Trans Polar Flights problem.

hello, I am really sorry to ask too many questions/doubts/etc... I am some sort of a beginner in FSX. Coming to the problem, why my line in the GPS is acting weird like this http://www.image24.net/uploads/3c745daa38untitled.png

 

please help.

What's so weird about it? Are you flying using ATC to give you your required turns? If not, maybe its' time to turn your aircraft and follow the line a little closer. I think that line in the GPS is your course line and your heading, at that time, was 300 degrees. Don't forget that things go a little crazy on those Polar Routes.

 

It may be a good idea to push the C/D button just under the KIAS indicator and change over to MACH Speed.

If i go a bit closer to that line, it turns again.

If you are actually flying a "polar" flight; that is, a track that goes higher in latitude than around 75 degrees or so, you will find that things get extremely "interesting" as Mr. Zippy alluded to above!

 

In the real world, polar flights are flown using an entirely different coordinate system than the ones (True north and Magnetic north) that we are used to. Even when using true references and ignoring the magnetic compass (the magnetic pole is hundreds of miles south of the geographic, or true, pole; and this introduces all kinds of anomalies in navigation) the course changes dramatically over short distances due to the convergence of lines of longitude at the poles. Therefore, when operating near the geographic poles, we use what is called "grid navigation". This simply substitutes a different heading reference instead of north.

 

Imagine that you could take a globe and move the overlay (the lat/long lines ) around so that the "north pole" lay someplace else, maybe over Miami. Then you would have a situation wherein the lines of "latitude and longitude" in the vicinity of the actual pole relate to each other in a way that more resembles some other place far away, maybe Milwaukee or someplace like that. In that area, a true course for a great circle route would not change every mile or so, and your navigation could proceed in a more orderly manner, although you would be looking at a grid track of perhaps south when you are really headed in some entirely other direction!

 

Once you have passed out of the area of the pole where the normal longitude lines converge, you can switch back to normal heading references and navigate as you always do.

 

We used to do this quite often on MAC (Military Airlift Command) flights back in the 1970's when we carried navigators as part of the crew - they needed to practice grid navigation periodically to stay sharp. We would merely reset the directional gyros from, say, northeast to southeast when they told us to, and fly the headings they calculated. Today, modern FMC's can do all of this automatically.

 

But not the ones in FSX, I would imagine, and thus the behaviors you are probably seeing.

 

If this is confusing, you are not alone - it took me an hour or two of navigators trying to explain it to me before I understood even a little of it!

 

Tony Vallillo

Your selected speed is a joke, isn't it?

Your selected speed is a joke, isn't it?

 

well i am using a panel of a 787 and this goes too slow. At a simulation rate of x16 i am able to reach SFO in 30 mins..

 

@avalllilo so do you mean that I have to bear that consequence while flying above the pole?

well i am using a panel of a 787

 

Is that why it looks so much like a 737 2D panel?

Interesting - the panel in your screenshot looks like a 737-800, and nothing at all like a 787 panel!

 

As for flying above the pole, I have never tried it in FS, so I have no idea what degree of realism FSX brings to this somewhat esoteric sort of flight. But if you want to fly over the pole (which would be pretty much required if you were going non-stop from say, Dubai, to LAX, you would end up with headings that would change very quickly as you transited the polar area, despite your having the wings level the whole time!

 

Don't forget - 16x is cheating!!! If you want to see what it is really like to be an international Captain, you need to sit in the seat for the entire 16 plus hour flight!! You may, however, take a break from time to time - a flight that long would have a 4 pilot crew at least, so you could fly for 4 hours and break for 4 hours, repeat as necessary.

 

Still want to be an airline pilot??!!

 

Happy Landings!

The panel is from a 737 and it seems to go right. As per the PFD it will run into overspeed at about 340 KIAS which sounds reasonable for this kind of plane and altitude. No airliner can fly 568 KIAS at 30000 feet. As you are a newby I suggest some basic reading about the different speeds in aviation just to bring a bit of more realism to your simming.

From the GPS reading: departure Dubai. Enroute to WP5, with still 733Nm to go.

And according to post title you're flying over a pole...

That's a VERY long single leg IMO. I'm not surprised the GPS gets jumpy, specially close to the pole.

 

@AVallillo : Interesting. Is this where the "81N080W","78N100W",... waypoints come into action ?

 

Wim

Don't forget - 16x is cheating!!! If you want to see what it is really like to be an international Captain, you need to sit in the seat for the entire 16 plus hour flight!! You may, however, take a break from time to time - a flight that long would have a 4 pilot crew at least, so you could fly for 4 hours and break for 4 hours, repeat as necessary.

 

lol oke. I get it. But the thing is, when i apply to xxx airlines/airways I won't immediately start with ultra long haul flights(like this one). I would go for a short distance flights like KLAS-KSFO and so on.

 

The panel is from a 737 and it seems to go right. As per the PFD it will run into overspeed at about 340 KIAS which sounds reasonable for this kind of plane and altitude. No airliner can fly 568 KIAS at 30000 feet. As you are a newby I suggest some basic reading about the different speeds in aviation just to bring a bit of more realism to your simming

 

 

well i used to have a panel of a 777 which goes above 686 KIAS. Since i reinstalled FSX the calculations changed. I am only used to metric calculations.. but this one is something else. Would you mind suggesting me some good panel which goes at a decent speed? :cool:

It's not the panel. You need to understand how the different speed calculations in aviation do work. 300 KIAS near ground level is a complete different speed than 300 KIAS in 30000ft.

oh ok.. here comes an other problem.. tilted wheels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtIU1hdK2JQ&feature=youtu.be

 

 

idk whats wrong..

oh ok.. here comes an other problem.. tilted wheels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtIU1hdK2JQ&feature=youtu.be

idk whats wrong..

 

Did the nose wheel work and turn correctly during your taxi BEFORE takeoff? If it did, then maybe you came down a little too hard on it when landing.

 

If you feel a need for speed, might I suggest flying the Concorde.

Oh.. never knew that. I just now landed an a380 smoothly and nothing happened. But in that video i am 100% sure that my speed was

Oh.. never knew that. I just now landed an a380 smoothly and nothing happened. But in that video i am 100% sure that my speed was

 

Try 155 KIAS for 747 landing speed. I just landed at Leeds-Bradford with my A380 and used 150 KIAS at touchdown.

What was your vertical speed at touchdown?

Strange things happen near the poles. If you're sitting right on top of the geographic north or south pole, it could be raining or snowing and there wouldn't be a single cloud in the sky.

 

I find that the closer to the pole you get, the more sideways the scenery moves underneath you. You look down and the ground is moving at up to a 90 degree angle! Also find that clouds get skinny!

so u mean that there is no way to navigate through the pole in FSX?