General Concorde Questions

[John Price]

Hi chaps,

I'm very excited about the prospect of a new, really intricate Concorde sim but as I never purchased the original, and won't do so now that I don't use anything below P3D v4 and there is now a new FSL Concorde on the horizon, is it ok to ask a few questions about the existing Concorde version so I can gauge what kind of benchmark we can expect from the new one? I understand the need to limit support questions to those who have bought the aircraft, but these questions are purely out of interest, and put in the general forum because I'm not yet a Concorde user, so can't use (i.e. post or reply in) the Concorde forum. If this really is bucking the system, though, I understand, and the chaps in charge can do what they will with the post.

I just wanted to know from current Concorde users how you know that the VFE has done all of his tasks for a particular phase of the flight - do you just have to check each item with Mk I eyeball, or is there some kind of accompanying FSLabs checklist with the aircraft that has items turn green when they're completed? I only ask because technically, if you have to check the VFE's work visually, that doesn't really reduce the workload all that much. In real life, you'd have a real fella reading the checklist himself and ensuring the FE's items on the checklist were completed satisfactorily; the pilots wouldn't have to walk over to his panel and check themselves that the item had been completed. Not a criticism if it does work that way in the sim, by the way: I'm just gauging how difficult it's going to be to actually fly this beast when it arrives!

My other question is does the VFE select climb power for noise abatement after takeoff, or is that done yourself? If he does, do you have a way (some kind of visual cue) of making sure your thrust levers on your PC sim match the thrust lever position the VFE has selected?

Finally, does the current Concorde sim model as a selectable option the slight differences (batteries are the first thing that come to mind, but I know there are a few others) that were found in G-BOAG compared to the other BA Concordes? If not, would it be too fiddly to incorporate these as selectable options in the new Concorde version, do you think?
 

Thanks folks

[Mike Ionas]

8 hours ago, John Price said:

I just wanted to know from current Concorde users how you know that the VFE has done all of his tasks for a particular phase of the flight - do you just have to check each item with Mk I eyeball, or is there some kind of accompanying FSLabs checklist with the aircraft that has items turn green when they're completed? I only ask because technically, if you have to check the VFE's work visually, that doesn't really reduce the workload all that much. In real life, you'd have a real fella reading the checklist himself and ensuring the FE's items on the checklist were completed satisfactorily; the pilots wouldn't have to walk over to his panel and check themselves that the item had been completed. Not a criticism if it does work that way in the sim, by the way: I'm just gauging how difficult it's going to be to actually fly this beast when it arrives!

The VFE can control engines, fuel and pressurization. You can have him take over all of them or some of them depending on your preferences. You do not have to watch over him, just know your flows and everything will work smoothly. I would suggest having a look at YouTube to get an idea of how things work.

8 hours ago, John Price said:

My other question is does the VFE select climb power for noise abatement after takeoff, or is that done yourself? If he does, do you have a way (some kind of visual cue) of making sure your thrust levers on your PC sim match the thrust lever position the VFE has selected?

The VFE will do that provided you have set up everything correctly. There is no visual que for your hardware throttles but that has never been an issue during the many years I flew the Concorde.