Rudy_B
-
Posts
64 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
vBulletin Articles
News
Downloads
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by Rudy_B
-
-
Microsoft Flight Simulator 15 ILS Instrument Landing System
Many airports utilize an Instrument Landing System. The ILS is a special kind of VOR in the sense that it has just one radial, the one that lines us up with the runway. In addition there's a second radio beam that guides us vertically so we can fly the perfect glideslope to the runway.
-
Microsoft Flight Simulator 13 VOR Navigation: fly to / from
Besides the NDB's (Non Directional Beacons) from video 12, there's another set of navigational aids scattered around the globe: VOR's, Very High Frequency Omni Directional Range (or Radio). In this video we'll see how we can tune into a VOR and how to fly to it, or away from it. We'll fly a Cessna 172.
-
We're flying the Cessna 172 with the Garmin G1000 ‘glass cockpit’ and our challenge this time is to intercept the 98 bearing flying away from the Santander NDB to the Bilbao NDB. We’ll have a look at how to tune the ADF radio in the G1000 and how to show the ADF needles.
-
The video shows how to intercept a specific bearing to an NDB. We’ll be flying the Cessna 172 with gauges from the MSFS Deluxe version, which has a Bendix King KR87 ADF in the cockpit. We’ll see how to operate this unit, which also features a flight timer and a stopwatch, which we’ll use to time the flightplan legs.
-
The Smart Cam points at nearby airports, or POI's, or at a user defined target. It can be used both in Cockpit view and in External view.
For a fly by the Drone Cam is the tool to use. By default the toggle is the Ins key.
There's a series of videos on the different cams. This is the Drone video:
-
Non Directional Beacons (NDB) are one of the two types of radio beacons used for air navigation. In this video we’ll make a flight plan with Little Navmap that solely uses NDB’s. We’ll then fly the plan in the Cessna 152 in Microsoft Flight Simulator using the Automatic Direction Finder (ADF). When we tune the ADF radio to the NDB frequency, the ADF indicator points to the location of the NDB.
-
In this video we install Little Navmap, create a plan for a visual flight (VFR), save it, load it in MSFS and fly it.
Navigation is performed via timing of the plan legs with a stopwatch, combined with the visual clues of the landmarks we picked as reference points along our route: canal, highway, city, lake, bridge, coastline.
-
-
Navigation nowadays is primarily based on GPS (Global Positioning System). It can be fun to plan a GPS flight, load the waypoint data into the flight computer, take off, engage the autopilot and watch the plane follow the line. On the other hand it can be more fun to have some more interaction and fly the plane ourselves and navigate the old fashioned way, using NDB (Non Directional Beacon) and VOR (Very High Frequency Omni-directional Range) radio beacons. And to land the plane with the ILS (Instrument Landing System) is fun too.
The locations and the radio frequencies of the beacons can be found on aeronautical charts. These are available on the internet and there also are some wonderful apps which also cater for the creation of flight plans. Among the best are Skyvector, Plan G, or, my personal favorite, Little Navmap.
This video is an introduction to the videos that are about to follow on flight planning and instrument navigation with NDB, VOR, ILS, GPS, SID, STAR.
-
The Y key toggles Slew Mode on/off. It allows us to quickly move the plane to a new position and attitude. This comes in handy when we like to fast forward to the next waypoint of a flight plan, or when we want to position the plane at a certain spot on the ground.
The keyboard controls don’t allow for accurate positioning because of the high movement speed. To position the plane with higher precision we can create slew bindings for a joystick or yoke and rudder pedals in the control panel.
-
The S key toggles the Smart Camera on/off. The Smart Cam automatically focuses on a nearby airport or a POI. Ctrl Page Up/Down can be used to cycle through the list of available targets. A target can also be created manually using the T key and the right mouse button to move the target ring to the position we want to point the camera at.
-
Besides the Cockpit-, External- and Drone cameras MSFS also contains a series of fixed camera positions whereby the camera is mounted at several spots on the exterior of the airplane. The Drone also has three fixed camera options. The video shows all this.
-
MSFS contains a camera drone that can be controlled fully independent of the airplane. The drone can follow the airplane, but it can also move (far) away from it. This makes it possible to create cinematic shots from the flying plane or from beautiful places on earth.
The drone can be controlled via keyboard commands, however, for butter smooth control that enables wonderful cinematic camera work, a joystick or an Xbox controller is highly advisable.
