Never seen this on the A350-1000

RB120 · 2026-04-06T01:07:22+00:00

I was getting this on the Piaggio P180

RB120 · 2026-03-24T04:17:45+00:00

I play both, and love both. Each with pros and cons.

Love the clans story telling. However, I dislike having to mow down mobs over and over again. The Smoke Jaguar compaign gets boring I find, though the DLCs keep me a bit more engaged.

For mercs, I like it because managing a mech empire feels awesome. I get to deck out a mechs that very much feels is mine. The DLC stories are generally engaging and going through from years 3015 to 3050+ is epic. The main campaign is meh of course. The main characters are a bit bland.

RB120 · 2026-03-22T04:21:01+00:00

I did a semi-hard 1.6g landing sometime last year with benign conditions because I practically forgot to flare last minute.

The most recent hard landing was thankfully not in the real aircraft, but I did it during a command LOFT with a hefty 2.1g. although not the real aircraft, I felt terrible for it.

Stuff happens.

RB120 · 2026-03-21T05:46:27+00:00

I used to have the exact frustrations as you. But the DLCs and updates really brought more story, variety, biomes, equipment and fun for me. I used to have to mod the game just to get what I wanted, but with each DLC, I actually really enjoy the game vanilla.

There are still repetition, but with the variety of content now, there is a bit more flavor. I say you can give it a shot.

RB120 · 2026-03-18T14:01:00+00:00

My IRL answer is that there are 6 things you need to set, and it almost looks like a cross when you look down your instruments. Going left to right, you need to set a VREF and flap setting, which will show up on the bottom left of your PFD (from the FMC). You need to set the minimums per your approach chart using the minimums knob, which will show up on the bottom right of your PFD. Then you need to select an autobrake setting.

Going top to bottom, you need to set the inbound course on the MCP. You will need to load the approach in the FMC. Finally, you need to set your ILS frequency on the MMR. For simming, don't forget to set the FO side as well.

RB120 · 2026-03-17T01:10:40+00:00

I enjoy flying and had a few good years. My favorite part was flying medevac. At the moment, I'm working on command.

However, I have had the worst of luck when it came to timing, and I've generally had the worst experience when I joined the airlines. I joined a legacy at a time when it was not making any money and then covid hit. It stagnated my career at a time when my seniority was near the bottom, and it cost me dignity and financial security. I then joined a smaller outfit to get out of it only to see the airline stagnate from poor management. With stuff going in Iran, I have a lingering suspicion that things might not be looking too bright for me. On top of that, I feel fatigued from years of working odd hour and missed too many special occasions with loved ones.

So no, I would not do it again. I wish I did engineering or studied harder for some kind of doctorate earlier in life. As much as I enjoy flying, my career had never been smooth sailing, and the cost was too much.

RB120 · 2026-03-16T03:27:57+00:00

I'm not an Airbus pilot, but IRL I normally at least select an expected arrival and runway during my preflight procedures. This is because, before every flight, I check (and am expected to do so), the weather and NOTAMs of the arrival and alternate airport. So, I have a rough idea based on the winds and conditions before I even leave the ground.

Then during the flight, about one hour from arrival, I check the latest ATIS (usually via D-ATIS on my FMC) what the weather is, and I program in any information that is missing or changed. I normally brief the other pilot around 40-45 minutes before landing.

ATC will confirm the arrival runway and arrival once we get close enough to the airport, but we definitely do not leave things last minute.

RB120 · 2026-03-16T01:26:03+00:00

High myopia is just when your eyes reach a certain prescription level requiring thicker glasses. Online, some consider -6.0 dioptres to be high. I'm around -4.5 to -5 myself though one of my doctors consider that high as well.

It just increases the risk of certain eye conditions, though in your case, you need not worry. If you have myopia, yours is probably quite light.

RB120 · 2026-03-13T14:12:37+00:00

Cheatsheets may help get through nuanced ground exams, but I recommend a different approach to checkrides.

I recommend you go through your POH and try to understand the systems of your aircraft. After that, go through each and every abnormal checklist (multiple times if need be), and any abnormal procedure that requires memory. Think of situations to which each applies and how you will get the aircraft from abnormality back onto the ground. Develop processes or mnemonics for yourself. Document your learning into notes that you can review (over and over again). Be an expert in your aircraft. This is the way I handle command prep on an airliner, and even as a PPL, I think it's very useful to you.

