"Getting started with PSX" tutorial - part 2 now available

[nicolas]

Thanks Brian!
Nic

[Keith Maton]

Hey Brian,

I just completed my first entirely self planned flight (using PFPX and TOPCAT) using your guide and I was a little concerned to start with as initially I was showing a predicted 0 fuel remaining but once I reached cruise, it all settled down and I landed with around 10,000kg left in the tanks which was what I was roughly expecting.

It was only a short familiarisation flight from EGLL to EDDV which took around an hour once I finally got airborne but it all went well.  It's still taking me far too long to go through preflight but I'm still finding my way around the systems again.

Looking forward to Part 3 :-)

[brian747]

Hi, Keith!

> "Looking forward to Part 3 :-)"

Oh dear. Well (as the saying goes) don't hold your breath....    

Clearly you are not using the current version of the tutorial (v1.02), in which the Introduction states —

"The series was originally envisaged as a trilogy, with part 3 being the description of a full flight. However, it has pointed out to me by people whom I respect that the world has moved on since the days of PS1, and that the ready availability (via Google and elsewhere) of FCOM and FCTM documents renders an old-fashioned gentle walkthrough (fly-through?) of that kind both unnecessary and also redundant. Hence this will be the final part of the series".

Just to amplify that a little: considerable discussions were held behind the scenes about the significant changes in the simming environment since the days of the PS1 tutorial, as a result of which I became convinced that owing to factors such as the greatly increased level of general simming knowledge, and the availability of FCOMs and other material, the time for a PSX equivalent of the old PS1 beginner's tutorial has passed. Furthermore, these days people generally prefer watching videos to reading manuals, and hence Britjet's brilliant series of PSX vids is much more appropriate in terms of format (and also expertise!) to the PSX flyer of 2015.

So I'm afraid there will never be a part 3 as I had originally envisaged: my apologies for misleading you, and others; however the decision is irrevocable.

Cheers,

Brian

[martin]

Moi,

here is Brian's official announcement [size=8](and plea still not to abandon his guidance given in Parts 1 and 2)[/size].

The scene* also features various PSX simmers [size=8](you know who you are)[/size] and proceeds to show the fall-out from someone's attempt to fly a 744/PSX without having studied Part 1 and Part 2.
(And while MS operatives can be seen running headlessly around, trying to find pertinent Registry entries, it all segues, as it must, into the restoration of PSX User Happiness, and thus PUH rules again).

Cheers,
Martin

* originally intended as the CRASH! sequence for PSX, but Hardy's minimalist approach prevailed.

[Simicro]

...factors such as the greatly increased level of general simming knowledge, and the availability of FCOMs and other material, the time for a PSX equivalent of the old PS1 beginner's tutorial has passed. Furthermore, these days people generally prefer watching videos to reading manuals, and hence Britjet's brilliant series of PSX vids is much more appropriate in terms of format (and also expertise!) to the PSX flyer of 2015.

So I'm afraid there will never be a part 3 as I had originally envisaged: my apologies for misleading you, and others; however the decision is irrevocable.

Hi Brian,

Again thank you for the two tutorials. I do not want to discuss your irrevocable decision, however I would like to discuss the need of a "complete" tutorial of a flight, say EGLL - KJFK. No doubt that the general simming knowledge has increased and that videos are very popular but for example, for the PMDG 777, a written tutorial / commented flight is still appreciated. I've not been on PMDG forum recently but a couple of months ago, there were regular requests for an advanced tutorial, step by step operations for a flight from point A to point B.

[brian747]

Hi Tony!

I don't want to extend this topic beyond its natural life, so please understand that this will be the last comment I will be making on the matter.

Regarding the 'need of a "complete" tutorial' a discussion took place before the decision was made (as I said above) — mostly between friends dating from the PS1 era but also with helpful comments from Britjet and others.

The outcome of that discussion you already know: and although I must acknowledge that there was a small minority view that a PS1-style "complete tutorial" might still be helpful for a few people, the majority view was that these days those who buy PSX are no longer in need of that amount of hand-holding. Not that I'm saying that the PMDG market is less educated than PSX's (I couldn't possibly comment!), but certainly from the PSX point of view there is a huge amount of material both on the Internet and in this forum which didn't exist fifteen years ago, Britjet's videos being perhaps the most notable examples: please bear in mind also that even with Hardy's invaluable assistance it still took me eighteen months to write the PS1 tutorial (only my fellow tutorial writers will know just how long the patient process of checking and re-checking and associated clarification takes with a technical document of that length).

You have already seen Adrien's valuable contribution [ http://aerowinx.com/forum/topic.php?post=27941#post27941 ] which, when read in conjunction with Hardy's beautifully-illustrated manual, will surely take the beginner quite a long way.

Admittedly, there is a possibility that I may perhaps release another introductory-level document, but it will not take the form of a complete flight, I'm afraid: if it does appear it will simply be targeted at synthesising Hardy's professional-level creation with some of the practical needs of simmers.

Cheers,

Brian

[Simicro]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your answer.

Sure I understand your points.

I think I already said all I wanted to say so I will leave the discussion here.

Cheers

[Simicro]

Hi Brian,

Will you please send me an email: condorsim at gmail dot com

I would like to communicate privately with you but private messages is not possible on the forum.

[Deki]

I'm guessing the higher resolution FF in the data recorder output contained in Update 10.0.5 can now be of help to further tune the pfpx cruise bias. Must test.

EDIT: Thanks for the added feature Hardy!

[petdocvmd]

Another awesome tutorial - thanks!

Related question for all:  I am having difficulty sorting through the Aircraft "Equipment/Configurations" page in PFPX.  I've searched and pored over a fair amount of stuff, but can't seem to put this together for my 744.

I'm mainly concerned with the info that will be necessary for online flying with VATSIM i.e. "Transponder capability," "ADS-B," and "FAA equip code."  The templated 744 I used had "X" for the latter, so I'm suspicious of all of the pre-filled items.

Thanks for any help/info!

Scott

[neilnicholson]

Really enjoyed the tutorials, thanks for tanking the time to create them.