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VOR Navigation: VOR Basics, Radials, Triangulation, Reverse Sensing, and DME By thecorporatepilotdad A tutorial made by a professional pilot and former CFI to cover the basics of VOR navigation. How to use a VOR can be quite confusing to student pilots. VORs are not difficult, and this video's intent is to make VOR navigation easy with visual presentations and then flying the presentation in Microsoft Flight Simulator and covering the basics of VOR navigation. The video will start with by explaining the parts of the VOR indicator instrument then by explaining a VOR, how to find them, and how they work. How to TUNE and IDENTIFY a VOR using Morse code is demonstrated and shown in the video. VORs can be used to fly to a VOR from the present position, a desired course to or from the VOR, or a second VOR can be used to locate the aircraft's position. Radials, VOR instrument indicators, DME, Reverse Sensing, Chart Supplement, and the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, and the Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards (ACS) are demonstrated and shown. DME is not always accurate due to slant rage. This concept is visualized and demonstrated. VORs can reverse sense. This phenomenon is shown as well as how to recognize reverse sensing and how to fix it. Sectionals used in the video are from VFRMap.com The top-down image of the Piper Arrow is from JustFlight Piper Arrow add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator http://justflight.com About the creator of this video: ATP rated 8,000+ hour corporate pilot and former CFI who enjoys making YouTube videos as a hobby along with using A.I. to make thumbnails for videos. If interested in aviation podcasts, please take a listen to The Corporate Pilot Guys Podcast which I am a co-host of. Myself and the other co-host are both professional pilot who have currently fly business jets and we've both flown various types of jet aircraft over the last 20 years. We talk about current events, failures, training, written tests, and so much more. Episodes also include ATC tips given by Air Traffic Controllers as well as aircraft buying tips from an aircraft broker (McGill Aviation). The Corporate Pilot Guys Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3CGTyNGt0hGG9nlSDElOlj Join this channel at the Private Pilot tier or higher to get access to AD-FREE guides and tutorials on the Citation Longitude, CJ4, Flysimware Cessna 414, Concorde, and more. These videos are informative and are entertainment, but in no way are they meant to replace actual in-person flight instruction from a Certified Flight Instructor. @thecorporatepilotdad thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel The Corporate Pilot Guys Podcast About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
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Stuck at home thanks to the Corona virus I started a series of blog posts and videos about flightsim navigation with NDB, VOR, DME, GPS, which might be of interested to those who like to start flying IFR. The first posts are online, more to follow. / Link to the blog
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This shows how to figure the distance off course when flying a course to a VOR. The method used in this example shows how to solve the similar type of question on the FAA Instrument (knowledge) Written Exam. 200 feet per dot per nautical mile is used. The distance is in feet and must be divided by 6000 to get the distance off course in nautical miles. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
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/images/notams/notams22/wing0205.jpgOne big issue that had been bugging me for a long time is that ofthe radio equipment. The Boeing 247, and especially that later "D"variant utilized cutting edge technologies, which included somestate-of-the-art radio equipment. The problem is, that by today'sstandard, and thus the standard of Microsoft Flight Simulator, thosetechnologies are hopelessly outdated and simply not used anymore. This bears some issues for us. Since we want to bring you a mostrealistic and historically accurate experience, the lack oflow-frequency radio stations and the modern VHF communication, takesaway from this experience. My original idea was to cheat, by modelling a vintage radio buthave it use the modern frequency range. I even thought you could usethe same equipment to pick up the Morse code of the VOR stations as anadded bonus. Then I met celestial navigation and radio expert Eric van derVeen. He released a stand-alone module for MSFS last year, which addsradio range stations to the sim. We started talking, and he sincewrote a wasm module exclusively for the Wing42 Boeing 247D thatintegrates his work directly into the aircraft. And if you have noidea what "radio range navigation" is, allow me to blow your mind! More...
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/images/notams/notams21/fsna0609.jpgNavigation and Flight Planning in MSFS 2020 is the new eBook designed tohelp you learn the navigation and planning skills needed to enhance your MSFSexperience. Loaded with more than 150 illustrations, you'll find this to be avaluable resource you'll refer to again and again. We'll demystify VORs andOBIs. RNAV and ILS approaches will become second nature. You'll learn the insand outs of flight planning, including how to configure hybrid flights whereyou'll precisely fly a RNAV or ILS approach under VFR. You'll learn to readand incorporate Departure Procedures, STARs, RNAV and ILS approach platesinto your flights, as well as where to find them online. Plan like a pro andfly precisely. All those acronyms? Explained. Creating realistic flight plans? Explained. Autopilot control modes? Explained. Flying an ILS approach by hand? Explained. Here are the topics we cover in the book: Introduce the basics of air navigation using both ground based and satellite navaids.Provide familiarization with analog navigation instrumentation, much of which is still applicable in modern aircraftProvide familiarization with the modern glass cockpit, using the Garmin G1000 as a starting pointLearn how to use an autopilot for enroute navigation and landing approachesUnderstand the charts, maps and diagrams used for flight planningLearn how to plan a flight from takeoff to landingUnderstand how to fly a precise route using VOR or GPS navigationUnderstand how to fly an approach using VOR or RNAVUnderstand how to do a precision instrument landing using ILSAs we work through each topic, we'll show you how to set up exampleflights to test and practice your new knowledge. Learning to plan the routes you want to fly and understanding how tonavigate are essential skills to take your MSFS experience to the nextlevel. Let us show you how it's done. Purchase FSNAV - Navigation and Flight Planning in MSFS 2020
