Prepare For Flight  Lesson 2

Assuming that you have now repositioned your aircraft back on the gate, it is time to prepare it for take off. Firstly  make sure you have got enough fuel for the flight . For Malaga 75% will be ample with our 757 which is allocated for the flight. The next thing to do is ensure your brakes are on. We are going to do the Southampton Instrument Departure  (SID) from runway 26L at Gatwick. The runway heading on take off is 262 degrees. The maximum height we can climb to initially on take off is 5000ft. Air Traffic Control will give us higher when safe to do so bearing in mind that Heathrow outbound traffic crosses Midhurst at 6000ft Gatwick inbound at 7000ft and Heathrow inbound at 8000 ft nearby. We then can download the weather from the internet using the weather button on World menu and selecting the real world option. We then press the B key to set the altimeter to the correct barometer setting.

We then set up the autopilot for the take off and tune the navigation radios. The first part of the instrument departure is to fly on a heading of 254 degrees inbound to Midhurst VOR Beacon.  On passing Midhurst we then fly direct to Southampton. At this time I will use the GPS. For the first part I will use VOR Navigation. Set your Autopilot up like below  

 

                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The photo above shows the aircraft set up for take off.

From Left to Right is the easiest way to do it. Note that the radios are set to Midhurst the GPS NAV Switch to NAV the 4 buttons  on the top left of the panel control the radio GPS and Flaps throttles & speed brake panel. Ensure you speed brakes are in the off position. 5 degrees of flap for take off are normal for this aircraft, 10 maximum on short runways. The aircraft transponder is set to 2000 until Air Traffic Control give you a squawk number. It is so they can identify you on take off on radar. This squawk number is given when you get your clearance by radio. The initial climb out speed is 200 knots at a rate of 2000 feet per minute. to 5000ft . If you set the aircraft up like this every time then you will have not have problem . Obviously the heading and height will change, as will the course but remember Vertical Speed 02000  IAS/MACH 200 Flaps 5 and you will not go far wrong. With speedbrakes off DN.

  Next Lesson is Take Off and Climb

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