Here is the progress so far on the tutorial. �It will be in PDF format with some better formatting. �Navigraph has given me permission to use their EGLL and LEPA charts for it.

Most of the information is right out of the Normal Procedures Volume of the Manual. �The other major source is Captain Mike Ray's 757/767 book (which I highly recommend). �







In this tutorial, you will be piloting the 757-200 from London to Palma. �The first thing we need to do is to set up the simulation. �Load the cold-and-dark 757-200 flight and change it to the airline of your choice. �Move it to EGLL, Parking 3. �Pick �Dawn� �Summer� as your time and season from the World Menu on the Menu Bar. �Now exercise your powers of weather control by going to World�Weather and clicking the User-Defined Weather radio button followed by �Customize.� �Select the radio button �All Weather Stations.� �Adjust the visibility slider to 10 sm. �Make the wind come from approximately 270 degrees at light or moderate. �(What this does is force FSX to use the runways we want to use in this tutorial.)





Next make sure you have your charts at hand. �We will be taking �off from 27 R.�Our Standard Instrument Departure (SID) will be Midhurst 4F. �On the other end, we will be using the Standard Terminal Arrival Lore1P with the POS transition. �We are planning to land on runway 24 R there, too. �By kind permission of Navigraph, the charts are reproduced here for your training and available at the end of this tutorial.

Now that the sim is set up and we have gathered our charts, it is time to perform our walk-around and get the airplane ready to fly. �

Doing the dispatch work for a flight is surprisingly easy. �All it takes is some simple addition. �Load your passengers and cargo in ACE, noting the total payload weight plus 850 (ACE doesn�t take the crew into account). �Write that down. �(Don�t forget to hit SAVE,) �Beneath that, write 130,875 lbs, which is always the empty weight of your 757-200 as read by FSX. (The weight is considerably lighter than the real thing.) �Add those together to get your Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW). �





Beneath your ZFW write 5000 for minimum fuel at landing. �Beneath that, write another 5000 for your alternate airport, provided it is no more than about 200 miles away. �Then put a third 5000 down for contingencies. �Add those to your ZFW to find your Planned Landing Weight. �Now you need to know how much fuel the trip will take. �Captain Sim recommends using the fuel estimate from the Nav Log of your route. �To get it, load your 757 in FSX, load the route and open the Nav Log to find the fuel estimate. � From London EGLL to Palma LEPA, FSX guesses 13402. � Finally, add this number to your Planned Landing Weight to get your Gross Takeoff Weight. �

Payload             � � � 24700
Empty Weight       � � 130875
Zero Fuel Weight       � � 155575
Min Fuel             � � � � 5000      
Alternate Fuel � � � � � � � � � � 5000
Contingency Fuel � � � � � � � �5000
Planned Landing Wt � � � � 170575      
Trip Fuel � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13402 � � London EGLL to Palma LEPA
Gross Takeoff Wt � � � � � � 183977

Total Fuel = �28402       � �load through FSX
(That's 98% in L and R tanks, Center Empty)

You will need your ZFW to plug into your INIT REF page in your FMC. �For reserves on that same page, in theory it should be 15,000 lbs assuming an uneventful trip. �However, FSX fuel estimate is usually light, so you�ll probably be closer to minimum fuel when the flight is done. �It is probably a good idea to check your final weights against the maximums below:

Weight Restrictions

Maximum Taxi Weight � � � � 221,000 lbs
Maximum Takeoff Weight � �220,000 lbs
Maximum Landing Weight � �198,000 lbs
Maximum ZFW � � � � � � � � � �184,000 lbs

COCKPIT PREPARATION

Again, it is surprisingly easy to get this airplane up and running. �Think of the overhead as a �panel of panels.� �The secret is to develop a �flow,� where you are working through items in an efficient and logical manner. �The flow is up to you, but in general I work from left to right on the overhead, and up and down as I progress through the panels. �There will be exceptions, e.g. I like to turn the position light on right after the battery to indicate there is life in the aircraft. �Let�s wake this bird up! �NOTE: Bold items are the bare minimum for proper sim functioning; italicized items are there for realism.



Battery Switch                        ON verify discharge light out
Standby Power Selector � � � �      AUTO
Position Lights       � � � � �      ON � � � � �
IRS Selectors            NAV verify ALIGN lights on
Yaw Damper Switches      ON
Generator Control Switches      OFF
Electric Hyd. Pump Switches      OFF
Engine Hyd. Pump Switches      ON
Bus Tie Switches            AUTO
L & R Utility Bus Switches      ON
L & R Engine Generator Switches      ON do not touch L & R GEN DRIVE �DISC!

You now have battery power established and have configured your electrical and hydraulic panels. �Your battery will not last forever, though, and in any case doesn�t make bleed air for your air conditioning packs and engine starts. �So next we need to get a generator on line. �You may use the ground power unit to provide electricity and bleed air: (E & B on Icon Panel + EXT PWR ON on overhead). �In this case, however, we will use the auxiliary power unit (APU) which is a small turbine engine in the tail of your aircraft.



APU Bleed                  OFF
APU Selector Switch            START
APU Generator Switch      ON            
Emergency Lights Switch      ARMED            
Pax Oxygen On Light            OUT
Window Heat Switches      ON            
Ram Turbine UNLKD light      OUT
Engine Selector            1 or 2            
Engine Start Selectors            AUTO
Fuel Crossfeed Switches      OFF            
Fuel Pump Switches            OFF            
                 fwd pump light off if APU running
Fuel Quantity and Balance      CHECK

We will continue working our way through the overhead items in the next installment.

