VOR Navigating refresher

[FSX68]

I decided to do a little refresher training in the are of VOR navigating.
I got some of it down where I can enter the vor freq and listen to the morse and shortly after getting
airborne the DME will show the distance to the VOR I dialed in.

I am curious about some of the needles on the dials I have indicated with colored arrows.

Red arrow = What is this gauge? What are the differences in green/yellow arrows/needles?
Blue Arrow= I think the adjustments are made
Yellow arrow far left= what it that knob for? Thanks

91789

[robert41]

Red arrow gauge is a radio compass. The arrows point to an NDB when tuned and picked up. Each needle can be tuned to a different NDB. Nothing to do with the VOR.
The blue arrow knob adjusts the VOR pointer/radial. The yellow knob will set your aircraft heading (see the little heading bug at 040) if you have heading hold set on the autopilot.

[Paul Domingue]

This is the FAA instrument Flying Handbook and it has everything you would ever need to know and some. Find the section on instrument navigation. There are other great training manuals on the site as well.
http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/faa-h-8083-15b.pdf

[thefrog]

Actually the red arrow points to a dual needle RMI. The green and yellow needles can point to a VOR or NDB depending on how you press the two white buttons with black arrows at the bottom of the gauge. When you press them an arrow will point to NAV or ADF with the corresponding green or yellow colour.

[robert41]

Actually the red arrow points to a dual needle RMI. The green and yellow needles can point to a VOR or NDB depending on how you press the two white buttons with black arrows at the bottom of the gauge. When you press them an arrow will point to NAV or ADF with the corresponding green or yellow colour.

I stand corrected on this.

[FSX68]

This is the FAA instrument Flying Handbook and it has everything you would ever need to know and some. Find the section on instrument navigation. There are other great training manuals on the site as well.
http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/faa-h-8083-15b.pdf

Thanks Paul for the BIG book. Lots of pages to read. :icon_lol:

[olderndirt]

Amber's pointing at the heading bug. Move it and the AP will hold your selection. Blue for selecting your course (radial).

[Deacon211]

91789

Agree with the rest...just this to add in case you don't want to look it up. :)

Left Instrument: As said, Dual Needle RMI. Acts like your Heading Indicator but with needles showing bearing to selected station added. Whether the needle shows the bearing to a VOR/TACAN or a NDB depends on the selection of the "kill switch(es)". Those are the two tiny buttons with the double headed arrows on them. In the screen above, both the single and double needle icons above the kill switches are pointing down towards "NAV" indicating that they are showing the bearing to VOR/TACANs. If the icon(s) were pointing up, they would be showing bearing to NDBs.

Many (I'd say most) airplanes today only carry a single ADF receiver, if even that. It's convention that a single ADF will use the number one (single) needle which is why ADF/NDB and the number one needle are generally synonymous. The easy way to tell is that often the kill switch that can't display ADF will have a little "INOP" placard stuck over the ADF.

Another thing that is important to know about the RMI is that, not only does it tell you what the bearing to the station is but, often more importantly, it tells you where YOU are in relation to the station. On an RMI, you always sit on the tail of the needle. so, in the above example, you are sitting on the 025 degree radial of whatever is dialed in NAV 1 and the 360 degree radial of whatever is dialed in NAV 2. So, no nasty TO/FROM flags; just look at the tail of the needle!

Lastly, since the needles are always pointing to "something", they generally park at 3 o'clock if they are "off". Since this is your greatest rate change position, if you are going straight for any length of time and the needle hasn't moved at all, you can probably assume that the needle is pointing to nothing. I seem to recall that pure TACANs made the needle spin when off, but don't quote me on that.


Right Instrument: HSI. This is nicer than the fixed Cessna needles in that it rotates thus giving you a better view of your intercept geometry. The single CDI needle is controlled by the left, arrow knob. The right knob can be used, as said, with the autopilot.

In real life, you would use the right knob also to mark your desired/assigned heading. In the sim though, it's kind of a pain in the behind to mouse over that thing just to keep track of your 5 degree crab on the ILS.

Dont know if that helps any.

Deacon

BTW, that book that Paul pointed out is full of interesting info. If you have time to read it, it will really improve your sim instrument flying quite a bit. :)

[Javis]

You might also want to have a look at this. It's a complete IFR flying tutorial in 11 lessons aimed at the flightsimmer.:

http://www.emeraldair.net/navig/ils1.html

Tip: forget computer nav programs and get yourself a collection of outdated Jeppessen Enroute and Terminal charts. Plan your flights with these and take them with you in your cockpit. Great fun! :cool:

cheers,
jan