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Guys have anyone here ever used S/B flightplan software to plan a flight? How did you get it to follow the plan? The 727 has no GPS and, you cant get it to follow an FMC neither. I love the plane but I'm tried of flying vor or heading, sometimes i get lazy and just want to press that GPS button and go. Any ideas on how to get this done?:D
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/images/notams/notams20/tops1207.jpgNavigate Precisely Anywhere in Your Simulator Glass instrument panels are mainstays of modern aviation. TheGarmin G1000 is used by general and commercial aviation alike becauseit makes navigation information so easy to read and use. Pilots alwayshave a clear and concise picture of where they are and where they aregoing. In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, the Garmin G1000 is availablein these aircraft: Beechcraft Baron G58 Beechcraft Bonanza Beechcraft King Air 350 Cessna 172 Skyhawk Cessna 208B Grand Caravan Daher TBM 930 Diamond DA40 and DA42 Extra 330 LT (variation) Flight Design CTSL (variation) JMB VL-3 (variation)Make your simulations as realistic as possible by expertly usingthe G1000 for navigating your cross-country flights. Master Navigating With the Garmin G1000 Glass PanelLearn to use the Garmin G1000's Multi-Function Display (MFD) andthe Primary Flight Display (PFD) to navigate easily and preciselyanywhere in the world like a real pilot. Read and decipher data on map screens and in windows Learn functions of buttons and knobs Change map and data screens for more information Access detailed data about airports and waypoints Change destination en route Enable GPS in your omni-bearing indicator (OBI) Set your autopilot to follow GPS And much moreEnjoy the Advantages of GPS NavigationNavigating is easier and precise. Direct routing shortens distances and durations. Positions, distances, speeds, and estimated times are shown. Guesswork is omitted. Navigation errors are eliminated. Valuable time is saved. Fuel efficiency is maximized.Learn From an Instructional VideoDeliberately designed and constructed Well organized presentation Scripted and edited narration Separate screens for each step Animated highlights for key concepts Clear explanations for everythingBenefit From Professional ProductionMeticulously planned Thoroughly researched Diligently constructed Independently verified for accuracy Separately reviewed for qualityCompatible With Popular Software and Operating SystemsUses common video players such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and WinAmp Instructions for use are included. Duration 9:40 minutes File size 200 MB Exclusively for home flight simulationLimitationsThis video focuses on using the MFD and PFD in the Garmin G1000glass panel for basic cross-country navigation in Microsoft FlightSimulator® 2020. It does not explain instrument approachprocedures. Being limited to navigation, it does not explaineverything a G1000 does. Basic principles and methods can be appliedto similar devices and other simulation programs. Includes TranscriptText of the entire video is included in PDF format for convenientreferencing. Includes Free V-Speed CardMost common general aviation V-Speeds Minimums, maximum, and optimums Listed by abbreviation alphabetically on one side Listed by abbreviation by relative speed on other side Clearly described Applies universally, not to any particular aircraft Free with purchase of this flight-sim videoPurchase TopSkills - Navigating With G1000 for MSFS See other TopSkills videos
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/images/notams/notams20/dino1119.jpgAs many users may not familiar with the navigation system of jetslike the MB-339, here is a quick introduction which covers the basics:VOR navigation and GPS navigation. It is not a full tutorial on how a VOR works, but should be enoughto make anyone able to follow a flight plan in MSFS. As for the Flight Director, the functions are quite easy: There aretwo "horizontal modes" and three "vertical modes". The horizontal modes are: HDG - FD vertical bar will provide steering indications for theheading selected with the HSI knobRNAV - FD vertical bar will provide steering indications for thenavigation system selected on the HSI panelThe vertical modes are: GS - Glideslope: the horizontal bar provides glideslopeindication if the frequency currently selected has a glideslopeGS ARM - Glideslope "armed": no glideslope indication...but itwill become active once the frequency currently selected has aglideslopeALT - once pushed, sets the current altitude as reference andprovides guidance to keep that altitude.Also, as shown in the video, MSFS currently does not support properTACAN navigation: the TACAN on the MB-339 basically acts as NAV2. Last, the MB-339 still suffers from a bug from the "FSX era", sothat in some instances the OBS knob does not allow fine tuning anymoreand just works in 10 degrees increments...we will try to fix that inthe next update. Source IndiaFoxtEcho Releases Aermacchi MB-339 Update v1.10 IndiaFoxtEcho Reports Long-EZ Pilot Figure Issues
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Ocean Crossing with Sun & Star Navigation in FSX By Eric van der Veen (27 August 2014) A flight report In this article I will describe a recent navigation flight made in FSX, using classical navigation techniques from celestial observations, that means using sun, moon, stars and planets. /features/oceanx The afternoon before departure, the Cat awaits fully prepared. Introduction Ocean-crossing flights in aviation history have captured the imagination of the public. There were the early pioneers, the flying boats and the prize money. Names of Lindbergh, Alcock & Brown, Francis Chichester and Kingsford-Smith are etched in the memories of aviation fans. They are inspiring heroes of their time. But many more didn't make it to fame or glory. In fact, many didn't make it to their last destination. They fell victim to failing engines, bad weather, or .... they lost their way: Amelia Earhart, Nungesser & Coli, and many, many others. Indeed, one of the major challenges in the 1920's to 1940's was navigation. Without GPS, VOR/NDB, INS and other modern