Preparing for Vatsim and need some help

[BillTheSlink]

Hi:

I have some problems. There is more than one, so if you just feel like taking one maybe someone else will follow up.

First the charts; I watched the tutorial on YouTube several times and know how to read the typical SID and STAR charts they showed. Example:

SID Cincinnati:
http://www.naco.faa.gov/d-tpp/0808/00655HAGOL.PDF

STAR Cincinnati:
http://www.naco.faa.gov/d-tpp/0808/00655CEGRM.PDF

But I wanted to fly from O'Hare to Dublin and they are different all together and there are no other charts listed for them.

O'Hare Departure:
http://www.naco.faa.gov/d-tpp/0808/00166OHARE.PDF

As you can see that is completely different than the Cincinnati SID. There are no arrows connecting any Nav beacons, only straight dashed lines coming straight away from the runways. There are transmitters listed on that map, such as DANVILLE, PEOTONE, ROBERTS, etc., but they form no type of course.

For Dublin Ireland:

Arrival:
http://www.vateir.com/Charts/EIDW/EIDWNORTHSTARS.pdf

On this chart there are paths, although somewhat convoluted, but no transmitters to follow. The only type of directional aid I could find are measurements in degrees at points along the courses. How are you supposed to get to each point and know your there when you arrive so you can turn?

Now for a question about VatSim requirements. They say you must know how to do a standard turn. Is this a certain bank angle or something. How do you know your turning fast enough to complete a 360 degree turn in one minute? Does it very with airspeed?

Next, does your altitude have a bearing on your ground speed? While flying offline the O'Hare to Dublin route over the pole eastward my air speed was like 320, but my ground speed was over 500 knots. Now if that was a tail wind it sure is one heck of a one.

If you have the SID and STAR is there some place online that has the charts of what's in between? I can't find any, but then again I am not Google savvy.

I am thinking of getting FSBuild for my PMDG FMC to use. Will that work for Vatsim and will it match up with SIDs and STARs, or should I just use that website?

Now finally if I have the typical Nav radio, PMDG FMC, and GPS what equipment code am I on Vatsim. I cannot figure out what that nomenclature for the type of navigation is.

Thanks boys and girls for your time. I know this is long, but I need to find out someway. Maybe you can kick it around for a few days until it all gets resolved.

BillTheSlink

[RyanbATC]

Whew, that's a lot of questions!

If I were you I'd just fly on VATSIM, and do a very basic IFR flight. Point A to Point B. GPS direct or something

And remember, VATSIM is ONLY a simulated environment, they won't give you a pilot deviation lol!

Most of the time they'll give you radar vectors (a heading etc) to the SID or STAR in case you don't have the charts.

I was looking at that DUB STAR and it looks pretty funky I have to admit. I have no clue where you want to come in but looking at that far western entrance, intersection RANAR 1D, you'll find it is off the DUB292038 (The Dublin VOR Freq 114.9 radial 292 at about 38 miles (ok so it's 37.9 whatever).... so that's how you'd start the STAR I spose... Followed by a left turn to join the DUB 19 DME arc then it appears to be some sort of hold or something.... not really sure.

And I could be interpreting all that incorrectly (never seen a European STAR before)

Since KORD is a busy airport you'd most likely receive radar vectors to a VOR along your course, or whatever way the traffic is flowing. Since VATSIM usually isn't busy like the real world, they'll either have you file to one of the VOR's as a first fix on your flight plan, and you can navigate direct or whatever, or they'll issue a heading that you can fly to get to the VOR

Any speed the virtual ATC issues will be in KIAS (indicated air speed in nautical miles per hour). That is the readout on your PFD or airspeed indicator. You may have a GPS that reads out ground speed too. And then there's TAS (true air speed) but I suck at all this hard core aviation stuff, it's been a while since I've even flown a plane to log hours lol! There are some guru's here that can explain the difference....

Don't worry about all that other stuff LOL! Just get the basics down, and have fun!

oh one more, for US charts go here to view them free (and download in pdf format)
http://avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_tpp

[jwenting]

Another tip: until you're comfortable and have some experience, fly in areas where the controllers are not too busy.
They'll have more time for you that way.
Also tell them you're inexperienced and they may not yell at you, may even help you (not all of them, some are real jerks who take great pleasure in chewing out pilots over perceived errors, but those are not as common in the US as in some other places).

[BillTheSlink]

Whew, that's a lot of questions!

If I were you I'd just fly on VATSIM, and do a very basic IFR flight. Point A to Point B. GPS direct or something

And remember, VATSIM is ONLY a simulated environment, they won't give you a pilot deviation lol!

Most of the time they'll give you radar vectors (a heading etc) to the SID or STAR in case you don't have the charts.

I was looking at that DUB STAR and it looks pretty funky I have to admit. I have no clue where you want to come in but looking at that far western entrance, intersection RANAR 1D, you'll find it is off the DUB292038 (The Dublin VOR Freq 114.9 radial 292 at about 38 miles (ok so it's 37.9 whatever).... so that's how you'd start the STAR I spouse... Followed by a left turn to join the DUB 19 DME arc then it appears to be some sort of hold or something.... not really sure.

