A Secondary Saga Southbound Sextant Adventure .. "Seeking Sally"

[robert41]

Very informative thread. One of these days, when I get some time, Iam going to have to make a long flight using only the sextant.

[cputters]

I give up.

Sorry guys.

I'll just stick it out in free flight for a little longer.

Thanks for all your help regardless.

[salt_air]

I give up.

Sorry guys.

I'll just stick it out in free flight for a little longer.

Thanks for all your help regardless.

Chris ... you can give out, but don't give up.


Suggestion ... have you flown the DC-3(s) that accompany the Radio Range Scenery?

Also are you in FSX or FS9? .... do you have FS9 installed?

[cputters]

Gday Salt,

You're right..I should have said "Give out!" lol. Mostly need a break from trying to get it going. I'll try again after a few few short legs of my RTW trip.

I'm in FSX/Accel

I'm not sure what DC's you mean. Where can I check them out? What will be the difference?

Thanks

[salt_air]

First off Chris they have all the sextant business in place on some very nice period specific panels.


Also you would want to use them because of how much better they handle and how they have been brought more in line with Douglas specs.


Another benefit is they are based off of the default DC-3 and that will afford you a bazillion paints and other free options.


I have five or six different DC-3's (favorite plane), but if I was held to just one that would be it.

To my knowledge the newest model should work in FSX (please mention if not) ... grab it here:http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=152194

As I remember there's an installer so you'll have to direct the installation to a "new folder" ... just on the desktop.

After the unzip you should have 3 folders and an unistaller.

The three folders are aircraft, gauges, and sound.

Copy and paste the RR41 folder from inside the gauges folder into each of the panel folders (panel.1940 and panel.1945) in the DC3_RR41 folder inside the aircraft folder.

Then cut and paste the DC3_RR41 folder from inside the aircraft folder straight to your Sim Objects / Airplane folder.

Copy the DSD3 folder from inside the sound folder to your FSX root Sound folder.

Figure out which panel you like the best and then go after some paint jobs.




No GPS .... Try Plan G here:http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/planG.htm you may like it better than the GPS.

[cputters]

Legend!

I'll take a look later tonight. :ernae:

[cputters]

Ok. Finally got all the gear up at least.

My readings on the graph are all horizontal at zero though....any thoughts on that little number?

[Dil52]

Ok. Finally got all the gear up at least.

My readings on the graph are all horizontal at zero though....any thoughts on that little number?

Now that you have it all set up let's test it.

The readings will be zero if you have the coordinates set at your present location and take readings.



Attachment 45697

To illustrate: First, notice the coordinates of the aircraft highlighted in the red squared box.

Circled 1: I purposely added two degrees latitude and longitude to change the ASSUMED POSITION.

Circled 2: The first reading taken(the blue line) was with AZIMUTH set to 90° for a longitudinal reading.

The second reading taken (the green line) was with AZIMUTH set to 180° for a latitudinal reading.

(You can disregard the minus for 180. It just as well could be a plus 180) I always use plus for azimuth, this was an error on my part)
Also disregard the DISTANCE N. MILES (-125) in the illustration. That changed after creating the green line on the graph. The actual distances for latitude is 120nm and longitude is 100nm
One tap on the eyepiece will clear that number after creating the line.

This should get you going

[salt_air]

Hope I'm not jumping the gun here Dil ... I'm sure some of this you will cover later, but the mortar is drying ... I need to put a few more cinder blocks in place while it's wet.




When taking Sun shots and Moon shots I notice once the coordinates are entered ... you just click the lens to start the shot and the target is right there in the lens.

Which of those data sheet (or Shift+Z) entries actually point the sextant at the target (Sun/Moon)?




(1) Does the Lat/Lon entries make the value of the little green circle on the chart next to the sextant?


(2) Then the Azimuth and Elevation values "point" the sextant at whatever you have chosen to shoot from the data sheets?






What about Stars? ... [Assuming the vast majority of us have no knowledge of the locations of constellations and especially the stars that make them up.]




Because there are (a lot) more than one we can use two or three (or more) in different parts of the sky to triangulate or get a fix ... awesome ... so to choose which of the Stars to use you should use ... which value on the data sheet should we use?


