![]() We need to first look at weather- the departure airport so we know what performance we will need to take off (FLEX temperature, V speeds, etc.) then any expected enroute changes to weather, and finally the destination airport and the alternate if required. Flight dispatchers require an FAA license which is very similar to an ATP license in the knowledge that they are tested on. This is a a very simplistic overview of the pre-departure work that is required to occur for every flight, and the flight dispatcher will stay with is, virtually, as we fly the aircraft- she will employ “flight following” to watch or progress and be available for us to talk to in the event that something needs unforeseen attention. The fuel loader will have received the request for additional fuel load from the dispatcher. She will have done a specialized walk-around, looking for specific issues that only an engineer’s eye can find, and will greet us on the flight deck for a final confirmation that all is OK. The ground engineer will have computer diagnostics on the aircraft and ensured that from her perspective it is airworthy. We would ensure that our EFBs had all of the required charts and information for the flight, and view and discuss the status of the aircraft- are there any “squawks” (maintenance issues) that have been reported by the previous crew, or discovered by the ground engineer. We would go through the anticipated payload (passengers and freight), the weather at the departure and arrival airports as well as along the route, NOTAMs for the airports, the need for an alternate, among may other related items. The dispatchers are mostly located in the airline’s headquarters at the Dallas- Fort Worth airport (KDFW), in Texas, and we would communicate with them on computer monitors. In this hypothetical flight, we would get our flight briefing in the airline’s dispatch area, airside in the KCLT airport. I have downloaded and installed the American Airlines livery from the Jar Design site, and am using the KCLT freeware scenery by XFiber, as well as the Nimbus KATL pay-ware scenery package (which I reviewed last year). While airlines in reality only fly smaller aircraft to other airline hubs, this simulated flight has an A332. This fictional flight represents a flight from American Airline’s Charlotte, North Carolina, hub (KCLT) to Atlanta, Georgia, the largest hub of its main competitor- Delta Airlines. The Wikipedia article linked here gives the details of the total fleet. Incidentally, American now operates a fleet of 944 aircraft in total, making it the largest commercial fleet in the world, including the largest A319, A320 and A321 complement world-wide. The original A330 series shared the same wing with its cousin –the A340- and so the wing was never optimized for a twin jet. There are newer “NEO” versions of the A330 now in early production by Airbus- apart from the better engines there are also aerodynamic improvements that are due largely to a re-designed wing. Although the airline has more recently purchased Boeing B787’s to begin to replace the aging B767’s, the A330s are too new to be replaced at this time and continue to fly. Then in 2012 / 2013 the airline purchased US Air, which was a predominantly Airbus fleet, and included 15 Airbus A330-200 and 9 A330-300 aircraft. So, to the setup to the flight test for this review: American Airlines used to operate an exclusively Boeing fleet. Since this is very annoying, I was pleased to discover that by going to the MCDU MENU page (on the MCDU) has an item to remove the red text. When I launched the XP11.41 frame-rate counter I found my fps to be greater than what was being reported by the red text. I also got a flashing red message on my screen telling me that my frame-rate was too low. Incidentally, when downloading the aircraft from the X-Plane store, there is an option to download the XP10 model as well. Use of the Ground Handling plugin without registration for any other aircraft will crash XP11. ![]() As mentioned later in this review, as well as by Angelique, the plug-in is free for this aircraft only- a registration must be purchased if you wish to use it with any other aircraft. This green text goes away once you have it installed in Resources / Plugins. Loading the Aircraft into X-Plane 11.41Īs I first loaded the Jar Designs A330-200 (known throughout this article by its ICAO abbreviation of “A332”), to familiarize myself with the product, I noted that I got a green text telling me to download the Ground Handling add-on, with a link to it. I have tried to write this from the perspective of an airline pilot, although I have never actually done that. Bruce Knight has created a fictitious flight within the USA, one that is flown usually by smaller Airbus aircraft such as the A320. We’re pleased to offer you part II of another flight with the JARDesign JDA330. Part II – the JARDesign JD332 Introduction ![]()
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