A2A Comanche Full Flight Guide - Checkride - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Everything you need to know to do a simple VFR flight in the A2A Comanche in Microsoft Flight Simulator. We fly a visually stunning route from KSDM, San Diego-Brown up to Ramona Airport (KRNM).
The Comanche is a very deep simulation, so we really just scratch the surface with this video.
Airports are by vbazillio on Flightsim.to, they are top notch freeware sceneries, check them out here:
flightsim.to/f...
flightsim.to/f...
Also featured:
US Navy Ships - flightsim.to/f...
Coronado Bridge - flightsim.to/f...
North Island NAS - flightsim.to/f...

[@davidtsw]

Good video. I'm just a fellow simmer with a ton of time in the Comanche and some knowledge I've gained mostly from the A2A forums. A few hints from me, for those who want to operate the Comanche like a real Comanche pilot would: 1. When you're removing the pitot heat cover, don't forget to flip the stall warning thing that's located on the left wing. If it's stuck for whatever reason and doesn't move, you won't get the stall warning in the cockpit. 2. Recommended oil level is not 12 but around 9 gallons (?). 12 might lead to some spills, at least in the real one. 3. When starting the engine, it's best to keep rpm at around 1000. 1400-1500 immediately after start up might be too much. 4. The reason you're supposed to do 3 prop cycles is because the first time you look for the rpm to drop and the manifold pressure to rise, the second time you make sure oil pressure drops and then goes back up, and the third cycle you look out the window to look for any oil splashing from under the hood. 5. You also flip the pitot heat on/off during the run up and verify that the amps needle moves a bit. 6. After you're done with cycling the prop, reduce power to idle and keep the engine there for a few seconds. This is a great way to tell if everything is fine with the engine, just by listening to it at idle. 7. With some cylinders this hot even before take off, on a hot day, you definitely don't wanna climb out at 100 mph. 120 is recommended for better cooling. 8. Always tap the brakes before retracting the gear. Not sure if you did, just saying for those you aren't aware of this. 9. Fuel pump should go off at around 1000 AGL I believe. 10. 24 manifold on the climbout, not 25. Show some love for those poor, hot cylinders ;) 11. You were waaay too fast on approach and short final. A light Comanche is happy at no more than 85 mph over the fence. 12. It's a good habit to retract flaps immediately after touch down to kill off any excess lift and help with braking. Those manual flaps on the Comanche move almost instantly. Especially useful on shorter runways. 13. Avionics need to be off before shutting down the engine. Cheers!

[@planeplaces]

Pretty good points and good work at learning the airplane! 2. Absolutely the real Comanche will dump most oil over 9 qts. This is not unique to the Comanche but pretty common in many light planes to have an ideal range for the oil fill 3. 1000RPM during warmup is considered a good tradeoff between not too much heat and not enough heat while the oil gets moving around and thinned. With the original mags, you start on left mag then switch to both after start and over 1000RPM. You'll get about 200RPM rise to throttle back just as you do. 4. How many RPM cycles in the runup is a great way to start a hangar talk discussion - you'll get as many opinions are there are pilots in the room. Mostly you're checking that the governor is working. 6. Listening but some problems will manifest as the engine dead quitting if you smoothly pull to idle from runup power 9. That the general recommendation - I usually think of it more as when climbing above pattern altitude and make it a part of the after takeoff check -- otherwise it's easy to forget 10. The straight 250 Comanche with 3 blade McCauley prop doesn't have a max power/RPM limit. Even with middle takeoff weights in FL summer heat temps CHTs are reasonable at full power cruise climb speeds. As long as engine limits are respected, I'm a fan of minimizing time to climb and using the maximum power avialable to get there. 11. Good targets are 100mph downwind glide with 1/3 flaps, 90mph on base with 2/3rds flaps, 83 across the fence full flaps. About 12.5" MP will get you there. If landing distance isn't a concern, 2/3rds flaps and 85 across the fence is much more forgiving in the flair. Final speeds can be adjusted down based on actual weight. A Comanche at 2200lbs is very different than one at 2800lbs. 12. Also critically, Comanches (and early low wing Pipers in general) are known to skid very easily if you apply hard braking with the flaps down at close to flying speed 13. Modern avionics are quite a bit less sensitive to shutdown than older radios. Still good practice but unlikely to damage anything. Some avionics (Garmin G5's for example and primary eletronic engine monitors) are intended to be always-on if the Master Switch is on.

[@andyb0000]

Amazing aircraft. Got it a week ago and haven't touched anything else. Really feels like it's your own. This was a really informative video especially showing the go around. I need to do more of those myself.

[@alexpitts7634]

It’s truly changed my relationship with MSFS. They made it so alive and real that I like take care of it

[@peterprow6093]

Me too, it feels like a real piece of engineering that I actually own. Made almost every other aircraft redundant

[@FlightLineYT]

Love that you went around. Great decision making and PIC. Loved the video and love this plane.

[@TheGreatRepeller]

This plane just has an awesome rawness that all the other sterile planes seems to lack. My former fav was the 310R and it feels like a MS stock plane after flying this bird. I hope A2A makes a twin Comanche soon.

[@chikokishi7030]

Very intersting. I enjoy seeing the whole experience instead of just highlights that many youtubers do. Is the MFS or MFS2020?

[@joshuaspop8865]

It’s a great one. My thing is I prefer a bit more modern. Even the basic MSFS autopilot would make me happy. I like to go places and often speed up to 2x or 4x to speed up the cruise. The old autopilot doesn’t like that because the trim is handled but AP servos. But it’s a great product.

[@cparsons369]

You didn’t check the stall indicator tab on the pilot wing. Good video.

[@cwood7240]

I have yet to get this plane for MSFS. I'm wondering if it is compatible with the saitek radio and switch panels?

[@marclojak1639]

Yeah a great aircraft! I have a question… it’s not in the manual. What are remarks? The yellow, blue and white light. It turns on sometimes but idk what it is

[@snowshoe3274]

marker beacon, google it

[@planeplaces]

I assume you're referring to the Marker Beacon lights over the Audio panel? Mostly gone now except as some big airports they were important for ILS approaches before GPS

[@DrinktheVenom]

Are you using any add ons? Is that tablet part for of the plane, I really love this sim but I’m very new and am having a tough time understanding the game enough to accurately simulate real flying.

[@calvinvandermerwe9136]

That is a actual tablet part of the aircraft.

[@MegaPeedee]

It might help you get your head more into it if you call it a simulator, rather than a game. Replication is the genre here, not gaming although I know many call it that in general speech. This is not being finicky, as many assume but rather a suggestion to treat it seriously as a replicator ... it helped me and I think it is a good attitude to adopt. I'm also into games but prefer to keep flight simulation in the other basket.

[@bertobones7182]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