MSFS2020 expanded tutorial

(Paine Field to Seattle)

Welcome! This expanded tutorial is written for those of you who have seen my
YouTube video, "Easiest Flight Simulator 2020 Full Flight Tutorial | 5 MINS".

Before starting this tutorial, make sure you're familiar with the basic aircraft
controls on your joystick/yoke, such as the elevator, aileron, rudder, throttle
controls, and how to adjust the views. The first built-in lesson in FS2020 is
great way to learn all of this. Beyond that, I'll walk you through the rest!

Setup: Start the flight using the G1000 Cessna 172, departing KPAE airport
runway 16R, arriving KSEA airport runway 16L. I'd recommend clearing out any
weather conditions and setting "Clear skies" to make this first flight as easy as
possible.

 Press "B" to reset the altimeter setting

This is the quickest way to set the altimeter to the correct barometric
pressure in FS2020.

For other more realistic methods, see this video, which is all about the
altimeter setting in FS2020

If you cleared out the weather conditions, you should see 29.92 inches
Hg 1013 hPa) in the altimeter setting window. This is the "standard"
altimeter setting. If you are using other weather conditions, pressing "B"
will ensure the altimeter is set properly to match the actual altimeter
setting.

 Adjust the altitude selector knob so that 3000 feet shows up in the
G1000 altitude selector window

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 This will tell the autopilot at what altitude to level off

Note that the altitude knobs are "two tier" knobs. The larger, outer part
of the knob controls the thousands of feet, and the small, inner part of
the knob controls the hundreds of feet

There are two altitude selector knobs (both on the lower left corners of the G1000
bezel). You can use whichever one you prefer.

This is the result you're looking for - 3000 feet in the altitude selector "window"

 Push and hold the middle of the heading selector knob for a couple
seconds

This will sync the heading selector "bug" to the current heading (which
happens to be runway heading).

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 Once we turn the autopilot on, we will activate heading select mode,
and the autopilot will maintain this heading.

 Release the parking brake

To fully see the parking brake handle, you can click the aircraft yoke to
"toggle yoke visibility"

Click around the yellow area to show/hide the yoke

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 Parking brake on

Parking brake off

Note that you can also toggle the parking brake using the keyboard
command CTRL + NUM DEL (the period key on your number pad)

 Takeoff! Apply full power, raise nose at 55 knots, and hold a pitch
attitude of around 10 degrees

55 knots is known as the "rotation speed" - the speed at which it is

safe to increase the pitch attitude and become airborne

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 At this speed, start pulling back to become airborne.

In single engine airplanes, you may notice that the aircraft has a
tendency to turn to the left after you apply takeoff power. To
counteract this, you may have to apply right rudder input.

Use your joystick/rudder pedals to apply some right rudder as you're taking off. As
much as is required to keep the airplane on the runway centerline.

 Press the AP button to engage the autopilot

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 When the autopilot initially engages, you will notice that it is in PIT and
ROL modes. This means that the autopilot will maintain the pitch
attitude which existed when you engaged the autopilot, and attempt to
keep the wings level.

Autopilot mode annunciations indicating that the autopilot is active AP, and pitch
and roll modes are active PIT, ROL

 Press the FLC button on the autopilot, and use the pitch up-down
buttons to set the climb speed to 80 knots

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 To learn more about the FLC mode of the autopilot, see this video

The basic functionality of FLC is that the autopilot will control the
airplane's pitch attitude in order to maintain the selected speed

80 knots is a typical climb speed in a Cessna 172. It is slightly faster

than the best rate of climb speed 74 knots in the Cessna 172S, and
this helps maintain slightly better engine cooling and forward visibility.

Note that the functionality in FS2020 seems to be reversed. Nose up

should result in a slower speed, but in FS2020, it makes the airplane
pitch down and go faster.

 Press the HDG button on the autopilot

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 This engages the heading select mode. Now the autopilot will maintain
the heading which was "bugged" when you performed step 3.

 Once you're at 3000 feet: Set throttle to 2400 RPM

This isn't strictly required, but to be kind to the engine, it's a good idea
to avoid maintaining full power during the cruise phase of flight.

 Adjust this knob to set the NAV 1 standby frequency to 110.3, then press
the "flip flop" (frequency swap) button to make it active

110.3 is the localizer frequency for the ILS approach to runway 16L

ILS approaches are a common way for aircraft to navigate to the

runway, even in cloudy conditions

Where can you find the ILS frequencies for other airports? If you go to
an airport chart website like SkyVector.com, you can right click on any
airport and see what charts are available for it.

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 Open the chart, and read the frequency in the upper left corner.

Note that not all runways have ILS approaches. There are various other
approach types, such as RNAV, VOR, LOC, etc., which require different
procedures.

Note that like the altitude selectors, the navigation frequency knobs
are "two tier" knobs. The larger, outer part of the knob controls the
whole number part of the frequency (such as 110, and the small, inner
part of the knob controls the decimal number part of the frequency
(such as .3

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 Note that if you happen to push the center of the NAV knob by
accident, it will switch the cursor to the NAV2 line. Since we want to
input the frequency into NAV1, just push the center of the knob again if
this happens to switch the cursor back to NAV1.

This is what it would look like if you pushed the center of the NAV knob. Now the
NAV2 radio is active for data entry, as shown by the white background. Push the
center of the NAV knob to get back to changing the NAV1 standby frequency.

 Press the CDI button until you show green needles and LOC1

The CDI button changes the source of navigation data shown on the
Primary Flight Display PFD

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 Since we are trying to use the localizer data that we just set for
navigation, instead of GPS, we want the source to be LOC1 (localizer)

 Press the APR button on the autopilot

This activates the approach mode of the autopilot. Now, instead of

simply maintaining a constant heading and altitude, the autopilot will
attempt to follow the ILS Instrument Landing System) localizer and
glideslope guidance down to the runway.

 Once this green diamond is vertically centered, you're on the glideslope.
Now set the power to 1700 RPM

At this point, we need to start slowing down to prepare for landing.

1700 RPM will give us a good speed (around 8590 knots) to fly down
the glideslope.

 At 600 feet, reduce throttle completely to idle, and press the AP button
to turn off the autopilot

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 This will help us slow down even further before landing

 Land by slightly raising the pitch attitude, and keep holding the nose up.

Try to make your control inputs as smoothly and gently as possible.

This tutorial is very straightforward because the departure and arrival runways
are in a straight line, and we use the autopilot to its full extent.
Some of the complication for new users arises when needed to maneuver and
get lined up for runways in different directions. To accomplish this the correct
way, there are established traffic patterns at airports for VFR aircraft, and ATC
vectoring or instrument approach procedures for IFR aircraft.

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 💡 If you would like to progress your sim experience to the next level,
learning how to fly without the autopilot, handle more challenging
airports, weather conditions, aircraft types, etc., check out my
coaching service at flightsimcoach.com

I'm a real-world flight instructor and former airline pilot, passionate

about bringing my skills and experience into your flight sim to help
you achieve your simulations goals.

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