As you all folks now, I am now doing test flights –more like circuits around an airport- of my new PMDG BAe J41 to get a better idea of the workload of this nearly full simulation and be able to find the instruments quickly.
Today I took it for a circuit around SKCL (Cali, Colombia) with cloudy weather and some dark clouds. In this screenshot the a/c is on blocks with all items from the ramp manager enabled.
I took off and flew several circuits before landing because yes I got disoriented hile moving around the virtual cockpit. In one of the attempts I was forced to do a go around because it just didn’t want to touch down, time to set full throttles and use the Go Around button on the left throttle lever, retract gears, up flaps later and then turn left after gaining sufficient altitude in a positive climb.
Here I had to familiarize myself with the Radio Management Unit (RMU), the EHSI, EADI, Flight Mode Selectors and Display Control Unit while “flying” it. In particular for our navigation we had NAV1 tuned to the CLO VOR/DME (115.50) and the IPAS Localizer (109.90) with the course selector on 13 degrees for our ILS approach to runway 13. I also tuned to the CLO ADF on 210.0, the more aids the better. Because it is not so easy to see on the VC I had to keep on zooming in/out until finally I found the VLOC button! only then I could finally do my final circuit. Now I could follow the glideslope. I noticed that this PMDG was kind of slow and showing the VOR radial approximation, first it was way off and then suddenly it was right in!.
I was watching my speed because I wanted to be able to stop the bird. It also had the tendency to keep on climbing. One thing I found weird though, I could not get the autopilot to maintain altitude or heading, either this autopilot is way different that what I have used so far or I am doing something wrong!. This screenshot is that of the happy final approach prior to landing following ILS glidslope. Don’t forget to arm the ground spoilers prior to landing!
Last but not least the happy landing of my BAe Jetstream 4100 with MANX livery on the Cali airport. Landed right on the centerline; good following of the glideslope too. Upon landing I set throttles to reverse while applying brakes. I used about half of the runway before coming to a stop, pulling the condition levers to TAXI condition and throttling to vacate the runway. At the ramp it was time to familiarize myself with the proper way to shutdown the engines and unfeathering the propellers.
Unhappy Things
Earlier today I was in the virtual cockpit getting familiar with all procedures. I was following all the checklists, if all went well I was going to do my inaugural flight SKBS – MPTO. Did the Preflight checklist, External checks, Cockpit checklist, Weight & Balance worksheet, programmed the FMC (this bird cannot use FSX generated flight plans, you have to enter them manually). Just before the engine start checklist I was trying to set my navigation radios on the RMU, sometimes it just wouldn’t tune! And then in one of those several attempts to tune this PMDG crashed my FSX, 25 minutes of checklists gone down the toilet! I Also noticed the landing field elevation setting (Pressurization Panel) works only in multiples of 10 feet.
I like this a/c, it is good for VFR but it is also equipped and rated for IFR. Unfortunately the weather panel is non functional. This doesn’t have the Garmin GPS we have grown used to in default a/c so you really have to pay a lot of attention to your instruments and sharpen up your navigation skills, I like that! A downside of this PMDG simulation is that it is not fully compatible with the GoFlight MCP Pro or EFIS modules.
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