Been ages since I posted anything useful, so time for an After Action Report. Today I’ll use MSFS 2020 for a quick flight from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA. It’s a flight I do quite often and is a nice way to test out some things with the beautiful A320/Neo free mod from FlybyWire Sims. More info on that here:
First off, some flight planning, to share how I do it - plus hopefully pick up some tips from you lot on how you do it as well. To find a typical route I look to the real-world FlightAware here:
IFR Route Analyzer - FlightAware
Put in my info
Find routes!
Ok, not a very complicated route as we can practically see the destination from here. :). The most popular one seems to be a frequency of 23 times, at about 15,000 ft. Let’s check out the route in SkyVector to see what it looks like:
SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts
So, no SID out of CYR, YVR down to the STAR of JAWBN version 6. It looks like it takes us over the Juan de Fuca Straight, between Vancouver Island and Whidbey, and then tucks in just before the big Cascade Mountains near to Port Angeles. A diagonal south-east route into Seattle, past the down-town with then vectors to either a North or South approach into KSEA. Should be pretty, especially at only 15,000 ft.
I’ll need some fuel and weight info, so let’s hop into SimBrief and check it out. Off to
https://www.simbrief.com/ (you’ll need a free account for this)
So in the above I entered the Airline info (I’m going to be a fake WestJet flight WJA311), the Departure and Arrival and the aircraft type (A320 - 200). I’m going for a luxurious Cost Index of fuel of 15, and it fills in best guesses on Dep/Arr Runways and taxi in/out times. I don’t really care about super accurate fuel, just want to make sure it lines up when I enter info into the MCDU later.
For the route, it’s already filled in, as like FlightAware, Simbrief shows the most common ones:
Ok, let’s generate the flight plan and get some numbers out of this puppy. Here it is:
Here’s my briefing, in abridged form:
[ OFP ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
WJA0311 12DEC2020 CYVR-KSEA A320 N320SB RELEASE 2135 12DEC20
OFP 1 VANCOUVER INTL-SEATTLE-TACOMA INTL
WX PROG 1221 1300 OBS 1212 1212
ATC C/S WJA311 CYVR/YVR KSEA/SEA CRZ SYS CI 15
12DEC2020 N320SB 2200/2220 2254/2302 GND DIST 147
A320-200 / CFM56-5B4/P STA 2300 AIR DIST 142
CTOT:.... G/C DIST 110
AVG WIND 306/011
MAXIMUM TOW 78000 LAW 66000 ZFW 62500 AVG W/C P009
ESTIMATED TOW 66721 LAW 65224 ZFW 62141 AVG ISA P002
AVG FF KGS/HR 2593
FUEL BIAS P00.0
ALTN KPDX TKOF ALTN .......
FL STEPS CYVR/0170/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DISP RMKS NIL
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PLANNED FUEL
---------------------------------
FUEL ARPT FUEL TIME
---------------------------------
TRIP SEA 1497 0034
CONT 15 MIN 648 0015
ALTN PDX 1349 0031
FINRES 1086 0030
---------------------------------
MINIMUM T/OFF FUEL 4580 0150
---------------------------------
EXTRA 0 0000
---------------------------------
T/OFF FUEL 4580 0150
TAXI YVR 200 0020
---------------------------------
BLOCK FUEL YVR 4780
PIC EXTRA .....
TOTAL FUEL .....
REASON FOR PIC EXTRA ............
--------------------------------------------------------------------
NO TANKERING RECOMMENDED (P)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I HEREWITH CONFIRM THAT I HAVE PERFORMED A THOROUGH SELF BRIEFING
ABOUT THE DESTINATION AND ALTERNATE AIRPORTS OF THIS FLIGHT
INCLUDING THE APPLICABLE INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURES, AIRPORT
FACILITIES, NOTAMS AND ALL OTHER RELEVANT PARTICULAR INFORMATION.
DISPATCHER: LESLIE FRANKS PIC NAME: FROG, FEARLESS
TEL: +1 800 555 0199 PIC SIGNATURE: ...............
Here’s the full PDF for those that have not seen one. Remember to take a note of every NOTAM along the way…
CYVRKSEA_PDF_1607808940.pdf (531.8 KB)
Ok, are we actually ever going to fly today or is this more of a paperwork simulator? Let’s start up MSFS and put some stuff in.
Off into the World Map to pick an aircraft and the simple route. I can do the route straight into the FMC, (or download and import the plan from Simbrief) but let’s do it graphically today:
Better not pick the Pitts Special for this one.
I use the ‘Liveries Megapack’ for custom liveries, but only cherry pick the ones I like (otherwise it’s like 80 GB of precious M.2 storage).
There’s a lot of choice, but I find ol WestJet
For fuel I’ll switch to hogs-heads and KGs. This looks like a block amount of 10.6 and I only need 4.8. but it’ll be fine.
Not sure if I’m going to use VATSIM today or just AI. I’ll fill in the call sign anyway:
Ok, let’s put the plan in - should be simple enough. First thing, I’ll set live weather, even if a big grey today. I"ll turn off Multiplayer, so I don’t get buzzed by a Cessna doing flips over the ramp.
With a direct route, it looks nice and windy today.
I’ll set up the IFR flight. It picks typical SIDS / STARs.
Don’t forget to set the altitude in the NavLog here:
Hmm, not a lot of cruise then. Nice!
The flight plan picked up the STNLE4 SID, which is a little unusual, so I’ll put in the usual YVR one. You can see the real life traffic around the airport with green icons.
Ok, 08R, SID YVR set. I"ll leave the ‘Approach’ to automatic, as the ATC usually does a good job with that.
Down Seatac way, it looks like 16C and 16L in use.
Last thing, I’ll want to set-up cold and dark, so I’ll need to pick a gate at YVR. Westjet is usually around about here, Gate 21 ish (ignoring that is a domestic gate, I picked a bad airlines but like the livery 
)
Hit ‘Fly’, you fools! (finally, they all shout as if as one)
Ok, here we are in CYVR
Today I’m using a paid airport, although it’s my only one and I couldn’t resist as it was cheap.
It’s not great, but it’s like $10. For most airports, I really recommend you check out this site, as there are many free ones that improve upon the robotic way Asobo generates most of the non-hand crafted ones:
It’s good to check out the map mode on that site, as lots of nice free things e.g. https://flightsim.to/by-country/CA
Ok, Cold and Dark
Let’s ignore all checklists and get this things going. First off, external power and batteries on.
Beautiful sounds from this mod, lots of clunks
It’s a dull day, lets get some lights on:
Not the nicest day, but you can at least see the mountains:
Let’s get the loading cycle started and some systems set up:
(post is getting huge, I’ll continue in a bit in a new bit). So far so good.
)
