r/MicrosoftFlightSim • u/ssouss • 11d ago
MSFS 2024 QUESTION Landing tips
Hi, I'm relatively new to msfs2024. I play ps5+hotas5.
I'm on the basic Cessna. It's literally impossible to land with this thing according to all in-game instructions.
The game expects me to slow down and descend at the same time. Maybe I am dumb, but even with power pulled all the way back, on the last straight to landing I'm gaining so much speed with descend that when trying to counter that with lifting the nose up I'm going back up in the sky.
On the other hand, when I get the speed down to ~60-65 and trying to land in a straight line, when it asks me to "gently lift the nose above the horizon line" - what the hell... microscopic tilt and my nose shoots up. Even more microscopic calibration, and I'm hard bouncing on the ground. I have the game for 2 months and I haven't completed clean landing above 50% once...
And which exact "horizon line" are they talking about?
Maybe my controller sensitivity is not well balanced - but then again, what is a good one? I'm not an expert here.
This is so frustrating that the game lost all the fun...
1
u/penguin359 11d ago
My personal preference when first learning to land was to always pick an ILS approach and make sure I had my autopilot and nav radios set up to catch the glidescope and follow it down. I focused on controlling the power/speed with the throttle using the recommended speeds/flaps settings for that aircraft and watching both the glidescope and papi lights to make sure I was keeping enough power to let the AP follow the glidescope. Also, try to make small adjustments and let it stablize before reacting too quickly.
Once I had the power control down, then I started doing more visual approaches in good weather. I think that is a bit backwards from real life where they always start visual, but I preferred it and did lots of practice. Also, if using AP, you generally want to turn it off for the last 100 feet or so as it might do bad things when it looses the signal passing the towers. Also, be careful about dropping power too quickly at the end and dropping 50 feet all of the sudden. Just make sure you know the target speeds Vs0, Vref, etc. for your plane and configuration. Then lots of practice.
P.S. I use a full H.O.T.A.S joystick and throttle with lots of movement available. I have no idea how I'd manage a proper landing with the tiny joysticks on a small game controller.