Then during the shot when we are trying to center the bubble in the up and down path of the target (Sun/Moon) we are actually fine tuning the numbers we entered off of the data sheet for accuracy .... like focusing a pair of binoculars, eh?





Hitting star 1 (or 2 or 3) on the chart beside the sextant throws a line (blue/green/red) down across the chart.

Is the little green circle in the middle of the chart always indicative of the plane's location?

How do we read what that line is telling us?





Probably should make a note (physically..hand written or whatever) of a few IF/THEN statements that could be memorized as a rule(s) of thumb ....

Like:

IF you're shooting at the airport prior to take off and/or pretty well know exactly (shift+Z) where you are and those coordinates have been entered ...

THEN then line that gets thrown down on the chart beside the sextant should pass through the center of the chart (little green circle) ... yeah?

[Dil52]

OK, I'm not a very fast typist, especially when trying to expalin things.

1) The illustration sample is merely a theoretical position showing an offsetof 2 degrees Lat/Lon from our location at SAME (the little green circle in the center of the graph). Yes, if we move the Lat/Lon back to -32 and -68 as we see by the Ctrl Z locations and take the readings the blue and green lines will intersect at the little green circle, our location.

Keep in mind we’re NOT really looking at any real star inthe FS sextant. This, as you may recall me saying earlier, is the big secret…Shhhhh
For reality purposes, we try to point the sextant in direction of the star we’re reading, but it’s not necessary. For instance, while heading south we can read a star in the north while the sextant is in the wind shield.

Having said that, it’s still important to know the azimuth and elevation of a star as it’s related to our ASSUMED POSITION for accurate readings. Lat and Lon are actual locations on earth. They don’t change and the data charts tell us, by setting the correct time and location of ASSUMEDPOSITION at the USNO site.

The result is the Zenith of each readable star at that exact moment in time. The Zenith (not to be confused with Zn (azimuth) is where a star is, if we drew a line straight down to earth, from it at that moment in time. Also, as we revolve around during the course of a year the same constellations are not always visible at the same times. We always can see Polaris in the northern hemisphere, but it moves very little.

Side note:
I was explaining the movement of stars and the moon at an exact time to some friends, last night, as we were watching the moon rise just before sunset. I was saying, if the moon was only a few thousand feet above the earth, and was stationary as it is, that we’d see it go overhead at about 1000 MPH. The look on their faces was something to behold. This, of course, is a well known fact, but when put in that perspective most people don’t think of it that way. PS: I didn't explain to them how I know this. I gave up trying to explain to people, about my FS hobby, years ago.


2) Also, the star shots are only theoretical for the illustration. It's rare if we would ever see a star located exactly at an even 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees on the data charts. If our location was exactly at the Equator during either Equinox, the sun would rise at 90 and set at 270 degrees. In the north we like Polaris (the north star) because it's location is very close to 0 or 360 degrees for a great latitude readings all year.
In the south, by the time we reach a Lat of S40, ACRUX will begin to be our usual latitude (southern) star. ACRUX, the A (Alpha) star in the Southern Cross, is not as good as Polaris, but is still the star of choice, for latitude readings, as it’s near a Zn (azimuth) of 180 degrees.

What about Stars? ... [Assuming the vast majority of us have no knowledge of the locations of constellations and especially the starsthat make them up.]

As I said, all we need to know is what’s on the data charts. As long as we set the Zn and Hc of a star we’ll get a good reading no matter where the FS sextant is pointing. If we were reading a real sextant we’d need to point it at the exact star to get our reading. Then is when we'd need to know the constalation. Keep in mind the data chart tell you where the start is at a any given time that you read the result of GET DATA.
Suppose the star's Zn was 90 degrees and the Hc was +15 degrees. We'd look toward due east and 15 degrees above the horizon.
It would probably be the brightest star since those are the ones listed on the charts.

Because there are (a lot) more than one we can use two or three (or more) indifferent parts of the sky to triangulate or get a fix ... awesome ... so tochoose which of the Stars to use you should use ... which value on the datasheet should we use?

Use the values under Zn for azimuth and the values under Hc for elevation (set in by adjustingthe course and fine wheels to the right of the eye piece) before taking the reading)Notice, that when we’re taking a reading AT our location, the bubble is centerand we don’t need to adjust the fine adjustment. If the ASSUMED POSITION is different than our location we need to center the bubble in the circle I usethe biggest one (#3) gotten by adjusting the wheel on the left side of the eyepiece.

