User Guide

Flight Simulator
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Microsoft
where you can flare again. That’s why it’s EXTREMELY important to control your airspeed during the
approach. If the airspeed is too low, raising the nose might not arrest the descent rate in the flare and
the airplane may land very hard. You’ll know it’s hard when you leave more rubber on the runway
than on the tire.
Now that you understand the flare, let’s put it to practical use with a full flap landing. When do we use
flaps? When the airplane is high and we need to increase our rate and angle of descent.
Flap over Flaps
Flaps doesn’t refer to that thing a bird does to its wings to remain airborne. As you’ve learned in the
homework assignment (you’ve done it, right?), flaps allow the airplane to descend steeply, without an
increase in airspeed. You can apply flaps with the
flap handle (Figure 9) or by pressing F7 on your
keyboard (you can retract them by pressing F6).
Since flaps alter the lift and drag characteristics of
the wing, be ready to adjust the pitch to maintain
the desired airspeed. Applying full flaps creates a
lot of drag. They also cause the airplane to pitch up,
requiring forward pressure on the joystick to
maintain your airspeed. Let’s jump right in there and see how this works.
1. From the Flights menu, click Select Flight, and choose Tutorial 7, Situation 3.
Yes, the wing leveler is still active but you can still make small turns for runway alignment.
Remember, the wing leveler is like having me on board to keep you from making excessive bank
corrections while on approach.
This flight sequence places you higher on the final approach course. You’ll have to apply full
flaps to get down. Since the full flap stalling speed for this airplane is 40 knots (that’s where the
white arc begins on the airspeed indicator), you’ll want to approach at a slightly slower speed.
For this simulation, let’s use 60
knots. Here you go.
2. Press P to activate the
simulation.
3. Begin flying the approach
without flaps at 65 knots.
Notice how the beginning of
the runway is disappearing
below the top of the airplane’s
panel (Figure 10).
Figure 9
Figure 10