. Deleting the shader cache only did not help. I am running it on Windows with Vulkan, but it may help in your case as well, try it.

[Benjamin Friederichs]

Thank you, I will try it. I didn‘t even install scenery and never tried Lua, but I installed a HD terrain mesh a long time ago. Perhaps disabling that will make a difference. 

[Jim Rish]

250 kts. on final. Not so much that really, depending on where it is, but.. 250 kts. on final in a King Air?  That's what I call mo-dockin'! 🙆‍♀️🏄‍♀️