Take off, climb and cruise
This guide will explain the correct procedures to accomplish take off, climb and establish cruise altitude.
MSFS start from gate or runways
Microsoft Flight Simulator allows you to start your flight from cold & dark at a gate or directly from the runway with the aircraft ready for takeoff.
For this guide we assume you started cold & dark at the gate and taxied to the runway holding point.
If you did start on the runway you can skip the first part (Line-up) and directly continue reading Takeoff.
Pre-requisites
- Aircraft is in taxi state (checklist TAXI completed)
- ATC has instructed to hold at runway holding point
- Aircraft is at runway holding point, parking breaks are set
Possible Checklist Download or screenshot of before start items
Chapters / Phases
This guide will cover these phases:
Note
The level of detail in this guide is meant to get a beginner safely up
in the air under normal conditions while simplifying details which are
not (yet) important for a beginner. Further reading:
A320 Autoflight
Base knowledge about the Airbus A320 for flight
This is in comparison to other airliners a user might be used to and not a comprehensive list.
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Autotrim
The A320 has a feature called "autotrim" which makes it unnecessary to hold the stick or even use the trim wheel for holding current pitch. This system is always active, even when the autopilot is off (in Normal Law). -
Autothrust
The A320 has Autothrust which is similar to Autothrottle (e.g. in a Boeing), but it does not move the thrust levers. Basically the thrust levers are only moved by the pilot and stay there until moved. The thrust levers act as a maximum allowed power setting for the autothrust system. During normal flight (after take off) the levers stays in the CL climb) dedent, and the Autothrust system will set engine power accordingly. (TODO: image) -
Autopilot
The A320's autopilot system works a bit differently from other manufacturer's systems. The A320 FCU controls (TODO: image) allow to set a certain values and then push or pull the knob. Pushing usually means automatic control (managed mode) and pulling will use the manually selected value (selected mode). In Microsoft Flight Simulator pushing is clicking the knob "UP" and pulling is clicking the knob "DOWN" (TODO: image). -
Flight phases
The A320 uses flight phases to manage different parts of a flight. These are preflight, take off, climb, cruise, descent, approach, go around, done. They match the PERF pages in the MCDU (see Preparing the MCDU ). -
Protections
The A320 includes many protections for the pilot which make it nearly impossible to stall or overspeed the aircraft. It's beyond this beginner-guide to go into details (Normal law, Alternate Law, ...)