I want to get it finished and formatted before a release. �But thanks for the encouragement, Ray. �It is mainly the screenshots that take time.

Palma de Mallorca in the mediterranian sea off the coast of Spain

Wing Anti Ice Switch            OFF
Engine Anti Ice Switch            OFF
Wiper Selector            OFF
No Smoking Switch            ON
Seatbelts Switch            ON
Cabin Alt. Auto Rate Control      INDEX
Cabin Alt. Mode Select      SET AUTO1 odd days, AUTO2 even
Landing Alt. Selector            SET destination airport elevation
Engine Bleed Air Switches      ON verify OFF lights on
APU Bleed Air Switch            ON verify VALVE light out, wait 1 min after APU start
Isolation Switch            ON verify VALVE light out
Pack Control Selectors      AUTO verify PACK OFF lights on
Trim Air Switch            ON
Recirculation Fan Switches      ON verify INOP lights out
Temperature Controls            AUTO
Alt. Equipment Cooling Switch      AUTO nothing showing

This concludes our work on the overhead. �Now let�s move down to the panel.



VOR/DME Switch            AUTO
Flight Director Switch            ON
EICAS Display            CHECK verify indicators & adequate oil for flight
Computer Selector            AUTO
Thrust Reference Set Selector      BOTH and IN

NEXT: Programming the FMC

FMC: ROUTE



There are three ways to enter a route. �The simplest is to use the "Request SEND" L3 button to select an FSX flight plan. �You may also type in the name of a previously-saved company route. �Finally, the method we will use is to directly program the FMC. �

Start by typing "EGLL" into the scratch pad. �Use the L1 key to transfer it into the ORIGIN blocks. �Use the same method with R1 to place "LEPA" into the DEST blocks. �You may add any suitable flight number depending on your livery, e.g. "BA812." �That's all for this page. �Use the NEXT PAGE button to go to Page 2.

If you have looked at an FSX flight plan, you will have seen each waypoint listed separately. �You can certainly program the FMC that way if you want, but we are going to use a better way. �Our route for this flight will be:



MID, SITET, BCN and LORES are fixes. �The three-lettered ones are radio navigation aids, and the five-lettered ones are intersections. �UA34 and UN859 are airways.

First type MID and push R1 to put it in the TO column on the right-hand side. �You will be confronted with a new page listing more than one MID. �You must determine which is the right one, in this case the first. �Select that. �



Next, UA34 goes into the left-hand VIA column using L2. �Next ETRAT goes in the DIRECT (right) column, followed by UN859 in the VIA column. �Finally, BCN and LORES go in the TO column. �It's that simple.



When you have finished, push R6 next to the ACTIVATE prompt. �A couple of things will happen. �The PERF INIT prompt will appear in the lower right corner of the display, but, more importantly, the EXEC button will light up. �Push it to complete programming. �It bears repeating: ACTIVATE, then PUSH EXEC. �You must do this after any change to your route.

Now that we have finished programming our route, let's check it out on the map. �Push the LEGS button. �You will see a list of all your waypoints: many more than what you entered. �All waypoints along your airways are entered automatically. �(Altitude will be filled in later.) �Now find your HSI controls on the console to the right of the pilot's seat. �Select PLAN and set the RANGE to 80 nm. �You will see a STEP prompt in the lower right corner of your FMC display. �By pushing R6 you can move from one waypoint to the next, both in the display and on the plan view. �Go ahead and look at your entire route to make sure everything seems correct.



This concludes programming your route into the FMC.

NEXT: PERF INIT

I am surprised Midhurst isn't in your database! �Do you have a MID3G SID?

Anyone else with this problem?

As an alternative, you can have FSX build you a route.  High Altitude Airways, FL 370.  Then request SEND and pick it out of the list.  You can then activate and execute it, go to LEGS and check it out on the plan display, just as described.  The only thing you'll miss is the fun of programming in airways.  You still ought to be able to use the SID and STAR, although you might have to monkey with either end of your flight plan a bit to make the transitions fit.

That looks okay except toward the destination you are going to want to come in from a more north-easterly direction. �Try to edit your plan eastward a bit so you hit BCN on Spain's southern coast and get to intersection LORES. �That will allow you to use the LORE1P STAR and the tutorial should work fine. �As long as the transitions MID and LORES are gotten to, and you have the MID4F SID and LORE1P STAR it will work.

I'll create an FSX flight plan I guess. �I'm still puzzled why the navdata doesn't include MID.

EDIT: ROUTE SHOULD BE OKAY NOW.

Here are the charts for the tutorial, reproduced with the permission of Navigraph. �www.navigraph.com �You're more than welcome to work ahead, and the feedback is appreciated.

Tim, after all that I went back and started completely from the beginning and did not have a problem with mid (had the 3 choices) and started clicking away with the FMC route input.  It rejected QU203 and PUMAL but took everything else.

I believe we are back in business with your original plan.  I checked the legs and the map plan on the EFIS and stepped thru it.  I have to link up the SID and STAR but it looks good now.

I have no clue and what went wrong an hour ago.

I wouldn't tell you to land at a runway that was too short. would I? �

I don't have permission to post any charts except the one's I have posted. It is 3200 meters.  That's 10,500 feet.

how do you activate the ground crew?

Tim Capps wrote on Oct 29^th, 2013 at 3:37am:

And who would have thought that your own tutorial was going to help you "get back into it" way back then! 

I have a link to Skydrive on my Desktop in Windows 8.1, but I haven't even clicked on it yet.

I still prefer Windows 7!