Episode: 49
Title: HPR0049: XPlane
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0049/hpr0049.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 10:45:11

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So we're going to take 1,4,000 and reduce back to 2,5, zero knots.
So we're doing that now 1,4,000 at 250 knots, you've got to speed up to 2227.
Thank you.
Delta 71, reduce to 2,5, zero knots.
Let's see what it's on to 250.
It went up to 4,8, so it was off.
It just got to 2,6,0, but 2,4,0, back direct off.
We're 8 out of 10, up to 10, right?
It's going to maintain level 210.
Hello and welcome to this second episode of Hacker Public Radio.
I'm going to briefly go over explain version 7 and how to do an approach, basic approach.
So back when this was out or when I received it was a good while ago.
This was version 7 once I was playing with it.
I used to know the proper way to do everything and what all the acronyms were.
But this time around, it's kind of a revisit.
And it's similar to Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it's more flexible.
Also, it's a little bit more of a learning curve.
If you've never used the Flight Sim before, you probably want to do Microsoft Flight Sim.
And then mess around with this guy, because there's not a whole lot of tutorials or anything like that in here for you.
Okay, what you'll need is don't need a joystick.
You can, for the Texas speech engine, you can use 18T National Voices, which is kind of interesting.
For the image or game, you can use the retail copy.
Or if you are inclined, you can find a smaller copy that fits on a mini CD, the 8mm.
It's about three, four or five hundred megs.
And it has like San Francisco.
And the rest is just airports.
So you're missing all the textures and all that stuff.
But it's great for portability reasons.
Alright, so you can fly around in circles and take off.
You have the basics down.
You want to land.
Now this is the easiest way.
It might not be the right way.
But this is the easiest way that I found out how to land.
Get the airport code.
In my example, got KLAX.
And the runway is going to be 0.7R.
Now, it'll be a little bit confusing when you look at the runways.
But if you know the degrees, you'll figure it out.
For example, 0.9 is going to be 90 degrees, which is going to be east.
So you know that you're going to be flying that direction on the approach.
Now, I'm sure, like I said, this is the easiest way I know how to do it.
It's probably not the right way.
You're probably supposed to do all kinds of crazy shit before you do any of this.
But get the airport you're going to.
And then the actual field you want to land in.
And then the last thing you'll get is the frequency for it.
So in KLAX, runway 0.7R, I'm going to use 109.9.
Now, all this information is going to be on the plates.
And the only way I've been able to find out how to get the plates you want is move the plane to that location
and open up the plates that are around that area and kind of look around and find an airport you want
and get those values from the actual plate.
And then proceed to go move the plane back to wherever you started from.
There might be in this version a time lapse speed up or slow down.
But I wasn't able to find it.
But once you have your information, you're at three pieces of information, the frequency, the runway,
and the code for the actual airport, you're ready to go.
So the way I do it, I pull down to the GPS, press the down arrow key.
And on the little panel there, we do down arrow clear, clear.
And then init, you put in the code, and then the AIRP key.
Now, any of these acronyms, I don't know, don't care.
I knew them at one point in time, but coming back to this, I just kind of eyeballed my way through it.
Once you get it in there, it'll draw a red line to the direction of the airport.
And that's where you just point your heading.
And you're basically making a B-line.
You're not taking any VORs or anything, you're making a straight B-line straight for the actual airport.
Now, once you get within the block, where you can see it in the plate list,
that's where you can get the frequency and stuff like that.
You can pretty much fly anywhere you want, pull up the plate list,
and land on any airport you want using this method.
Now, once you can see it in the plate view, you see your airport, you'll see the localizer,
and it looks like a little carrot.
Now, once you're within the localizer, the actual navigation deal on the left side
will start to pick up the signal, and then you can use the nav and autopilot
to have it land playing, or at least go in the general direction where it's supposed to go.
Once you get the plate up, and you know which frequency you put in,
you're going to use the nav one or two, it doesn't matter which one,
just as long as the active one is the one you have it set to on the knob.
You're going to set it to the right frequency, and then you're going to move the CRS knob to the right direction.
So, in our example, it's 07R, so we'll set it to 70 degrees.
So, here within the localizer, you get the set to the right frequency, and you're good to go.
It will start once you hit it, and once you pick up the frequency, the nav on the left will move,
and that way you know it's kind of locked in, and that's when you can hit the autopilot.
There's the vertical and horizontal sync.
I've been had some problems with the vertical sometimes, so I don't just automatically click the vertical.
There's something you have to set as far as elevation, or reset the offender, or something that I'm missing,
which I don't feel like reading 7,000 books to figure out what it is.
Alright, so you've got your heading locked on the localizer, and it's going back and forth,
and you're getting lined up and everything.
You want to get your speed down, put the flaps up all the way, put the gears up down,
make sure you have everything prepped and ready to go.
And pretty much all you have to worry about is your altitude from here out,
and then the pitch once you hit the actual landing field.
I use put the flaps on one notch from all the way down, that way I don't have to add the speed too high.
And then right before I hit the actual runway, or right before I'm about to land,
I kill the power, and put on the brakes to max, and that's automatic brakes,
so once you hit the ground, it starts putting on the brakes for you.
Now like I said, in the mini version that I have, if you go anywhere except like San Francisco,
you're going to end up with just an airport in the middle of the air,
and that might be possibly why I'm having problems with the vertical autopilot,
and it's not landing properly, so that might be the reason I'm not sure,
but that's going to be something you're going to miss when you use this smaller ISO.
Alright, some tips. If you're on the approach, you'll see a little icon towards the middle that looks like a plane,
and when you're about to stall, you'll see that guy start dropping.
So what you want to do is keep an eye on that guy, make sure that your nose is where you want it to be,
and make sure that your speed is high enough, and your flaps are up,
that that guy doesn't start dropping.
If he starts dropping, just give it some gas, and you'll be able to come back up,
and either slow the speed down, or put the nose down, or whatever you got to do,
to get it to keep them stalling.
For altitude, I use the hold option and vertical speed.
Vertical speed is good for if you're going to be changing your altitude a lot.
There's the elevator trim, which can kind of go haywire sometimes,
so there's a reset option somewhere, which I haven't been able to find,
to reset the elevator trim if you need to.
But for just up and down motions, I'll use the vertical speed.
In the map view, there's center-gone aircraft,
which is good for if you bring up a plate, and you don't feel like clicking around,
to the center-gone aircraft, you'll know where you're at,
and you can see your approach and all that stuff.
Altitude, so you can just pick a plate, aim the heading in the right direction,
have the frequency in there, and be good to go, and you can just land, you know, wherever you want.
You can also use the flight plan option, which is on the inner key,
and pick a flight plan, pick an altitude, and it'll tell you when to decrease your speed,
increase your altitude, decrease your altitude, et cetera,
and it'll help you out on the approach and stuff too if you're new to it.
That pretty much wraps up this episode.
If you haven't checked that explain, I would.
Check out the new version, and also if you're new to it,
you probably want to try Microsoft Flight Sim.
There's a little bit more of the learning curve or less learning curve there.
And if anybody has any questions, just let me know.
And if anybody's in the Atlanta area, look forward to seeing you at Outer Zone.
Thanks.
Thank you for listening to Hack or Public Radio.
HPR is sponsored by Carol.net, so head on over to CARO.18 for all of her team.
Thank you.