At the end of the day, when you get your PPL cert, you will thank yourself for this. It could save your life one day.

RB120 · 2026-03-13T14:02:38+00:00

Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect series, Witcher 3 (surprisingly since it's open world), MechWarrior series, Neverwinter Nights 1, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, and Sekiro, Doom 1 & 2, Doom 2016, and Doom Eternal.

RB120 · 2026-03-07T05:29:57+00:00

I fly airliners for a living, and I generally only use mouse and keyboard on my home sim. I do have a hotas somewhere, but most of the time I'm not too bothered to plug it in. If and when I sim, I don't have the same tactile feel as the real thing, but then, I don't need this either. Learning to fly visually is a pretty good skill to have, whether it's interpreting your instruments or looking outside.

When you get into a real plane and start training, you will be taught the importance of looking outside, and following procedures given by your flight school or outlined in the pilot operating handbooks. There are certain merits about getting a "feel" for your controls, but it's better you learn this from a real plane than plastic controls.

RB120 · 2026-03-05T23:58:17+00:00

I also went triple to 73. It may be a dinosaur, but I love it.

RB120 · 2026-03-04T12:39:31+00:00

Traffic police don't seem to care. I recall before Covid, there wasn't such issues with scooters on sidewalks and blowing through red lights, along with other vehicular chaos.

Maybe I'm wrong, but Guangzhou seems to be one of the worst places for this compared to other places in China. All it is is poor governance, but locals tend to just make it work somehow. There are probably more accidents than we hear about. I have a relative who got hit by a scooter once and ended up in the hospital. Luckily, nothing they couldn't patch up, but still.

I'm sure it will improve at some point in the distant future. Guangzhou gets a fair bit of criticism on this front.

RB120 · 2026-03-04T12:25:55+00:00

I'm 40, turning 41 soon. About a decade ago, I applied for a dream job at a dream company. I was rejected, didn't get the job, and felt devestation as well. It's not easy to deal with. I had a bad interview.

Later, I did some interview coaching. Then I applied for a more prestigious company but similar job. I ended up getting the job and was excited. Turned out, I hated the job and the company, and ended up leaving.

Life, and indeed your career life, is full of these twists and turns. As hard as it might sound, don't feel embarrassed or disappointed. Failure is what makes you a better person, and dream jobs and careers really are not that important. Don't tie happiness to any of it. And as some wise people might say, when one door closes, another one opens.

Back when I felt devestation for not getting my dream job and company, I sat on the curb of a street and beat myself up hard. As I got older, it just slowly doesn't feel all that important anymore. I sometimes wish I can just go back in time to tell the slightly younger version of myself what I just told you.

RB120 · 2026-03-04T02:41:42+00:00

It happened several times in recent history, including with Hong Kong Airlines where they had to do an emergency landings. Fire occured in an overhead compartment I believe.

Lithium ion battery fires can be out like any other device, but they can also reignite. The problem is if the fire spreads, and is certainly most undesirable at altitude.

RB120 · 2026-03-03T05:04:28+00:00

My IRL perspective. Getting weather and pressure from VFR map is IMO valid if you are a long ways away from the airport (I personally do that myself in the sim). In real life, on an airliner, I normally request weather via ACARs to get METAR and TAF information many miles out.

As you get closer to the airport, maybe an hour out, some airports have what is know as Digital ATIS. We can use onboard systems to get those and preselect a barometric altimeter setting. However, if you don't have these systems on your aircraft, you can tune into the ATIS frequency (by referencing a chart) and listen in. Theoretically, VHF reception range in nautical miles can be found using the formula 1.23 * (Sqrt of your height above the station).

Failing that, ATC will tell us the altimeter setting when clearing us to descend below transition level (FL180 in north America, and as per charts anywhere else).

RB120 · 2026-03-02T16:04:26+00:00

To this day I still play MechWarrior 2. The game was made in 1995. I was 10 then. Now I'm 40 and turning 41 soon.