means, it was a true worry to find that tiny island out at sea, and before long a crew included a dedicated navigator, who often was the mathematics wizzkid with spectacles, turned down for a pilot. Now, for us today, these navigators and flights are long gone. But you can recreate these flights in FSX with the proper aircraft, scenery and weather. However, two problems remain that prevent it from being attractive and realistic. First, a long ocean-crossing flight in a slow aircraft in FSX is very, very boring. It takes a long time and it's not in any way challenging or difficult. And flying over water is visually unattractive in absence of photoreal terrain. Selecting Time Acceleration then becomes very tempting, but has little to do with flying. Second, navigation at that time was accomplished by using a sextant to sight the sun, moon, stars and planets. Although complicated, inaccurate and hampered by weather, it generally worked when done properly and with clever techniques. But sextant navigation is not included in FSX. Although one or two gauges are available for download, they seem to focus on the visual aspect of the device, not on the navigation techniques required. Solving the second problem, achieving sextant navigation in FSX, also nicely solves the first challenge. Because it's guaranteed to keep you very busy and excited. And indeed, it can be done. In this article I will briefly explain how this is done, by telling you of a recent flight that I made, and that ended somewhat different than I expected. I will also show that FSX needs a few expansions/add-ons in order to make this work, including a self-made piece of software for the heavenly bodies. Once accomplished, the result has been very rewarding to me. It feels like I have re-discovered FSX as a valuable practice tool to learn a lost art. For obvious reasons (money, time, an aircraft, courage, a family) I am not able to make real-life ocean crossings as a pilot. But in this way, I have managed to learn this skill and execute it very, very realistically. The 3D spherical-math of celestial navigation A word of warning though. Navigation using the stars is complex. Don't expect to be doing the same within a few days. Yet I hope this ahis article inspires you. Basically, You'd need to learn the following in sequence. Celestial observations for non-flying Application to flying Associated special navigation techniques With skill, patience and dedication, you can do this. I'd be glad to help. Enroute over the endless ocean, at dawn. The Flight In Brief The flight is from Norfolk Island to Lord Howe Island, both in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand a.k.a. The Ditch. Flight Range is around 480 nm and there is nothing but water in between. The Tasman Sea is also known for its storminess. Both islands are small and mountainous with one airfield each. If I miss the island, I will bump into Australia. If I have enough fuel. The aircraft for this flight is Aerosoft's Catalina. Direct flight duration is about 3.5 hours, which I planned to execute in two days with a Save Flight in between. This has some limitations, but can be done with some caution. Lord Howe Island. How's that for a destination!? Flight Planning Timing is crucial. Flying from east to west, we fly the same direction as daylight, but slower. I chose February 2014 as the date (knowing the date is VERY important to celestial navigation), which means that it's autumn on the Southern Hemisphere and the days are shortening but still fairly long. Close to equator at 30 degrees South, it also means dawn and dusk pass quickly. I chose to depart at very early morning, at 04:20 local time. This is important. It means I could start with observing the stars while darkness reigns. Later, towards my destination, I will observe daybreak and I am able to use the sun. It also helps to have daylight to spot the island and facilitate landing. However, I cannot realiably shoot the sun until it's well up. The twilight period in between is a problem, essentially making me ' blind' for navigation. The moon was low, and therefore also not very suitable for navigation, apart from being a 'difficult' body to shoot from an aircraft. Cruise altitude is 10,000 feet. With a full load of fuel (although not really needed) this is quite high for a Catalina. But it gives the advantage of climbing over the clouds, otherwise I cannot see the stars through the clouds. And also it improves the visibility range to find Lord Howe Island. For the route, I used a great-circle route to achieve the shortest connection, but I included a 40 nm deliberate offset towards the end. This is important. If you aim for the island directly, and it's not there when it should....it's on either your left or your right. But which one? By deliberately aiming off to the right, I was sure it's always on my left. This was a very common technique at that time. Total distance is approximately 480 nm. Speeding along at 115 kts IAS at an altitude of 10,000 feet and at an estimated 10 degrees Celsius, this should give me 140 kts TAS. Flight time then is some three and a half hours. Magnetic Variation is 15E for most part of the flight, 14E nearer Lord Howe. The planned route, with pre-computed star sights between Waypoints until WP3. Between WP3 and WP4 to use the sun for the traditional Landfall procedure. About Weather Weather means everything. Without wind, ground speed and heading can be set perfectly, and there will be little diversion from the planned route and that would be very unrealistic. In reality, weather would vary significantly along the route across the ocean. FSX default weather does not provide well for over-ocean weather variations. A proper add-on weather module is required. I have used FS Global Real Weather with great satisfaction, as it specifically applies weather variations over the ocean. In reality over-ocean weather forecasting is very poor so I'll do without any forecasting and only use the surface winds at my departure. A full moon lights the ocean from our 1 o'clock position. About Time Time is also worthy of your consideration. In celestial navigation Zulu time is used, more commonly known as GMT or UTC. It means that whereas my flight was on 14 February Zulu time in FSX, it already was 15 February at the departure and destination airfields. Using a wrong day may create a celestial navigation error of many, many miles. FSX is also known to have a timekeeping bug, both in terms of accuracy and the use of time zones. But with date, the exact time is essential for accurate celestial navigation. A simple 1-minute error either in FSX or by myself in terms of navigation timing produces a 15 nm position error. I used FS RealTime as a timekeeper add-on to keep FSX tighly synchronised. Flight Execution And so the time has come. Preparing this flight and the maps and the star-precomputations have cost me two evenings after job. I made extensive use of the Polhemus Celestial Navigation Sliderule, which is an object worth of studying in itself. I am very impatient to start! The Polhemus CPU-47/P navigation computer for star shooting. And then there is the rumble of the Twin Wasp engines coming up to revs and temperature. In the dark I taxi to the runway at Norfolk. Surface winds are 080/9, but I have no information of winds at altitude. 