DH-88 Comet radio navigation

[bugdozer]

Does anyone know if this default plane is capable of any form of radio navigation in FS2004? Logically, since the real thing could fly from England to Australia it must be, but I can't find any nav instruments in FS2004 apart from a compass. There is that suspiciously modern looking com radio but that's all I can find radio wise.
If it has nav instruments, can anyone tell me where to find them?

[mgh]

I suspect it didn't have any specific nav instruments. The radio would have been pretty old-fashioned.

[RFields]

None.

From the Learning Center on the aircraft when attempting this flight "You’ll navigate on this flight using a combination of pilotage, dead reckoning, and GPS navigation." There is probably no way we could use the aircraft for any distance in FS without the GPS.

Remember it was designed and built for ONE race. Apparently only five or seven aircraft were all that were built.

There is more on the single long distance flight of the real aircraft in the FS Larning Center material:

"64 airplanes had entered the race, but not all of them made it to the starting line. In the end, a total of 20 planes departed England's Mildenhall airfield on the morning of October 20, 1934. Race officials divided the race into six legs ranging from 787 miles to 2,530 miles in length. A number of backup check points were also set up along the route, which ran from Mildenhall, England to Marseilles, Rome, Athens, Aleppo, Baghdad, Karachi, Allahabad, Calcutta, Bangkok, Singapore, Darwin, Charleville and, finally, across the race finish in Melbourne, Australia. "

"The first mandatory stop was Baghdad, which Scott and Black intended to reach in a single leg. But they ran into horrible weather over Turkey, and by the time they were over Syria, it was night, they were low on fuel, and they were completely lost. It looked as if they might be out of the race. But suddenly Scott sighted an airfield below them, which turned out to be the Royal Air Force's emergency landing strip at Kirkuk."

"Foggy-headed with sleepiness, they got lost on the way to Charleville, even though Scott had flown over that area many times. They finally found a railroad, followed that into Charleville"

Two of three aircraft made it to Australia.

Pilots those days were really good are reading maps, working out wind drift, following the compass and that ancient navigational art of "dead reckoning".

And these two were VERY, VERY, VERY lucky to have survived the flight.

[bhk]

Don't overlook the fact also that in some cases there was the ability to "home" onto known broadcast-band (AM) stations using a receiver and DF loop.

Whether or not "Grosvenor House" had such equipment installed, I do not know. However, it is feasible for that period of time.

Bruce

[bugdozer]

Thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like VFR is probably the best way to fly this bird!