Rotate MD-80 Part 1 - EVRA Departure [X-Plane]

[@Corsair8X]

This should be considered "the definitive guide" to this aircraft.

[@kpan500]

Thanks Graeme. Real pilots sharing their knowledge on KZbin is the best thing that ever happened to the flight sim hobby.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks. I was a sim pilot long before I was a pilot so I'm very happy to be able to give something back to the community.

[@derekjames9451]

Graeme, this is just superb. Excellent video but the addition of your procedures and speed cards / info is really a treat. Thank you kindly good sir!!

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

You’re welcome Derek. Yes I found the performance information in the manual to be slightly lacking on those flap speeds, so the cards are to fill that gap. There’s a great site from a SAS DC-9 / MD80 Pilot that has lots of good reading about those aircraft. I took the speed card inspiration from there - www.hilmerby.com

[@recone829]

Thanks ever so much Graeme for all your series here on KZbin, your work is very much appreciated by us XPlane flyers . Cheers.

[@bro977]

I have watched many "tutorial" videos but your teaching style is very straight forward. There's nothing like being taught by someone who has real experience . I have an affinity towards these classic aircraft and you are actually making my experience great with your no nonsense ,clear,concise approach to delivering only the critical information needed to fly these birds in the sim. Thank you so much for your work! I hope you continue. Would you consider doing any videos in the flyjsim 732 for some good old /Alpha training? thanks Lee

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hi Lee, I agree the older aircraft are a lot of fun to fly. I don’t have the 737-200, but from what I remember with the FS2004 “Tinmouse” model the -200 isn’t so different from the -300 except the EPR gauges and the Elec and Eng Hyd pump switches are arranged differently. Have a look at my DC9 videos for basic autopilot and VOR Navigation. There’s a video on VOR airway planning and a video on Radio Navigation. Combined they should give you some useful information on how to plan the flight, and how to fully use the navigation kit. There are also a couple of 727 videos that may be useful. The great thing about VOR/NDB nav is you don’t have to relearn everything for a different aircraft.

[@racingmars]

Great to see you back! Thank you for making another fantastic video. I know how much time and effort must go into these.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks. Yes a bit longer between videos that I intended really but hope to do a few more videos the MD80.

[@Wizball]

Great to see your posting again Graeme. The MD80 will always bring back old memories. I did fly the SAS MD80 alot for 20 years ago when I was in the military :) . Its a very special machine. Kent Wien have some funny and great real videos about the MD80. Especially "Why I've fallen for the MD-80" :)

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

I think it was that video that resulted in me getting the Rotate MD80! After the ATS MD82 situation I had given up on the idea on getting an MD80, and so started flying the DC9 instead. Then I saw Kent’s video and though it looked like an interesting machine!

[@jehude4409]

Great tutorial with lots of information. Good work!

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks! I wrote the procedure notes to be straightforward to follow, so I hope they make sense. Somebody also used them as the basis for a automated checklist plugin, on the x-plane.org download site.

[@thenextbest1137]

Hi Graeme great to see you back - had to do a double take this morning when I saw the new post - Thanks again for the effort you put into your videos- I always come away after watching having learnt something. MD-80 great choice for a comeback - Cheers Pete

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Pete, Yes a bit long between videos really. The good news is there's more MD80 content coming during the week

[@RippedWookie]

I was just binge watching a few of your videos last night hoping you would upload soon. Glad to see this in my inbox.

[@patrickmaartense7772]

good to have you back Graham

[@jankin880]

Just great ,that you ve started doing this one in X p 11 .

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Jan, it’s a fun aircraft to operate and I hope to be able to do a few more videos with it soon.

[@jc59jc]

Hi Graeme . This is very refreshing. A tutorial where one can fully understand every step of the way on what to do and why. Thanks for the extra work and sharing the Speed Cards. Looking forward to see the part 2 of this tutorial. Whenever you have the time I wonder if you can do a similar tutorial on the A320

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks for the nice feedback. I’m looking forward to the full release of the FlightFactor A320 and hope to be able to do a full video series for it in a similar manner to the IXEG 737 series.

[@alistairbrown1846]

I think you could probably teach my mum to fly an airliner... I always found the MD-80 an awkward plane to manage but I might have another go at it now!

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Alistair, it's tricky to begin with, especially the autopilot. Having a separate input for autothrottle speed and pitch/speed is very unusual, but after a few hours it starts all come together.

