Flight paths and guide boxes

[Pogball]

Hi i'm a very novice pilot and learning am wondering if someone can help.

I am playing the career mode missions and it has the blue guide boxes. When i'm coming to the airfield, they always seem to take me round the airfield with several turns and always seem to bring me into the final approach too high. I struggle badly to reduce speed to land.

Ive seen some diagrams where planes just come in at half way down the runway at 45 degress to downwind at 1000ft, turn in to final and land. Or is it all situational?

Should i just turn off the guide boxes!? Any advice please. thanks

[cTz]

You don't need to pay attention to these except for completing mission objectives. I usually only use the final approach waypoint and then land with no penalties.

[tmaddox]

You don't have to fly through all of the boxes as far as I can tell.

I sometimes do and sometimes don't. When i don't I just make sure I fly through the last few gates boxes before the runway, making sure I trigger "Fly to Final" goal.

[Jaeger Pilot]

Just follow the magenta line on your navigation screen. I sometimes follow the guide boxes when landing.

To reduce speed before landing, reduce altitude to 2000 or 1500 before base. Once you are at that altitude, reduce speed to around 75 and add first stage of flaps. Then reduce speed to 65 and reduce altitude before final and add max flaps. On final the idea is to stay at 65 until you land, which will give you the perfect glide slope more or less, but you have to stabilize with flaps early. It's better to have to add throttle to avoid landing short of the runway than it is to come in hot and have to dive.

[MadCat360]

Hey there, I'm a professional pilot and here's my cheat sheet on landing a 172 from the traffic pattern. You can safely ignore the blue boxes. The key to slowing to proper approach speed is to slow before you descend.

Start on downwind about 1,000 above ground level. 1-1.5 miles from the runway.
When the runway end is off your wing, pull the RPM back to 1500. Hold level altitude until your speed is 80 knots. Trim, and allow the airplane to descend at 80 knots. Ensure 1500 RPM is still set (changing speed can change the prop RPM). Select flaps 10 when your speed allows (below 110 knots).

At 800 feet AGL, turn to your 90-degree base turn. Select flaps 20 and the airplane should naturally slow to 70 knots. Continue with 1500 RPM. Trim for 70 knots.

Align with the final approach path to the runway. You should be in your turn as the Garmin calls "500 (feet)". Slow to 65 knots and trim. Land with flaps 20 for a more controllable and smooth touchdown. Land with flaps 30 for a shorter ground roll-out.

This general concept and profile works with most airplanes with a propeller. I use this technique with the Pilatus and King Airs I fly every day, just the numbers are different - 1500 AGL and 130K(F15)-100K(F30)-85K at TRQ 8.0 for the Pilatus, and 1500 AGL 160K(Fappr)-120K(Fdown)-101K at TRQ 600 for the King Air C90.

[Twelvefield]

The blue boxes are just the AI trying to kill you. As we come farther along to rely on AI and as it comes to discover that humans are truly expendable, I'd say get used to this.

But the path the boxes take seems to just follow some efficiency algorithm that doesn't take into account weather, aircraft mass, or human comfort. It's probably the shortest distance that still obeys the flight envelope. The blue boxes don't seem to me to be particularly safe, nor do they seem to follow proper VFR approach procedure.

[purple_banana]

The blue boxes trace-out a standard overhead join, which is a really safe way to enter the circuit pattern at uncontrolled airfields IRL, minimising the risk of conflicting with other traffic in the circuit.

Generally speaking the idea is to cross overhead the airfield 1000ft above circuit height (typically 2000' AGL), descent to circuit height (typically 1000' AGL) on the 'dead side' (the side opposite the circuit side, pass over the airfield again to start your crosswind leg at circuit altitude and then turn onto downwind and continue the rest of the pattern.

Obviously the blue boxes already dictate the direction, but IRL the first pass over the airfield above circuit altitude gives you chance to check the windsock and determine which is the active runway before you commit, and the descent on dead-side gives you chance to be looking and listening for other traffic in the circuit.

[Pogball]

OK thanks all for your help. I'll try to put some of into action!

[Sabertom99]

For beginners, it is really not helpful that the blue flight markers send you in a kamikaze flight towards the runway. You definitely have to fly below them if you don't want to hit the runway at 80 knots or more. Or pull out further on the approach so that you have more time to lose altitude and slow down.

[TargetLost]

The final is much too height and too short in my opinion.
You will be safer to fly twice the downwind length and come in lower for the final if the landscape allows it.

[Carpless]

turn them off, they are connected to the taxi ribbon, so just before getting permission to take off press esc/assistance and turn of taxi ribbon. they are not there in real life...lol perhaps they can be separated in due course like 2020 so much is broken still

[Pogball]

Yeah i have watched a few Cessna landing youtube videos now @FreePilotTraining seems good. He deliberate makes his father in law try to come in too fast or too high which seems exactly what the blue markers are making me do. I've turn them off like suggested. I'm free of the blue box curse!

[Manwith Noname]

You can assign a keybind to enable and disable them.

[Mogomojo]

You can also change the approach in the EFB and send it to ATC and your avionics before you accept the flight.

[Eva]

"The key to slowing to proper approach speed is to slow before you descend."

Words of gold. And when I get in trouble it is typically because I ignored this. Alternatively it is because the idiot game has me land with a significant wind at my back, which is ultimately my fault for not checking.

[Jaeger Pilot]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Eva:

"The key to slowing to proper approach speed is to slow before you descend."

Words of gold. And when I get in trouble it is typically because I ignored this. Alternatively it is because the idiot game has me land with a significant wind at my back, which is ultimately my fault for not checking.

How do you usually check wind direction? Can you bring it up on your Garmin 1000?