4/8 Cumulus clouds rise up, and I truly feel slight anxiety for this navigation flight. I am not very experienced, and I do want to find that island! If I don't find it I might fly on to Australia, or land the Cat on the ocean. But that's not the point. I want this to nav thing to work. On the runway, I wait. It's 16:10Z. Ten more minutes before take-off. Do not mess up the plan now...wait... But at 16:18 I can wait no more. I tell myself that I will lose the 2 minutes on the initial climbout and turn. I open the throttle levers, the engines spin up, and above 30" M.A.P. they roar and whine. The Catalina rolls and soon we're at 80 kts. Rotate! And we're off. Up the gear, throttle down for climb. I quickly head to my calculated heading, and set for 85 kts climb. The aircraft is heavy, the climb is slow. After 25 minutes I reach 10,000 feet, and level off. Turn the autopilot heading gain to 3.0, power back and we're in the cruise. Away from Norfolk, away from safety, and into the dark void. Below me the ocean shines in the moonlight, but is mostly black. The dim cockpit light makes it difficult to read the compass easily, but I manage. Ten minutes later already, it's time for the first series of star shots. I planned to shoot the stars Rasalhague, Acrux and Regulus at 16:52, 16:56 and 17:00 respectively. Three stars gives a nice triangulation, pretty much as a fix from two NDB bearings. The sextant will run for 2 minutes per shot, so the first shot starts at 16:51, next at 16:55, and finally 16:59. This is in fact very realistic, and allows some time in between the shots. I am skimming the cloud tops, with a clear view above. Ten seconds to shoot. ...8....6....5..... steady now....2.....1.....and I press the button on my joystick to simulate the sextant. This will run a .lua script through FSUIPC, and invisibly store my exact postion, date and time one minute after the joystick button. Two minutes later, I execute a small batch file that calculates the true position of Rasalhague at my recorded time and position. The software will apply a random but carefully designed error, and gives me the result as if it were a real sextant shot. The calculated & corrected altitude (angle above horizontal) I determined for Rasalhague is 18°04', and the sextant reading gives 19°21'. Intercept is 43 nm AWAY. Don't worry if you don't get this... I do this for three stars, and after some more math what I get is a triangle on the map, and I am supposedly somewhere inside that. And I quickly plot this on the map. For a map, I glued two sheets of A3 millimetre-paper together. This allowed me to plot the full route and navigation fixes with some ease and good accuracy. Next, I combine the traingle with my dead reckoning (DR): position estimate based on speed, course and stopwatch. At 17:00 hrs I had climbed 25 minutes at 85 kts IAS, and 17 minutes at 115 kts IAS. Without wind, I should be some 67 nm out from Norfolk island. I allow 10% error in range (both ways) and course (both ways). Now the combined plot of DR and stars looks as follows. The yellow line is my planned route, the red line my estimated route. If I am in both areas, it means that I am in the overlap of the two areas. I place my new fix in the central position of that overlap, and work from there. This shows me nicely on track, although slightly south and a bit slower than expected. I quickly plot a new course to my next waypoint WP1, and turn accordingly. I want to use the driftmeter to check and verify the wind. Obviously the surface wind of 080/9 is not blowing up here. But it's too dark to see the sea surface. Actually, the driftmeter in FSX is a bit like cheating. Using a driftmeter over the sea is in reality difficult because the waves come and go quickly. In FSX the sea is mostly a static texture from that altitude, making it very easy to establish drift within 1 degree. I made this a bit more realistic by limiting myself to a 5-second observation period. Switching to Prepar3D v2 might overcome this with Dynamic 3D waves. But here I am in the dark. I expected to reach my waypoint WP1 at 1 hour into the flight, at 17:18, but there is no way to check that I am actually there. The air is smooth, and the heading autopilot keeps the flight steady. The Catalina is a stable aircraft on its own, and I can trim it nicely without the pitch autopilot. Every 15 minutes I note my speed, course, the temperature. Somehow I picked up 1 or 2 knots of speed. The EA-6B navigation device. Can't live without. It's still very dark. But no time for boredom. The EA-6B flight computer is busy under my hands, and I am preparing the next star shots at 1800Z. This time it's Arcturus, Nunki and Suhail for shooting, and the time comes up quickly. ...3...2...1...Shooting....calculating.... plotting. And 5 minutes after the last shot I have plotted the latest triangle. It's surprisingly small, indicating good accuracy. I also plotted my new DR position, taken from the last fix at 1700Z, with assumed compass heading and speed, and apply the same 10% margins. Again I should be taking the overlap area, but I hesitate. The star fix looks good, and since I do not have a good wind estimtate, the DR position is questionable. I decide to discard the DR box, and fix my new position at 1800Z in the centre-of-gravity of the star triangle. This puts me north of my planned route, but not by much. The fix at 1800Z. I didn't know is was to be my last and my source of trouble. I plot for my next waypoint WP2 at 19:18, two hours into the flight. I have one more star shot coming up, but already it's getting light. The sun has been coming up on my 7 o'clock position. I can already tell that my next shot will not happen. And indeed, the stars can no longer be seen at 19:40Z. This is where the shortlived dawn at 30 degrees South shows itself. Sun