[@atc5789]

Graeme, Thanks for the great instructional videos. They really help in getting a handle on this beast. Quite different from the PMDG Boeings. If possible, at some point would you consider doing a video on touch and go's. As a young controller back in the late 1960's and early 70's, I used to enjoy having one or two DC 9's doing circuits with the occasional B707 or DC8 thrown in for good measure. Fuel was much less expensive back then. Ah, the good old days! Thanks again for your contributions to the sim world. They are appreciated.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks, in fact just last night I was flying some visual circuits with the MD80 and it works quite well - that’s a good idea for video.

[@atc5789]

Great, will look forward to it. Thank you.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Where were you based when you were controlling 707s and DC8s?

[@atc5789]

CYOW: Air Canada used to sent DC 9s/Dc 8s up from CYUL. Tragically on one of those flights, an AC DC8 trainer crashed on approach to CYOW R32 with no survivors. Also at the time the RCAF had just received new B707s which were based in CYTR and often came up to CYOW to train. During the same time frame, there was a squadron of CF 100's (aka Clunk's) based at CYOW, and the Cdn military were doing acceptance trials on the CF5 (Northrup F5) with lots of approaches, T&G's & L&G's. All of this mix was interspersed with regular scheduled flights and fixed based operators with C152s/Pa28's etc. on crossing runways, no parallels. Many years later I still think of the satisfaction I felt at the end of a shift, & then often going to have a brew (or two) with the flight crews we had worked with earlier in the day. Still hook up with some of those folks, although our numbers are dwindling. Keeping the spirit alive by simming!! BTW my reality flying experience never got beyond a private licence and a flying C150.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

I grew up in the 80s near Prestwick, EGPK, and it had the same mix of training light aircraft, airlines, training trips with transport jets (including Concorde), BAe/Jetstream test aircraft and transiting military. I think that variety you mention is quite difficult to find these days. But that’s the great thing about sims, being able to relive those moments - like looking through old holiday photo albums.

[@Sputnik21]

Hi, Graeme, thank you the tutorial video. I have been flying the MD 80 by Leonardo in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and noticed that the aircraft in MSFS reaches every speed rather quickly compared to the Rotate’s Maddog. I purchased the Rotate model today because I like Xplane 12 and wanted to compare the two models. Are the speeds on the speed indicator supposed to be reached rather slowly, as in this tutorial? Is this the more accurate behavior? I love the Rotate model.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

I'm not sure to be honest as I've never flown a real MD80. The Rotate model performance feels plausible, it's about the same as I'd expect based on thrust and weight compared to the Airbus, but difficult to tell for sure.

[@v_sky]

I know it’s been a long time since you published this video, but I have just started flying this plane, and I really appreciated you work done for this aircraft - card, procedures, etc. I might have missed something during reading or watching, but how do you actually decide between TOGA or FLEX? Thank you.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks, yes it's a pretty old video now. The Rotate MD80 didn't have a full set of performance information supplied, so I simply use flex if the runway is 2500m+ and doesn't have any terrain nearby. In real life there are performance charts for each runway that consider temperature, wind and weight to determine the correct thrust settings.

[@v_sky]

@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thank you for your answer.

[@MrCbeyer]

Hi Graeme Fantastic to have you back, with jet another great video. This is a great plane, I enjoy it a lot, can't land it though;o) keeps falling out of the sky on final, look forward to the next video. Could you explain “flex” settings in detail. With thx Carsten

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Carsten, Regarding the landing try keeping a little bit of power on during the initial flare. Flex Temp is a method of reducing takeoff thrust when full thrust is not required in order to save wear and tear on the engines. It also produces a slightly lower initial climb rate and therefore minimises the change at thrust reduction altitude. Jet thrust reduces as the outside air temperature increases, so a flex rating of 50 makes the engines produce the same thrust as if the outside temperature was 50 degrees. In practice the runway is almost always long enough for flex, but if it was contaminated with snow, ice or standing water we wouldn’t flex. Some airports like Innsbruck (climb gradient) or Funchal (potential windshear) would not normally be a flex departure. Others like Naples (high temps, tailwind, uphill runway and initial climb) have conditions where a TOGA thrust departure is more likely. Without performance charts it’s really a guess, but for the MD-80 more than 2500m runway and no terrain should allow a flex departure. Hope this helps.

