Flying the Piaggio Aero P180 Avanti from Geneva to Zuerich

G. Vittorio Frigo, Geneva, Switzerland - May 2014

A candid description of how to plan the Geneva-Zuerich flight, take off

from Geneva, fly the Avanti P-180 aircraft and do an ILS landing in
Zuerich, by an X-Plane novice.

Disclaimer: this is not a technical guide; it is... a recipe, built on personal experience. Comments
and (simple) corrections are welcome!

Note 1: I do not use X-plane’s ATC (Air Traffic Control) system for the time being. To turn ATC
sounds off, go to X-Plane’s menu “Settings/Sound” and un-check the option “Verbal ATC”.

Note 2: The aircraft used in this text is the original “P180 Avanti Ferrari Team” delivered with
X-Plane 10.25. There exist two more X-Plane versions of the Avanti, “Avanti II” and “Al-
terna”, both with electronic cockpit instrumentations; however I prefer the first version,
with solid, discrete instruments.

Note 3: The keyboard’s “p” key pauses or resumes X-Plane. Make liberal use of the “p” key!
In the beginning, just take all the time to make the next step. Pause. Go! Pause. Go!

XPFlightplanner is a simple application for generating flight plans that can be natively used with X-
Plane. Download & buy at http://http://www.xpflightplanner.com/. Price is about 5 USD.

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• Select departure and arrival airport

Do a search for e.g. "Swiss ICAO Airports". ICAO is one of two airport naming conventions, and
it's the one X-Plane uses.

Geneva = LSGG; Zuerich = LSZH etc.

Go to Aircraft/Equipment Failures/Word/MTBF - click on the bottom-left button "Reset all systems

to operational". Close the window (click on the “X” in the top/left corner).

Select menu "Aircraft/Open Aircraft/General Aviation/P180 Avanti Ferrari Team/avanti.acf”

Select menu "Location/Select global airport". Type e.g. LSGG in the field "Apt."
Note the elevation: Geneva (LSGG) elev 1410 ft.

In the column "TAKE OFF" select a runway, e.g. RWY 05. Close the window (click on the “X” in the
top/left corner).

Select menu "Location/Local Map" (or press ctrl+a, see later).

Click on the bottom-right button "center on acft" (center on aircraft) and hit the magnifying button
above it a few times. Take note of the ILS frequency: "LSG23 ILS-cat-III 109.90". We are going to
store this frequency in our NAV2 receiver, in case we need to come back to Geneva.

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• On runway naming -- and selection!

A moment ago we selected RWY 0 5 for departure. Now we look at the position of the aircraft on
the map, and we find out that it sits next to the tag LSGG 23. What happens?

The runway name LSGG 05 implies that the

runway is (more or less) pointing to 50º on the compass, similar to a line originating in the center
of the compass and aiming at 50º :

The plane is sitting at the beginning of runway LSGG 05.

Now, the other runway (LSGG 23), is laying in the specular direction on the compass:

… and it is in fact the same runway seen in the opposite direction!

So our aircraft sits at the beginning of runway LSGG 05 or at the end of runway LSGG 23, what-
ever! But in fact the nose of our aircraft is pointing towards 50º, so we say is sitting on LSGG 05.

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• Selecting a runway for landing

When selecting a runway for landing, you must reason on the way the runway lies ith respect to
your incoming aircraft (no consideration is given here to the fat that a runway may be closed).

When coming back from Zuerich, we will approach Geneva from the North; so we will select run-
way LSGG 23 and for our instrument approach we will hence select ILS LSGG 23's frequency, that
is, 109.90

Remember: you must select the ILS pointing in the direction you wish to land. (X-Plane shows an
arrow pointing to the ILS device itself. The arrow is outlined in red below. and points to ILS LSGG
23).

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• Zuerich Airport

Select menu "Location/Select global airport". Type e.g. LSZH in the field "Apt."
Take note of the elevation of Zuerich's airport: LSZH Zurich elevation 1416 (ft).