is coming up behind me, ruining my sight of the stars earlier than expected. If only I had taken-off 20 minutes earlier. But then I would have run into trouble towards my destination with a very low sun. By now I can use the driftmeter! It shows a wind drift angle of -14 degrees! Wow....and uh-oh. This spells trouble. If the wind is so strong that it puts me off 14 degrees to the south, where I was correcting for only 4 degrees, how can I still have been on my planned route, let alone to the north of it ?!? The wind may have come up or shifted only recently. I don't know, but I do know that I must alter course immediately. With two more hours of flying ahead without a star fix, I have no room for being sloppy. I check the drift every 15 minutes and adjust course. Now -12, then -15 degrees. I have no idea about head- or tailwind component. There a methods for this, but I have left them at rest for this flight. One thing at a time... Time is flying now, and I expect that I am coming up to my turnpoint at WP3 for the offset aim, which is also the start of my sunsights. With the sun straight behind, it is excellent positioned to determine how far I have progressed to Lord Howe island. But it is useless for determining how far I am north or south. Which is what I really need now... Counting the minutes, and here we go! ....Turn to 272 degrees compass heading, and prepare the sextant shots on the sun. Presently I run into much thicker and heavier cloud. The sea is often obscured from view. This makes it difficult to see find the island. Fortunately the sun is up above the clouds, and clearly in view. First shot, sun is still low at 10 degrees above the horizon. Atmospheric refraction will make this an unreliable measurement. It puts me at 224 miles from the island. Can't be right, I am much closer for sure. 10 minutes pass. I keep her steady on course, while my mind races the mathematics and considers options. Next shot.... at 2010Z. Better, at 68 miles, sun at bearing 98.5 degrees. Quick plot.... 5 minutes later, next shot. Puts me at 3 miles overshot! No way, no way a Cat can travel 71 miles in 5 minutes. One or both must be wrong. Accuracy will improve when the sun gets higher, but I don't have so much time. I prepare the next shot for 2020Z. I have pre-plotted the sun's altitude versus time, so I can quickly look it up without the hard work. The green line is the 2010Z Sun Line. Lord Howe Island lower left. I glance forward across the panel, staring. The engines drone as they have for three and a half hours. There is a clearing in the clouds. The sun from behind makes the ocean look great, tranquil. But what's that, dead ahead. I can't believe it...an island with two steep rocks at the south end.... It's Lord Howe island. I can't believe it! Good news. I found the island. Bad news, too. I expected to be elsewhere, still a left turn and 15 minutes away. Lord Howe Island, dead ahead! Anyway, I executed a quick descent, checked the windsock on the airfield and turned to land. The still-heavy Catalina does not have very strong brakes, and was difficult to stop on the 800m runway. But I was down, and I was in need of a virtual shower. Epilogue Something went very wrong here. Apparently I was far more south than I thought. If I had gone further south, I might have missed the island altogether. Where did I go wrong, when my star sights worked out so well? Luckily I used yet another add-on to keep track of my position, and write it to a text file every ten seconds. It's called Flight Data Recorder. Here's my actual route, compared to my planned route.... Oops... As you can see, I went off course right from the start, blown far south by a fairly strong WNW wind, which also caused me to be slow. I wasn't aware of the wind beforehand, but I had saved the weather by FS GRW to be reviewed later on. My offset at WP3 turn accidentally put me straight on course for the island, by an extraordinary stroke of luck! What went wrong? Two things... 1 - I did not apply the compass deviation of the Catalina. The placard in the cockpit says...for 240, steer 243. I didn't, and so went off 3 degrees from the start. 3 degree over a range of 480 nm is approx 25 nm. 2 - I made errors in both star sight computations. For one star at the 17:00Z sight, and one at the 18:00Z sight. I subtracted two values that should have been added. If done properly, the triangle for the second fix would have and extended more south. As a consequence, I would have corrected. These two errors added up, and did not cancel out. If they had cancelled out, I would never have discovered my mistake. A valuable lesson. Better next time. The corrected star plot (pink) at 1800Z, much more southerly than the original one (green). List of Add-ons used: Self-built software for Celestial observations, in SciLab and Lua FSUIPC FS RealTime OPUS FSI FS Global Real Weather Aerosoft Catalina Flight Data Recorder Eric van der Veen ericvdveen@tiscali.nl -
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How To...FS Navigation 102: Continuing A Basic Introduction
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...FS Navigation 102: Continuing A Basic Introduction By Ron Blehm (6 September 2005) Review: In the last article we discussed how to dial in the ADF to get that little arrow pointing toward the Non-Directional Beacon. We also learned to dial in NAV1 to a VOR frequency and set a desired course with the CRS knob (OBS on some aircraft panels) and how to get onto that desired radial. Although we really didn't discuss this last time, now that you can also dial in a VOR on your NAV2 radio and it'll work just like an NDB, pointing you, generally, toward the VOR station. Now, we are going to combine these skills in one small step forward. Putting Them Together: Pendleton To Portland You should be feeling pretty good now about using NDBs or VORs for navigating around the FS world. Now all you need to do is to use BOTH of them to get somewhere. Like I stated in the last article, I'll use VORs when I have them but NDBs can be helpful to get you nearer some runways. Set NAV1 to 114.70 and turn your CRS setting to 252 degrees. Depart from Pendleton, OR in any direction (see screenshot A) and as soon as you can, get onto that 252 radial away from town. As you fly along up to 9000 feet retune NAV1 to 112.30. That arrow should light up right away. (Screenshot B) Continue on the 252 radial toward that VOR -- you're flying along the Columbia River, also shown in that last screenshot. Meanwhile, tune your ADF to 332. (Screenshot C) Screenshot A Screenshot