[@MrCbeyer]

Very helpful thx. looking forward to the next video. C U

[@RippedWookie]

I'm curious as to why you didn't use the start pump to supply fuel to the APU for starting as you did back in your DC-9 video. This is the first time I've seen main pump used. Ive only recently started flying the Mad Dog and have really enjoyed it but the more I use it, the more the defeciencies start to stand out. I really wish ATS would release their MD-82 as I'd like to have a study-level version of this aircraft. Great video as always. I look forward to part 2.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

The start pump is DC powered so used to start when only battery power is available. The DC9 doesn’t simulate external power so that’s to only way to start the APU. In this video external power was supplying both AC busses so the main fuel pumps were able to be powered prior to APU start. Yes it’s a real shame about the ATS model as it looked really good and I was planning to get it. I didn’t have the Rotate model before 1.31 but I’m quite happy with it.

[@RippedWookie]

Reflected Reality Simulations I see. Thanks for the explanation.

[@scrabbman9999]

Hey, Great Video! I just wanted to say that I enjoy all of your content and wanted to ask if you would like to do some more Groundschool videos since I really enjoyed the last one and it helped me a lot. Thank you very much. Keep up the good videos :)

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks for your kind comments. Do you have any ideas for what sort of content you'd like to see in a groundschool video?

[@scrabbman9999]

Reflected Reality Simulations Maybe something on Fuel Calculations :)

[@howardhaney408]

Great Vid on the MD80. Your tutorials have great detail and are very informative. Would you be able to do a complete tutorial on FlyJSim B732 V3 using VOR navigation only?

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hello Howard, thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you find the videos useful. I’m afraid I don’t have the FlyJSim 737, however I do have V2 of the 727 which I believe has a similar autopilot system. Look for my 727 videos EGPF Departure and EGLL Arrival. The more recent DC9 videos also show some VOR navigation principles. Finally there’s two other videos on the channel that may help : VOR Airway Planning and Radio Navigation.

[@rondeldebbio9219]

Awesome video, best I've seen on the md 80. I have just one question. How did you decide the 'flex' for takeoff to be a value of 55 before setting it? Thanks again!

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Sorry for the delay replying. I tend to use flex 55 as it’s not really a lot of flex, but still demonstrates a flex departure. On the A320 flex 65 is quite common, but thats obviously with real world performance. In the sim with a long runway just pick a temperature!

[@rondeldebbio9219]

@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Okay, thanks!

[@Felix-wc1lu]

HI Graeme, really enjoy your videos & am starting out with this aircraft. I've followed your video & tried a flex departure. However, on the runway as I reach clamp speed the spoilers jump down from the armed position, I get a spoiler alert & the aircraft slows down. Is there anything I'm missing? I've tried several times trying your procedure step by step but the same result. Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks for you informative videos. I've learned a lot :)

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

It's been a few months since I did those videos, but I remember something similar happening. I think was the hardware joystick axis being a bit "noisy" and if left in the idle position the joystick would force the power levers to be brought back with the result being the spoilers deploying for a rejected takeoff. Try pushing your hardware throttle fully forward after engaging the autothrottle so any axis "noise" doesn't trigger an RTO.

[@stevenlow3036]

Good to have you back Sir, how are you finding XP11/

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Steven, XP11 is very good. It’s quite smooth as long as I avoid areas with very high object density. It seems more stable on my system so I guess it’s managing memory better too. The great thing is the control binding profiles where I can have a set of bindings for helicopters, another for piston singles and for airlines etc. It’s a neat feature. I’ve also been spending a lot of time in the default 172 - the G1000 still needs some work but the 530/430 is really good now. I’d prefer a bit more control over the graphics elements, but the new version does seem a lot more accessible for new sim pilots.

[@djoser1048]

Thank you for this very detailed video. I did not find with Google the checklist used with eBag. Have you finished it? Do you have a link to give me?

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Glad you liked the video. The procedures are not quite ready yet as there are a few differences between v1.31 and v1.40. The new version also has a couple of little issues that Rotate are working on. Once there’s a stable version available I’ll finish the procedures off.

[@djoser1048]

OK Thank you

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

The procedure notes are now available to download. forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/42836-md-80-procedures/

[@bro977]

Hi.do the flaps and slats both operate from the flap lever, or are they controlled separately. During the take off and initial climb, you talk about flaps and slats operation with different speeds for each . I'm a little confused . thx Lee

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hi Lee, sorry for making it confusing. Yes on the MD80 they operate from one lever but have separate indications.The first notch on the lever gives slats only, then flaps 11 and slats T/O. You can see the slats position on the indicators next to the flap indication. When accelerating after takeoff the first retraction is to the first position which results in only slats deployed. This is called flap retraction, the second retraction is to clean, called slat retraction.

