Originally Posted by
Dr Jekyll
My real flying experience ha been purely light aircraft and the occasional glider but I was lucky enough to have a go in an A320 simulator last week. Not full motion, but a proper simulator not a PC based version.
Very interesting and great fun, but on reflection I don't really understand what was going on.
For example, auto throttles meant I had to remember not to adjust the power when putting the nose up or down. But just before touchdown I was told to pull the throttles back to idle and power came down as I would expect. How does the position of the throttle lever influence what the engines actually do? Does it just set the maximum power the auto throttle can set?
Also, I was told not to use the rudders at all in flight. Would this still apply if landing with a crosswind?
Which simulator did you fly? The one in Salford run by twin brothers, both ex-pilots, is superb - full motion and
AFAIK the nearest thing you'll get to flying an A320 for real. I was told to use the rudder only on take-off and roll-out, but I wasn't doing landings with a crosswind (more than enough other things to get to grips with - my only real-life flying was in a PA28 about 40 years ago!). Yaw damper takes care of things when you make turns in the air.