B Screenshot C At the VOR turn left to 240 degrees. You will now follow that to the NDB (so watch for that arrow to swing to life) which will get you set up for landing. When you are clear of some of the gorge terrain, start your descent down to 3000 feet. I'll give you a little heads up about what we are doing next. Tune NAV 1 for Portland which is 111.80 and set your CRS to 281 (Screenshot D). As you cross the NDB (I hedged myself a little east of the NDB) turn to 280 degrees, drop to 1500 feet and watch for one of the runway 28's (Screenshot E). Screenshot D Screenshot E So again, the NDB set us up for landing but this time, there was also a VOR to guide us in. If you practiced the skills learned in Class 101, and have made this flight successfully you are well on your way to a very successful flightsim career! Standard Departures And ILS Arrivals: Portland to Seattle Now that you are able to get from one place to the next we need to work on getting in and out in a more orderly fashion. First we'll discuss getting out of the airport area using a "Standard Departure." Many airports have what they call "Standard Departures" which are paths or corridors planes need to fly through or on in order to leave the airport area. Some SD's are designed for safety -- to avoid nearby mountains, while others (like the River 6 from KPDX) are designed to keep noise out of residential areas. A Standard Departure will use some type of navigational instrumentation so that pilots can fly the route consistently in ANY type of weather. Not only is this safer, it helps air traffic control know where planes are coming from. So, from Portland, the "River 6" ensures that the sound over Gresham is kept to a minimum. It also allows the controllers in Seattle to receive or pick up the planes as they climb out. Like products coming down an assembly line, controllers can focus on one area of their scopes to watch for planes leaving on the River 6 SD. From the end of the River 6 SD, ATC can then direct planes north, south or east towards their respective destinations. Set your NAV1 to 111.80 (should already be there from the last landing) and spin your CRS/OBS to 090 degrees. You will see that the radial or line we need to fly on is to our left (Screenshot F). What this means is that after we are safely climbing, we need to turn to about 080 or 085 to intercept that 90-degree radial. Then make a right turn back to a heading of 090. (Screenshot G) Climb out on 090 until your DME reads 6 miles, then turn left to 360 degrees and head north, (Screenshot H) climbing on up to what we've been using for this tutorial, 9000 feet. Screenshot F Screenshot G Screenshot H From here you kind of know what to do so set "Otto" to hold you steady and look out the windows at Mt. St. Helens volcano! Okay, enough sight-seeing...back to work. Tune NAV2 (if you have that) for Seattle at 116.80 and turn toward that arrow's heading. In the panel shown I didn't have a NAV2 so I set NAV1 for Seattle and flew north until I intercepted the 330 radial inbound (Screenshot I). I took that down to 30 miles DME. Then, I tuned the ADF to 224. Next, tune NAV1 to 111.70 and set your course (CRS) for 341. Now, one more thing...in your weather menu, set visibility down to only 5 miles! (Screenshot J) Screenshot I Screenshot J ILS: Arriving into Sea-Tac: Having talked about Standard Departures, we'll talk about Instrument Approaches. Much like VORs, some runways have a radio beam that travels outward and upward from the end of the runway. Called an "Instrument Landing System", an ILS directs planes to the end of the runway in any kind of weather. Now, with weather at only 5 miles, it's time to put that to good use. Drop down to 3500 feet and continue to follow that arrow toward the NDB. Somewhere about 26 miles out your main instrument (Called an H.S.I. by the way, for Horizontal Situation Indicator) will come to life. Mine looked like Screenshot K. Screenshot K Screenshot L Here's the deal with an ILS approach. The vertical "broken arrow" line indicates where the runway's centerline is...right of us in this example. So first job is to get lined up on that sucker! Make a little right turn to get centered up. Next, look for that arrow or diamond or triangle along the right side of your H.S.I. That arrow is above you and tracks a line down to the end of the runway. As that arrow comes down to the middle, you need to slow up a bit and start downward. (Watch the progression in Screenshot L -- can you see the runway in the last slide?) If you are coming down too fast you get too low and that arrow creeps back up...too shallow a descent and the arrow gets below you. Keep that thing centered! Small but quick corrections are helpful here! (In fact, now might be a good time to pause the sim and go back and read my ILS tutorial) This is TOUGH STUFF and takes a LOT of practice so hang with it. This is where real pilots make the big bucks! Good luck. GPS Mode -- FMC Programming -- Autopilot Use: Seattle to Ketchikan: Flying the plane by hand, dialing radio frequencies, turning here and there is all pretty tough to do...even harder to do smoothly. (That's another reason why real pilots get the big bucks isn't it?) On a good FMC pilots can enter in their waypoints as well as altitude and speed restrictions. They can program things to fly the shortest route, the fastest route, the most economical route, etc. The computers are pretty smart and can calculate fuel burn, time to arrival, what you'll have for lunch and what order your bags will come off the carousel...well, not really ALL THAT but you get the idea. Since airlines are in the business of efficiency and passengers are interested in a smooth flight, without a lot of weaving to and fro, flying under the control of the FMC is the best way to ensure that everyone is "happy." (I spoke with a pilot who flies regularly and he estimates that he'll get 5 minutes of hands-on, in-the-air, time each flight. And the co-pilot gets about 20% of the flights so...) There are many great panels out there that incorporate some forms of FMC but that requires its own tutorial and I'm not the guy to write that. So for us more simple pilots there is the default flight planner! We can use this tool to sort of, in a lame fashion, mimic an FMC. I'll show you how next: Screenshot M For this next part I switched into an Alaska Airlines 737 using the default panel. (Screenshot M) Go into your default flight planner and select Seattle, Washington (KSEA) as departure and Ketchikan, Alaska (PAKT) as your destination. Choose IFR and GPS-direct