[@bro977]

Hello Again I have another question. My flight director will not engage. I follow your video exactly. All settings as far as I can tell are the same. Route is good etc. What could I be missing? thx Lee

[@jeffryb]

still useful in XP12

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Glad to hear it!

[@alessandrom84]

Where do I find that program to calculate the performance?

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Do you mean the speed cards Alessandro? If so, you can get them here: forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/41990-md-80-speed-cards/

[@alessandrom84]

@@ReflectedRealitySimulations tnx

[@bro977]

HI Why not use vnav from the begining instead of vertical speed and IAS mode thx lee

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hello Lee, Two reasons. 1) If I'm going to level off at a low altitude on the departure as is so often the case, I want the last 2000 ft of the climb to be done at less than 1500fpm so than I don't generate any TCAS alerts for other traffic just above. IAS / VS is the easiest way to do this. 2) In the video I think I mention that when accelerating (for example when climbing though FL100) the VNav mode will transition from a climb, to a level acceleration, then back to a climb. I don't know if this is realistic or not, but it's not very passenger friendly so I use the VS mode. Hope this make sense.

[@bro977]

Hi Are your procedure guides up at the org store for download yet? Thx Lee

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hello Lee, sorry for the delay - we had a family vacation and I was hoping Rotate would update to 1.41 while I was away - that didn't happen so the procedures for 1.40 are on the .org download site now. forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/42836-md-80-procedures/

[@bro977]

Hi How do you determine the flex temp to use on a particular take off? thanks Lee

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hello Lee, The flex temp is determined either via the performance manual or an application like Airbus FlySmart. The runway departure obstacles and gradient are known to the software (or the software that generates the performance tables) and the aircraft weight and environmental conditions are also considered. The result is a combination of flex temp, flaps and V speeds that allows the aircraft to meet the climb gradient requirements even with an engine failure at the most critical point. The thing to be aware of is while the A320 model is quite lifelike in how the automation works, the further away from normal operations you get the more likely the model is to differ from the real thing. Even if I used our real world performance at exact simulated weights, temperatures, environmental conditions etc there is no guarantee the sim model will perform a single engine climb or rejected takeoff within those performance limits. For the real pilots testing the model we have thousands of hours of normal operation experience and hopefully very little major abnormal experience outside of our recurrent sim checks. To keep it simple in the sim I would work with the following rules: With a runway of more than 2500m and no terrain, Flex 60. 2000-2500m and no terrain, Flex 50, less than 2000m or terrain on departure TOGA. Flap 1 for most cases, Flap 2 or 3 for a short runway with no departure terrain considerations Hope this helps.

[@bro977]

Thanks . that helps greatly!

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hi Lee, sorry just to add I didn’t notice your comment related to the MD80 and not the A320. Anything less than 2500m with the MD80 and I probably wouldn’t use flex thrust unless the aircraft was very light.

[@bro977]

I got it working thx

[@tims9071]

Will the checklist in the video be available at some point too?

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hi Tim, yes that’s the plan. The 1.31 release had too low fuel burn in XP11, and far too high in XP10. I need to check how 1.40 works, but I also found a few little things with the new version that have been reported to Rotate. If there isn’t a patch in the next couple days I’ll try and release the procedures for the weekend.

[@tims9071]

That's good to hear. I think many people will appreciate it. I've watched these two vids a couple of times, and decided to create my own checklist. I agree with you that there can be a good compromise between reality, and simulator play. I made my list heavily based on yours in the videos, but slimmed them down even a bit more. I think for me, I now have a good set of procedures, that won't overload a single pilot, yet still provide enough switch flipping for the immersion factor.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Hello Tim, saw that you had uploaded your procedure notes to the x-plane.org site - Nice work! I've finally released my own notes with some additional fuel planning information if you're interested :- forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/42836-md-80-procedures/

[@midi48]

Hi, Graeme, Great video again, Thank you. Just wondered if you are using the 4k textures for the Aircraft? And if so then give the 2k textures a try instead . I had problems with poor performance when i first purchased the Aircraft until i found out about the 2k textures that you can download from your purchase page on the ORG. The Aircraft still looks fantastic with the 2k textures so it is worth a try.

[@ReflectedRealitySimulations]

Thanks Carl. It's the 2K textures I have at the moment. The issue I was having was actually my recording software was working in software rendering mode, consuming half the available CPU time - it's fixed now and more videos are on the way.

[@midi48]

Yes , just wondered Graeme if it was the textures. Thanks for the great videos you do ,they are Really appreciated.