CRJ 700 Nav/Gps

[Richard Stark]

Does anyone know where the NAV/GPS switch is located on the Bombardier CRJ 700 cockpit panel view ?????

[Bone]

It's on the Flight Control Panel (FCP) located on the center portion of the glareshield. It's labeled NAV, but it's for both VOR/LOC nav and GPS nav. The VOR/LOC nav is when you have green needles selected on the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and the GPS nav is for when you have white needles selected on the PFD. If you are using green needles, you have to manually input a navaid frequency into the radio tuning unit where it says NAV, and if you are using white needles you have to input a navaid, intersection, or waypoint identifier into the FMS.

[Brett_Henderson]

Good answers, but the switch that determines if the HSI is slaved to the Nav/ILS or GPS (Nav/GPS switch) is over on the pilot's left panel.

See attached screen-shot.. (similar location in the 2D panel)


66142

[Bone]

Good answers, but the switch that determines if the HSI is slaved to the Nav/ILS or GPS (Nav/GPS switch) is over on the pilot's left panel.

See attached screen-shot.. (similar location in the 2D panel)


66142

Thats the NAV Source selector (green needles, white needles, or yellow). Sorry if I misunderstood the question.

[Brett_Henderson]

Thats the NAV Source selector (green needles, white needles, or yellow). Sorry if I misunderstood the question.


I'm not sure what you mean by the different colored needles. How you've assigned nav-aids to pointers is another issue, and set of buttons.

The Nav/GPS switch does nothing more than slave the HSI CDI (there are two of them in the MSFS CRJ) to either Nav, or GPS.

'Nav' makes it respond to either a VOR radial, or an ILS localizer (tuned in on Nav1 radio)...

'GPS' makes it respond to the course programmed into the GPS.

Like... if you're flying along by GPS and have been using the HSI to stay on course, you'd have it set to 'GPS'..... And then when you want to track an ILS, you need to switch it over to 'Nav'. Forgetting to do so is a common mistake.. you're looking at the HSI CDI and the needle deflection makes no sense :mixedsmi:

[Bone]

I'm not sure what you mean by the different colored needles. How you've assigned nav-aids to pointers is another issue, and set of buttons.

The Nav/GPS switch does nothing more than slave the HSI CDI (there are two of them in the MSFS CRJ) to either Nav, or GPS.

'Nav' makes it respond to either a VOR radial, or an ILS localizer (tuned in on Nav1 radio)...


'GPS' makes it respond to the course programmed into the GPS.

Like... if you're flying along by GPS and have been using the HSI to stay on course, you'd have it set to 'GPS'..... And then when you want to track an ILS, you need to switch it over to 'Nav'. Forgetting to do so is a common mistake.. you're looking at the HSI CDI and the needle deflection makes no sense :mixedsmi:

When you rotate the NAV Source selector, the CDI on the PFD HSI will turn different colors: either white, green, or yellow. Actually, the whole HSI changes color. At least they do on real CRJ's, I have never flown the one in FS. White needles are GPS or RNAV, depending on if the GPS is defered. Green needles are for ILS/LOC/VOR navigation. Yellow needles are for cross-side NAV. Bombardier assigned those colors to each type of NAV source, you can't change it.

When we get to the last fix on the arrival, we switch from white needles to green and dial in the ILS/LOC frequency, and we actually verbalize it by saying "Green needles". For those rare times when we do a VOR/GPS or God forbid an NDB approach, we leave it in white needles. Up until a couple of years ago we had to go to green needles for a VOR approach, but not any more. Using white needles on the VOR approach tells the FMS to build a GPS overlay on the VOR course. If you want to do a raw NDB approach, you have to hit one of the buttons labeled BRG. Those buttons are on the same panel that the NAV Source selector is on, and you will get either a blue or pink bearing pointer, depending on which button you press. For NDB approaches we don't have to do it raw anymore, so we leave it in white needles and it becomes a GPS overlay on the NDB course.

Also, if the FMS is defered, we have to do the entire flight in green needles, manually inputing the VORTAC frequencies along the entire route. That would be the only time we would have the MFD showing the large HSI like you have in your picture, the FMS map is usually selected on the MFD.

I know it may sound strange to you, but CRJ pilots are taught from the beginning to identify the type of NAV source they are using by either white, green, or yellow. Bombardier started that procedure.

[Brett_Henderson]

No.. it doesn't sound strange at all.. and thanks for the information :mixedsmi:

Yeah.. I was answering in terms of MSFS only. I have no real-life experience in anything bigger thn a C-90. The way that nav-aids are selected in the MSFS CRJ (all the jets, actually) seemed awfully vague and unrealistic. But in every MSFS aircraft upto and including the KingAir... MSFS has done a VERY good job in re-creating the navigational equipment... including how a Nav/GPS switch works (or as it's called in some GPS equiped planes.. the "CDI" button.. usually ON the GPS).

Thanks again for the real-world input..

[Bone]

I hope I didn't confuse you, but I'm glad I could lend some insight. I just tried out the CRJ-700 in FS and although it's quite lifelike, it's not all there. About half the switches and pushbuttons on the overhead panel are missing, as well as some in other areas. The NAV Source selector is only a two place switch, instead of three, and the HSI doen't change colors when you rotate the switch.

But hey, it's still pretty cool.