functions, then, FIND ROUTE. Next, you don't want to just fly directly there as that's hardly any fun, so while that route is up on the map view screen, move the view and drag the red route line over the following waypoints: The PA NDB (396) The YVR VOR (115.90) The YZT VOR (112.0) The PR NDB (218) The ANN VOR (117.1) The AKW NDB (229) This will give you a 717.3-mile, very scenic, route into southern Alaska. Save the flight ("FMC.PLN" or something) and then load the flight. Now, you should be in a 737 with the default panel, somewhere at Sea-Tac. For my example, I was parked up at the end of the runway, ready for a south departure. Look near the autopilot set-up for a little switch labeled NAV / GPS and click that over to GPS. That tells the instruments to follow the Computer-Programmed route (or FMC for our purposes). Before you start your takeoff roll you can set your altimeter and speed settings too if you'd like but DO NOT turn on any switches or the Flight Director yet (some say you can, some say you can't...I've had mixed results so I leave mine off for now). Another word of caution or disclaimer here -- Flying in this fashion is really not FLYING at all! If this is the extent of your simming than you either do not have a yoke/stick to fly with or you may be a very, very sad person. For me...I have a real life outside of flight simming and if I choose to "fly" in the following manner it's because I have to help with dinner or the house or the kids or the dog or run some other domestic errands. A real life should not keep you from simming and simming CERTAINLY should not keep you from living a full and eventful life outside of your computer box! (Enough soap-box I think!) Screenshot N< Screenshot O Throttle up, steer down the runway, rotate off smoothly, retract the gear and engage Otto. At this point I turn on AP/Master -- ALT -- SPD -- NAV (this one flies the plane along the route you have programmed into the "FMC" -- not really an FMC but for us beginners it works, okay?) and YD (that's five buttons lit up). Screenshot N shows the AP all fired up, the plane is flying itself now, and the H.S.I. shows the blue line pointing to my route -- I've 8 miles to go. At this point you are welcomed to disconnect Otto and hand-fly the plane along the route pointed out by the blue line, that's fun! (Screenshot O) Screenshot P Screenshot Q If you are not hand-flying, you are free to go wash the dishes or vacuum out the wife's car because your input is done. Many pilots fly this way because it's so darn easy. Smooth for the passengers, yes, but not very much fun! The point here is that I want to show you that this default flight planner with NAV-GPS tracking can sort of act like a big old complicated FMC in that it can fly the plane for you, to exactly where you told it to go. Now, if weather changes or if ATC sends you off somewhere else or if you set the route to come in over some big mountain, our little default system will fly you right into that mountain so it's by no means perfect -- sort of a "poor man's FMC." However, if you set in the route I have described above, you will be nicely arranged (after turning over the AKW NDB) for the ILS into PAKT runway 11 (Screenshot P). All you have to do is set NAV1 to 109.30, set ADF to 396, switch the NAV / GPS back to NAV, turn HDG to 050 and engage that (HDG) button, and turn CRS to 110 degrees (Screenshot Q). Screenshot R So now, we've covered NDBs and VORs in Class 101. We've covered Standard Departures, ILS approaches and NAV-GPS tracking in this segment (Screenshot R). I hope that this provides enough of a basic introduction to get you all into the air safely. Good luck to you! Ron Blehm pretendpilot@yahoo.com -
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How To...FS Navigation 101: A Very Basic Introduction By Ron Blehm (30 August 2005) Speak normally: Let me start by saying that I am not a pilot. I don't fly A320s, I don't fly Cessnas and some days I'm just lucky to be flying my computer -- but I think that sometimes it's important for someone who is less "professional" to provide information for those who are newer or struggling with a certain concept. It's always a bummer when the Neurologist is spouting off about the Globus Pallidus and the descending Cerebellar tracks when all you want to know is why Grandpa is falling down. Can't they just speak normally? So here is my attempt to "speak normally" about some navigation concepts. Get Into The Air: First of all, you need to do some homework because I'm not going to teach you how to fly or how to land. This is not an ILS or autopilot tutorial because I already did that one: How To Intercept, Capture And Fly An ILS Approach Follow-Up And Clarification On ILS Tutorial FlightSim.Com has provided you MANY tutorials and "How To's" as well as other articles -- I'm not going to give you a link to each of those because you can go back, even way back, and find a plethora of information yourself right here. (There is a reason FlightSim.Com is the world's leading Flight Sim website, you just need to dig around a little bit). There are also links like these out there on the web for easy picking: http://avstop.com/AC/FlightTraingHandbook/RadioAidstoNavigation.html http://www.campbells.org/Airplanes/VOR/vor.html And I'm sure that are MANY others. Pick The Right Plane For The Job: Finally, you can use any aircraft that makes you feel comfortable but if you are new to the world of IFR or navigation I might suggest something stable and not too sporty (read as default Caravan?). I took the F.S Flight Club International Dash-8 (www.toomuchfs.com) on this tutorial. I also assigned a panel which maybe isn't as real as it gets, but I thought it would be good for screenshots. (Although it's lacking a NAV2 which is a bummer). Class 1 - NDBs: Hailey to Boise: Screenshot A I thought the place to start might be with NDBs, "non-directional beacons." These radio towers emit a signal on a certain frequency and if a pilot dials in that frequency on his ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) an arrow should point to where that radio tower is. The range on these is not great, maybe 50 miles or less? But you can fly headings to/from NDBs to get from one place to another. NDBs have also been really useful for me, in setting up for landings as there are sometimes NDBs on or near the approach path. NDBs do not give you distance measurements so you have to use a stopwatch to do distance calculations. (For me, anytime the word "calculation" is in a sentence I tend to stop listening). Another great