Considering that we will come in from the South (Geneva), runway LSZH 34 seems a good choice:

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Note runway's LSZH34 ILS's frequency: 110.75: we will set our NAV1 receiver to that frequency.

page 6
• Back to Geneva; departure preparation

Select menu "Location/Select global airport". Type LSGG in the field "Apt." Close the window (click
on the “X” in the top/left corner).

Hit the keyboard "w" key for a cockpit front view.

There's a general warning: "PITOT HEAT"! To get rid of the warning, we engage the Pitot Heat
switch (bottom-left of the cockpit image above), as
shown here:

Move the switch to the "ON" position. The warning dis-

appears.

(
for a description of the Pitot tubes see Wikipedia at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_tubes")

SCROLLING DOWN THE COCKPIT (there’s much more to see!):

to scroll up and down the cockpit, use the keyboard’s up/down keys.

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Now we enter our “flight plan” into the FMC (Flight Management Computer). I use “XPFlightPlan-
ner” (see the beginning of this text). “XPFlightPlanner” stores the flight plans directly inside X-
Plane’s folder, where X-Plane expects to find them: X-Plane/Output/FMS Plans.

In the Flight Management

Computer, we hit the "CLEAR"
button (middle/center of the
FMC),
and the "INIT" button (middle/
left of the FMC).

Next we hit the "LD" (load)

button, bottom/left of the FMC.

This opens a window showing the flight plans (FMS's) we have generated. The FMS plans are
stored within X-Plane's directory, at "Applications/X-Plane 10/Output/FMS plans".

(For details about FMS, see

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Flight_management_system")

From the FMS list, we select LSGG-

LSZH and hit the “Open FMS” button.
This loads the flight plan into the FMC
(Flight Management Computer):

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 The FMC shows the first waypoint of our
flight plan, at Gland.

Now we make the flight segment active by

hitting the FMC "Select" button (the one
with the arrow traversing a circle, next to
the "CLR" button).

The whole flight plan looks like this:

LSGG and LSZH are airports

GLA (Gland) is a non-directional beacon
SPR s a VOR-DME at St-Prex. All Geneva traffic passes by there!
VADAR…OBEDU are FIXes

(Pls refer to Wikipedia for explanations)

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The following figure shows the various waypoints on the X-Plane map (note that X-Plane does not
show the red line connecting the waypoints):

During your flight you will frequently need to refer to the maps.

This is done by invoking X-Plane’s menu “Location/Local Map/”.

When you are done looking at the map, you close the window by hitting the “X” at the top/left of
the window.

When you look at the map, the flight simulation stops.

X-Plane allows you to configure your own shortcuts.

I configured the shortcuts

“ctrl+a” as “Open map” and
“ctrl+s” as “close window” -- this way I can frequently consult the maps...

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• More Pre-Departure settings

Deploy the flaps by

operating the flap
lever or by hitting the
"2" key.

[flap lever on "UP"

position]

[flap lever on "medium"]

Just to make sure, look at the airplane from the back, by hitting Shift+3:

OK. Back to cockpit view by hitting the "w" key:

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Set the NAV1 receiver to Zuerich's LSZH 34 runway frequency (110.75):

First, enter the frequency using the rotary dial below the
"NAV1" label (it's a double dial, for setting integers and
decimals):

Then engage the NAV1 receiver by hitting the little switch

above the "NAV1" label:

It is nice to have the frequency of Geneva's LSGG 23 run-

way (109.90) , in case we have to go back:

Just in case things go wrong, it is nice to have the Autopi-

lot Heading Select control pointing to direction of the run-
way (LSGG05, pointing (roughly!) to 50º East). On the
Horizontal-SituationTo-NAV1 Indicator, the Heading Select
is currently pointing to "E", east.

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 Rotate the dial on the bottom-left of the (the
one with the two white dots) until the Heading
Select indicator coincides with the red mark
above the dial:

[Heading Select indicator pointing to runway]

Now pre-select the flight altitude (10’000 ft) in

the ALT panel, by using the rotating dial to the
right of the altitude panel:

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 Setting a rate of climb (RoC) will prevent the aircraft from
climbing too steep, hence limiting the speed.
Using the RoC dial on the bottom/right of the RoC instrument
we set a rate of climbing of 1500 feet per minutes.