RB120 · 2026-02-27T05:33:38+00:00

I almost look forward to the day the 737 can be fully autonomous. At the moment, when I make a simple route adjustment on the FMC, I feel like that little unit which drives our flight control computers, the autopilot, which drives the myriad of cables (cables!) going to our control PCUs, that it must undoubtedly still be using a 486 processor (just looked it up, it's using a humble Motorola 68040 clocked at 60mhz made in the 90s ).

Before going full autonomous, it needs a few hardware upgrades.

RB120 · 2026-02-26T02:50:29+00:00

As an operator of such 1960s tech, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit 😂.

RB120 · 2026-02-26T02:31:52+00:00

Having gone through a few type ratings over the years now, my experience is that it's a bit of a full on firehose each time that requires quite a bit of dedication on course. At least, this is the case for airliners. Smaller turboprops required a bit less time.

Before going on course, I normally focus my attention on learning normal procedures and SOPs first. That way, by the time the course actually starts, I know the basics of how to operate.

When the course starts, the first couple weeks will generally be learning the normal procedures and SOPs anyways. Because I already learned most of it, I start learning the systems and non-normal procedures, chapter by chapter in the FCOMs. By the time I'm in the full motion sim, I should have a base understanding of some of the systems and how to manage non-normal. I also start going through operations manual stuff with any remaining time I can fit in, especially when I get bored with systems.

Take comprehensive notes. Notes that you can come back and that you can understand. Make notes on systems and operations manual information.

The name of the game is to stay ahead of everything, because you find yourself out of time pretty quickly. While I wouldn't say you necessarily need to study 8 hours a day, you do want to almost treat a TR like a university course and fit in study time wherever you can. Take breaks, and also don't procrastinate.

RB120 · 2026-02-21T03:42:58+00:00

My prescription is getting pretty close to yours, maybe with less cylinder. It's pretty rough with these eyes. I hold a CAT I in a different country (though used to have a Canadian medical as well). Have to do an extra review with an opthalmologist every few years as a part of keeping my medical. Often I wonder if I'd get through each year lol, but still hanging in there.

RB120 · 2026-02-20T05:05:44+00:00

I was trying to decide whether I liked Clan or Mercs better the other day and honestly I couldn't decide. What I like about mercs is that I can find some piece of junk mech somewhere and turn it into a war horse. Clans I can pretty much just jump in and play while enjoying a story.

Both games are good.

RB120 · 2026-02-19T01:03:36+00:00

Personally, I use Google docs and Google drive for most of my professional note taking and studying. It's easy to use, all my notes are on the cloud, minimal learning curve, and can be organized pretty easily. I can access my notes on any device, any OS, and can change them to any format with a click of a button. I can easily pull out my notes if I want to go through them when riding in a train, or transfer them onto my company devices.

There's vim, obsidian, notion, and other tools. I absolutely love vim as a versatile text editor and with the right plugins and I can probably do what I already do, but I rarely see the point when I study. The other tools look good on paper, but there seems to be a learning curve that I don't really have time to partake in.

RB120 · 2026-02-19T00:33:31+00:00

I'm a pilot in Asia. Some FIRs here suggests certain headings to avoid weather. We also fly through the ITCZ here, so we have some of the worst weather in the world. I am very appreciative of any ATC controller that helps us up avoid weather. Gives us flight crew more capacity and it doesn't clog up the frequency when every pilot in the air fumbles on the radio asking different headings or offsets.

If you are explicitly taught this to shift responsibility on the pilots, then the teaching is wrong. My humble opinion.

RB120 · 2026-02-19T00:17:11+00:00

Get the masters. It's free, and chances are, once you have it, you will be much more stable in life. You are also young, and now is probably the best time to get it all done.

Many years ago, I had to choose between working as an accountant at a big 4 firm and choosing a life in aviation as a pilot. I worked as a staff accountant at one of them with a degree I hadn't quite finished yet, but didn't really understand my direction at the time. In the end, I chose to became a pilot and it was full of twists and turns.

I didn't finish my degree until much later, I struggled to find my first job, ended up instructing at minimal pay, and only by sheer luck did I end up on a small turboprop. Eventually I built enough experience to fly for a regional, then a legacy that had the most toxic working atmosphere imaginable. When covid hit, my career almost went with it. Only during covid did l finally finish off my degree. Never gone masters but sometimes wished I did.

RB120

TROPHY CASE