concept with NDBs is "Push the nose, Pull the tail." This speaks of the arrow that displays on your panel. If you want to fly a heading of 330 degrees TOWARD the NDB, but your arrow is pointing at 300, you need to fly a heading of about 280 to PUSH the nose of the arrow TOWARD 330. Similarly, if you are flying AWAY from the NDB you need to PULL the tail of the arrow toward the heading you want to be on. Set up your flight for northwest departure (runway 31) from Hailey, ID/Sun Valley airport (KSUN) and dial the ADF to 220. At this point I noticed that there is no arrow...but I'll tell you, the NDB is behind you! (Okay, I did this just to be mean...you can depart on runway 13 instead if you'd like!) I went ahead and departed 31 and the arrow showed up at about 300 feet (See Screenshot A) then I turned back TOWARD the NDB. Whatever you do, fly TO THE NDB while climbing to 9,000 feet. On the screenshot (above), near the top, you will see on the radio that I have dialed 220.0 into the ADF box. I'm flying a heading of 311 (climbing at 700 fpm) but the blue ADF arrow is pointing back. In the gauge on the left side you'll see the double-sided white arrow pointing backwards to the NDB tower. That's where I need to head! If you see Screenshot B you'll see that I'm rolling out of my turn to a heading of about 130 which will push the nose of that NDB needle TOWARD 200 degrees. (You can also catch a glimpse of the airport on the far left.) Screenshot B Screenshot C At the Hailey NDB turn to a heading of 201 degrees. Now you get to practice "pull the tail" to keep that arrow aligned on 201 / 021 headings. If you aren't at 9,000 feet yet, keep climbing. Screenshot C shows that I have passed the NDB, the needle has swung around and I'm flying a heading of 208, trying to pull that tail over to 201. As noted, the DME (distance measuring equipment) is blank because NDBs don't have that feature. As you fly away from the Hailey NDB you'll need to start looking for your next waypoint. Tune your ADF to 211. If you are not in range yet you may be left with nothing (or will have to retune to 220). Once the 211 NDB comes alive, drive towards that arrow. Again, we'll fly toward the NDB until it swings around and then fly 269 degrees away from the NDB. (Basically you'll be flying west with the needle pointing east -- right?) Screenshot D shows me turning to 280 so I can pull the tail around to 269 (or thereabouts). Screenshot D Screenshot E So now you are flying 269 degrees AWAY from the NDB 211. Set your ADF to 333 and follow THAT arrow. As it starts swinging you'll turn right to 291 degrees. Screenshot E shows me flying AWAY from 333. Next dial up 238 on the ADF and start dropping to 4,000 feet or so. When you are at the 238 NDB, turn right to 075 degrees. Next dial up 359 on your ADF and as you cross over, fly a heading of 098 to KBOI runway 10L. (Screenshot F pretty much sums that up for you-NDB slightly right; turning slightly right; holding 4,000 feet; airport ahead) I happened to do a touch-and-go so that I could keep flying. Screenshot F Screenshot G VORs: Boise to Pendleton: VORs are VHF (very high frequency) radios, which send out 360 beams or "radials" on their signal. These are more accurate than NDBs because rather than pushing noses or pulling tails you can dial in a specific compass heading or radial to fly on. Also, VORs can have a range of more like 150 miles. So now we'll dial in the Boise VOR, which is on a radio setting of 113.30. Dial this on your NAV1 radio and on the autopilot, set your CRS (course) heading to 343. What this means is that we WANT to fly away from Boise on the 343 degree compass radial. As you depart from runway 10L you'll be heading basically east but your desired course is going to be northwest, which means you need to turn to the left. Screenshot H shows the start of my left turn, gear and flaps still going up! Screenshot H Screenshot I If VORs are set up correctly you should have an arrow pointing to where you WANT to go, with a broken line in the middle showing where that radial is in relation to your position. Basically, if the broken line is left of center, you need to turn left to line that up. So now we set NAV1 to 116.2, keeping the CRS at 343 degrees for now. You can watch the DME (lower left of the main display) count down. Screenshot I shows this as I am flying a heading of 335 trying to center up that line. (Ignore the green arrow as NAV2 is off. We want to be flying 343 as shown next to the CRS readout.) Once it centers I can turn to 343. It may be off because I'm a lousy pilot or it may be off because a wind from the left is blowing me to the right of the radial. From the screenshot you can also see that I am, in effect, still pulling the tail of that old NDB TOWARD 343. When you are about 0.5 to 1 mile out, start turning to 326 degrees and then turn your course setting to match (326). Screenshot J Screenshot K Once you are heading 326 degrees away from McCall, ID, repeat the process tuning 108.2 into NAV1 (screenshot J). When you get there, turn to 235 degrees (screenshot K). Then retune to 116.4. As you cross that VOR turn to 211 degrees. Retune again to 114.7 and drop to 3,500 feet. Screenshot L shows me heading into Pendleton, I'm flying a heading of 214 trying to keep that pink line in the middle. Screenshot L Screenshot M Fly over the Pendleton VOR and continue on 211 for about another minute...then commence a right-hand turn. While you are turning set your CRS to 074 degrees. So, your goal here is to cross the VOR and Screenshot N head towards the AIRPORT on a heading of 074 degrees. Screenshot M shows that I am basically at the VOR -- but I'm flying a heading of 094 trying to get over onto the 074 radial. You can see the airport and runway ahead. Finally, Screenshot N shows that I am 2.5 miles past the VOR but I'm ON the 074 radial -- short final to land. This completes lesson one. You should now be able to use VORs or NDBs to navigate around the world a little more like a real pilot might. For practice, try limiting your visibility to about 5-10 miles; hop from one VOR to another and try to find the nearby airport. You can use this last leg as an example: Take off from Walla Walla, fly 211 degrees to the Pendleton VOR, make a big giant turn onto 074 and follow that to the runway. Next, fly something like 220 from Walla2 and just intercept the 074 inbound to Pendleton. Try these with only 2-3 miles visibility and see how that goes. Stay tuned for "Navigation 102". Ron Blehm pretendpilot@yahoo.com -
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