We will enforce the rate of climb just after take-off, by hitting

the
“V/S” button on the Flight Guidance Panel (top of the cock-
pit)

The Flight Guidance panel (the “V/S” button is the last one):

We are ready for take-off.

==> At this point, it is assumed you have a joystick properly configured (menu "Settings/
Joystick & Equipment")

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• Takeoff

Hit the "b" key (release brakes)

Switch to the view "Forward with HUD (Head-Up_Display)

Increase the engine's power close to the maximum.

Keep the plane in the center of the runway using the "Yaw" control of the joystick.

As soon as the plane leaves the runway, retract the landing gear by hitting the "g" key.

The Landing Gear indicator switches from "Down" to "Up":

While we set the auto-pilot, it is nice to keep flying

in the direction of the runway: hit the “HDG” select
button on the Flight Guidance panel (top edge of
the cockpit):

The HDG SEL indicator lights up.

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• Engaging the AutoPilot

On the AutoPilot
Source panel, right-
rotate the SOURCE
dial from NAV1 to GPS

[The picture shows

the dial on NAV1]

On the extreme left of the cockpit, to the left of the AirSpeed indi-
cator, rotate the "FLIGHT DIR" dial to AUTO:

To finally enable AutoPilot guidance, press the "LOC" button on the

Flight Guidance panel (top edge of the cockpit):

The aircraft turns to follow the autopilot directions:

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 Now we press the “V/S” (vertical Speed) button on
the Flight Guidance panel (top edge of the cockpit) to
engage the vertical speed of 1500ft/minutes we pro-
grammed earlier.t.

The Altitude indicator shows that the requested altitude

(10'000 ft) is ARMED

The indicated airspeed (in Knots, or nautical miles

per hour) shows about 170 kt:

After a while, the aircraft reaches the pro-

grammed altitude (10'000 ft): the Altitude indica-
tor now shows "CAPT" (captured):Monitor the
throttle and reduce power, as the aircraft will ac-
celerate.
Stay below 250 kt.

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The AutoPilot is now controlling the air-
craft.

The distance to the next waypoint is

shown in the top-left corner of the HSI
(Horizontal Situation Indicator) as well
as on the FMC (Flight Management
Computer):

page 18
 The FMC (Flight management
Computer) shows “DIS 00010.8
NM”.

The various waypoints (SPA, VA-

DAR, ESEVA, etc) will appear in the
FMC while you enjoy the pano-
rama.

The next important point is intercepting the localizer of the destination airport (ILS or Instrument
landing)

page 19
• Intercepting the Localizer of the destination airport, preamble

The ILS system consists of two components: the Localizer, which provides horizontal guidance, and
the GlideScope, which provides vertical guidance. Again refer to Wikipedia for technical details.

The localizer is aimed in the opposite direction of the runway: the localizer for Zuerich LSZH 34
(340º) is pointed at 160º. The X-Bible says that one should intercept the localizer at about 3000ft
above the altitude of the airport, at about 10 NM (Nautical Miles) from the runway.
"Intercept" means (as far as I understand) to cross paths with the path of the localizer.

Our flight map passes by … VEBIT, OBEDU and ends in LSZH (Zuerich). OBEDU is 17 NM from
Zuerich, which is the ideal distance to cross the localizer. So, at OBEDU we will abandon the
AutoPilot navigation and fly towards 90º (Eat), as shown in this diagram (the LSZH34 localizer
beam is shown in yellow):

We also have to loose altitude, descending from our 10'000ft cruise altitude to the ~ 4000ft re-
quired for the interception.

Concerning the descent mechanism, the X-Bible says "to determine when to start your descent,
drop the last zero from the Flight Level (FL) and multiply by three". The FL equals the altitude in
ft, divided by 100.

Well, our flight altitude of 10'000 ft (very low indeed, to enjoy the panorama) translates into
FL100. Hence we need (10 X 3) 30 NM to descend from 10'000 to 3'000 feet. However, we only
want to descend to 4'000, so we need a little less, 27 NM.