And I could be interpreting all that incorrectly (never seen a European STAR before)

Since KORD is a busy airport you'd most likely receive radar vectors to a VOR along your course, or whatever way the traffic is flowing. Since VATSIM usually isn't busy like the real world, they'll either have you file to one of the VOR's as a first fix on your flight plan, and you can navigate direct or whatever, or they'll issue a heading that you can fly to get to the VOR

Any speed the virtual ATC issues will be in KIAS (indicated air speed in nautical miles per hour). That is the readout on your PFD or airspeed indicator. You may have a GPS that reads out ground speed too. And then there's TAS (true air speed) but I suck at all this hard core aviation stuff, it's been a while since I've even flown a plane to log hours lol! There are some guru's here that can explain the difference....

Don't worry about all that other stuff LOL! Just get the basics down, and have fun!

oh one more, for US charts go here to view them free (and download in pdf format)
http://avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_tpp

Thank you for the link. There I found the download NACO Aeronautical Chart User's Guide; perhaps that will help.

What is a DME beacon and how do you follow it? Do you just dial it in and flip the Nav switch and Nav hold button. I still don't understand how you would know when to turn on the second DME beacon, since if your traveling west and you reach your north turn the 1st beacon you would be following would still be toward the west pulling you onward if you didn't know to switch.

I am going to take your advise and start small. The VA I fly with (AirSource) has a Delta Airline route in the 737 from Tampa to Cincinnati daily. I have flown it with MS ATC many times for my log book and will try that since both have common SIDS and STARS and I doubt have ATC present at all times. This will give me a chance to handle the navigation without worrying about getting chewed out. But if anyone can help me out with those two charts I still would like to know, since that is the route I want to do regularly for a while. It's a seven hour flight in 1x (we are not permitted to use any acceleration) and will give me a chance to not only stay busy, but rise through the ranks.

You mentioned GPS direct; it is my understand VatSim will not accept a GPS direct flight plan; is that right? I am almost certain I read that in the pilot learning center, but there is so much to learn it sorta blends together.

Thanks for the advise,
Bill

[Tim_A]

They say you must know how to do a standard turn. Is this a certain bank angle or something. How do you know your turning fast enough to complete a 360 degree turn in one minute? Does it very with airspeed?
A Standard Rate Turn (also known as a Rate One turn, or "two minute turn") is 3 degrees of heading change per second, or one complete 360-degree turn in two minutes. It's routinely used for procedure turns, holds etc, and should be considered a basic skill. It's achieved by aligning the wings of the aeroplane symbol on the Turn Coordinator with the 'L' or 'R' mark, while keeping the ball of the inclinometer centred.

It also follows that a Rate-Half turn is 1.5 degrees per minute, and a Rate-Two turn is 6 degrees per minute.

The rate of turn does not vary with airspeed - 360 degrees is 360 degrees, whatever way up you look at it. But what WILL vary is the bank angle and the radius of the turn -- which is why we're looking at the TC and not the AI.

Bank angle is calculated by the formula (KTAS/10) + 7
Radius in nm is KTAS/(Rate * 60 * PI)


Next, does your altitude have a bearing on your ground speed? While flying offline the O'Hare to Dublin route over the pole eastward my air speed was like 320, but my ground speed was over 500 knots. Now if that was a tail wind it sure is one heck of a one.

There's a simple answer, and a correct answer...

Ground speed is True Airspeed adjusted for wind.
Indicated airspeed is not the same as true airspeed, and varies with altitude, atmospheric pressure, temperature etc. in a complex way. It's generally true to say, the higher you are, the lower will be your indicated airspeed compared with your true airspeed. Above a certain altitude, it's more sensible to measure speed relative to sound (i.e. 'mach' number), but the maths goes over my head at this point.

[RyanbATC]

Good, do a route you are familiar with first.

VATSIM sure does permit GPS direct, I do it all the time...sure they'll give you VTF (vectors to final) for the ILS or whatever approach is in use, but you still essentially navigate direct to your destination.

I can try to explain the Dublin STAR, but it may or may not be correct hehe

Say you're arriving from the west, over the RANAR 1D intersection, which is where you'd start the STAR. You tune in 114.9 on your NAV1 radio. Technically you'd press the ID or IDENT button and listen for the corresponding morse code. Once you listen for that you know you have the correct freq dialed in. And this part I might be wrong at but I'd tune in the reciprocal course of 292 on my HSI, which would be 112 degrees. So you have the course needle set to 112 with the flag pointing TO the VOR and then you'd want to watch your DME (distance measuring equipment) until it says 37.9 nm (nautical miles) and you'll know you're at RANAR 1D. Also, the intersection might be available on your FMC, if you fly a payware type aircraft.

You then fly towards the VOR until around 20 DME or so and start the left turn north to join the arc. I can't help you here I'm not great with flying arcs, although it's a lot of twisting and turning on the HSI. This guy is awesome, and he has a lot of material you can browse through
http://stoenworks.com/Aviation%20home%20page.html

http://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/IFR%2C%20VOR-DME%20Approaches.html

So that's that