-
The external camera can be controlled via the mouse (right click hold and move) and it also has quick views (Ctrl Arrow) and Instrument Views (Ctrl 1,2,3…).
What it lacks are keyboard shortcuts for moving the camera. These can be added in the Control Settings by configuring keys for move up, down, left and right. The Arrow keys seem a logical choice.
Keyboard camera moves are rather fast. Much smoother control can be achieved using a second joystick and create the bindings for it in the Control Settings.
-
The Radios & Autopilot Panel Project I had been working on the past months performs well with FSX. I had not yet had a chance to test it with Microsoft Flight Simulator though. Until now … yesterday I was able to put it to the test and I can gladly confirm FSRadioPanel (Android app) and Mobiflight (Windows app to connect hardware) both work well with MSFS.
-
Finally as of April 2021 I have a new rig ... more info here.
I plan to continue the video series on Flight Sim Navigation from here on. And because the quality of some of the old videos was in fact sub par, runniong FSX on a PC that stuttered even with that, I also plan to redo most of them.
Before instrument navigation continues I like to do a couple of videos on basic operations in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
This is the first of those: Cockpit Camera Control
- Rotation
- Translation
- Quick View
- Instrument Views
- Custom Views (save / recall your own camera views)
-
34 Radios & Autopilot Panel Mobiflight LEDs and Buttons
In the previous videos we configured the encoders and the 7 segment displays for the radios and autopilot panel. What's left are the push buttons and the LEDs for the autopilot functions like AP on/off, heading, speed, altitude, vertical speed and more, 12 buttons and LEDs in total. A list of the Event ID's and the FSUIPC offsets that are used is included in the blog post.
-
33 Radios and Autopilot Project: Mobiflight Configuration of 7 Segment Displays
7-segent displays can be connected to the Arduino via the MAX7219 controller with which Mobiflight can communicate. PCB modules with eight digits and a MAX7219 controller are available around $1,-. These modules can be chained with max eight in a row whereby the three connections Data, Load, CLK run from one module to the next. This makes it possible to control 64 digits with just three Arduino outputs. The video shows how to configure four modules to show CRS(3), HDG(3), IAS(5), ALT(5) and V/S(5).
-
Do you have the new alpha v4 version installed?
More info here: http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4185.0
-
I don't have MFS yet (first building a new rig with nVidia 3000) so I can't test this myself, but you could give it a try. I read somewhere you need to deselect most, or at least some, of the pilot / flying aids such that the sim is operating close to realistic. Unfortunately this also means you may lose some flying aids you might still want to be switched on.
-
It's not the only (major) airport missing ... here's a list:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/list-of-all-the-missing-airports-airfields-strips/204536
By the way, over at Reddit someone is creating EHEH and it's starting to look really good.
-
The MFS Camera Control Unit I intended to build is ready (but for the knobs for the sliders, they are in the making).
The unit is built around an Arduino Leonardo. It's recognized by Windows as a HID controller. I hope MFS has the settings available to use a HID controller to control the camera and the drone. The idea is to control those with the left hand, while the right hand holds the stick to control the plane.
The joystick is intended for Rx, Ry, Rz rotations.
The sliders are meant for X,Y translation and Zoom.
The 5 buttons are meant to switch between saved camera presets.
Cost price of the unit is less than $20,- plus a couple of fun hours building it.
The .dxf laser file and the .ino Arduino Leonardo sketch can be downloaded from Dropbox.
-
32 Radios and Autopilot Project: Mobiflight Configuration of HDG, IAS, ALT and V/S.
In the previous video we configured the course (CRS) setting. In this video we'll configure the other four autopilot settings: heading (HDG), Indicated Air Speed (IAS), altitude (ALT) and Vertical Speed (V/S).
-
31 Radios and Autopilot Project: Mobiflight Configuration of CRS/OBS
With one encoder we can tune a CRS in the autopilot, or on a Garmin glass cockpit, or we can tune the OBS scale of the old fashioned CDI gauges. Pressing the encoder switch toggles between tuning OBS1 and OBS2.
Flightsim Navigation with NDB, VOR, DME, GPS
in The Outer Marker
Posted
Microsoft Flight Simulator 16 Intercept VOR and ILS
Let's plan and fly a short flight in the South of Corsica, during which we twice intercept a VOR radial and finally we intercept the ILS to line us up with the runway, after which we'll land using the ILS direction and glideslope needles.