VEBIT is 10 NM from OBEDU and 27 NM from Zuerich, so we will initiate the descent at VEBIT.

[In the meantime, enjoy the panorama! But don't forget to look at the FMC , to monitor the pro-
gress of the flight]

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• Initiating the descent

Mid-way between ROTOS and VEBIT, we program the altitude to 4000ft and the Rate of Climb to a
negative "-1" = -1000 ft/minute, using the rotating dial at the right of the RoC instrument:

At VEBIT, we click on the V/S button (top of the cock-

pit), initiating the descent.

Just before OBEDU, we program the AutoPilot Head-

ing select to point East (90º), using the rotating dial on
the bottom-left of the instrument,

... Look often at the map!

(menu Location/Local Map, or (in my case)

ctrl+s), then click on the “X” (top-left of the
map, or (in my case) ctrl+s)

and we hit the "HDG" button on the top side of the cockpit instruments:

page 21
 On the Flight Guidance Panel, the AutoPilot
"LOC" disengages and "HDG SEL" lights up.

Now the aircraft will head East, aiming to in-

tercept the localizer. Meanwhile, the descent
continues: At OBEDU, the altitude is 7500 ft.

The above picture shows the Intersect path after OBEDU (bottom-left of the map). The plane is the
tiny orange thingy in the bottom-left of the map.

At RIPUS (Bottom-middle of the map above) it's time to lower the landing gear (hit "g") and ex-
tend the flaps to the mid position (key "2").
Watch the throttle and keep the speed below 200 kt.

… and make liberal use of the "p" (PAUSE/RESUME) key !!!

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• Intercepting the Localizer

On the AutoPilot panel (bottom-right of the cockpit, press down-arrow on keyboard to access)
rotate the SOURCE dial to NAV1.

NAV1 is set to the frequency of Zuerich's LSZH34 ILS!

On the Flight Guidance Panel, hit the "APP" (“approach”) button and hit the "HDG" button (to de-
select it).

The ALT, LOC, APP ("Approach") and "G/S" (GlideScope) buttons are armed.

A few seconds after, the Artificial Horizon instrument shows both the Localizer (Purple "bug" at the
bottom of the instrument) and the GlideScope (Purple "bug" at the bottom of the instrument): if
you were flying the aircraft manually, the Localizer bug tells you to steer right, and the GlideScope
bug tells you to go up a bit.

This screen snapshot shows you the situation at ALBIX:

page 23
The aircraft has stabilized at ALT=4'000 ft -- still seeking the localizer

page 24
The ALT, LOC and APP systems are active. G/S is armed but not active yet!

The localizer steers the aircraft...

… and the GlideScope lights up green. Note the runway just above the "G/S" button!

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Now we put the cockpit in 3D mode (shift+9). Here it is:

Notice that the AutoPilot has lowered the aircraft to 3400ft, the speed is 180 kt, descending at
1000 ft/min, 5.7 kt to destination. The Localizer bug and the GlideScope bug are perfectly cen-
tered. The FLIGHT DIR (left of the Indicated Airspeed) is still on AUTO.

We will switch it to OFF at 10ft altitude.

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page 27
• Final approach & Landing

"1000 feet" call:

This is 1'000 ft above Zuerich Kloten's airport altitude, 1400 + 1000 = 2400 ft/

It is important to have a "Reverse Thrust" button on the Joy Stick. If you do not, the keyboard
shortcut for Reverse Thrust is "shift + "/".
Also, keep your mouse on the FLIGHT DIR rotary switch (at the bottom-left of the following pic-
ture)s: you will have to turn it to "OFF" just before touching ground.

"500 feet" call, at 1700ft:

"100 feet… 50… 40… 20… 10…" :

- turn FLIGHT DIR to OFF
- cut throttle, lift nose, keep aircraft nice and smooth.
- As soon as you touch, REVERSE THRUST, throttle max. engage brakes ("b" key),
- stop reverse thrust when stopped.

page 28
Open door

slide the door control up to open the air-

craft door.

Take a souvenir snapshot:

Byyyye!

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