FS2004 Airbus A300-600!

[chris]

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=The+Ultimate+American+Airlin es+Airbus+A300-600R+Package++++++&CatID=fs2004ac&Go=Search

See the previews here as well:
http://fsfranceapp.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7619&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Unbelievable! :eek:

The airbus house colour scheme can reportedly be found on the authors website. :)

[chris]

This plane flies very well. :) If you activate the NAV hold mode when you are not on course, it doesn't try to turn right on to the course right away, it flies from where you are to the next waypoint.

Much better. It doesn't chase the course like some.

If anyone here is thinking of trying this plane, be warned to turn on the yaw damper and trim. Otherwise you'll wonder why on earth it flies towards the ground when alt-hold is on. ;)

The FMS is a nice touch, and I'll report back on how the land mode works.

Update: Other things I've noticed as well. When it is approaching a waypoint where you need to turn, it doesn't wait for the waypoint before it starts to turn like the standard airliners in FS2004. It turns ahead of the waypoint, and generally flies the course smoothly. Very nice.

This is an excellent plane.

[chris]

The land mode for auto-landings works quite well. All it requires from you is to set the localiser, ILS, (both of those done through the FMC) landing elevation and to basically get the plane within range, and a reasonable angle of the runway, and to flare slightly when nearing touch-down.

Don't try to intercept the final approach from unreasonable angles, because I doubt it will do that well - and besides, the A300 does not perform like a fighter plane. She is quite large.

It works well when intercepting it from 30° away from the final approach course. It turns to intercept the final approach path, and holds the glide slope for you. And it intercepts it perfectly.

You also might wish to regulate flaps and speed, if you wish to lower the flaps gradually during the approach.

Nearing touch-down, I flared slightly, but left it on the LAND mode. On touch-down, I disengaged the autothrottle and auto-pilot, and used the reverse thrust and brakes to slow the plane.

And yes, it landed exactly on the centre of the runway. Excellent. :)

If I had firewire on this mainboard I'm using now, I'd make a video of the landing and you'd all be able see the excellence of this plane. This is payware quality freeware. :)

[chris]

http://www.totalnfs.net/cpd/a300_landing.jpg

That is a screenshot of a landing at Flughafen Frankfurt (EDDF) on runway 7R. The HSI display is set to the map mode, rather than the usual "rose" mode with the round compass on it. You can see that it is showing the plane to be exactly on course, and exactly on the glide-slope.

Better than I could manage.

[VQ]

Link doesn't work even after registering.

[chris]

Try hnac.org. Obviously the complete package offered at avsim was not uploaded with permission, because it appears to have been removed.

[chris]

This plane has some strange tricks up its sleeve. If you are on landing approach with the land mode activated, you'll notice that the flaps automatically adjust according to the speed of the plane.

One thing to be careful of is the actual touch-down. The plane does hard landings on its land mode. It's not enough to damage it, but it doesn't look the best on replays.

So you might be advised to switch it off when close to the runway and control the last stages manually.

This also isn't the plane to use for flights from Sydney to Canberra. I didn't even reach cruise altitude before needing to begin descent for landing approach. But this A300 does seem to have adequate power.