Then during the shot when we are trying to center the bubble in the up and down path of the target (Sun/Moon) we are actually fine tuning the numbers weentered off of the data sheet for accuracy .... like focusing a pair ofbinoculars, eh?
Yes
Hitting star 1 (or 2 or 3) on the chartbeside the sextant throws a line (blue/green/red) down across the chart.

Is the little green circle in the middle of the chart always indicative of theplane's location?
Yes, The center of the chart is always our location

How do we read what that line is telling us?
If we’re reading a star with a Zn (azimuth) of near east or west then we are reading the distance to a LOP or (point), in longitude that we want to reach. That would be where the line crossed the horizontal line left or right of the little green dot.

If we’re reading a start near a Zn (azimuth) of near north or south then we’re reading a distance to the latitude we want to reach. That would be where the line crossed the verticle line above and below of the little green dot.

Notice that each line on the graph represents 60nm.

Edit:Hitting star 1 (or 2 or 3) on the chartbeside the sextant throws a line (blue/green/red) down across the chart.

We can move the little green circle, located in the center of the chart, by hitting the green arrows hot spots located on the bottom and left side of the graph. If we center the little green circle to where the 2 or 3 of the star readings cross we can then read the heading and distance (from that ASSUMED POSITION) to our aircraft by clicking on the NM hot spot located in the lower left side of the graph. We'd need to fly the reciprocal (180 degrees) of that heading to reach that location.
Keep in mind, when navigating at night, that with two or more good Lat/Lon stars readings, we don't need to find a LOP on one side of our destination airport then fly that LOP to locate our airport. With two good reading, when the lines cross in the center of the graph, we're right at our destination. Just look down.

Also, when flying during the day, we'd fly the best LOP. That is to say, if the Sun was in the east or west the line would be vertical and we'd fly north or south direction to match the angle of the reading line to locate our destination airport. Conversely, if the reading was taken near noon our, latitude LOP would be or accurate and we'd fly a direction of east or west to locate our airport. If the line crossed the little green dot at a 45 degree angle we'd fly northeast, southeast, northwest or southwest to locate the destination depending on the angle of the line. That may be foggy now, but once you understand what the lines are telling us it'll be clearer. For now, don't worry about it too much if it isn't clear.




Probably should make a note(physically..hand written or whatever) of a few IF/THEN statements that couldbe memorized as a rule(s) of thumb ....

IF you're shooting at the airport prior to take off and/or pretty well knowexactly (shift+Z) where you are and those coordinates have been entered ...

THEN then line that gets thrown down on the chart beside the sextant should pass through the center of the chart (little green circle) ... yeah?

Yeah


We can try to make a step by step list at this point. Yougive it a go, and I’ll do the same and we’ll compare notes.

dil

Here's quick a quiz: Notice, when looking at the illustration of the sextant in the post above, that we moved the Lat and Lon 2 degrees each from our location at SAME.
Why is the blue line only 100nm and the green line 120nm from our present location?

[Dil52]

To the Roaring 40’s:
In this flight we’re going to make at night flight fromMendoza (SAME) and arrive in San Carlos de Bariloche (SAZS), sometime nearsunrise.
We’ll make the flight plan to leave Mendoza at 3:00 AM localtime and arrive in San Carlos de Bariloche sometime near sunrise. The intermediateFix#1 Point will be located at S37° 00.00’ W70° 00.00’ just to make thesettings easy. Then SZAS located at S41° 10’ W71° 10’.
We can use the moon up until about 6:00AM local, when it’llbe setting in the west for our longitude reading and by the time we reach asfar south as 40° ACRUX, which is the Alpha star in the Southern Cross, will beavailable for our Latitude readings.
I’d say the fuel should be about 50% to allow an hour or soif we need it to locate SAZS.
SAME-Fix#1-SAZS Mendoza to San Carlos de Bariloche,Argentinea
TO Flight time: 13/08/2011 03:00AM local, 0700 UT (UTC -4)
SEXTANT (NAVAID) Fix#1 S37° 00’ and W70° 00’
Real World Weather: Yes
Winds 12,000’ W270 20kts;18,000 W270 39kts
Aircraft: DC3 RR41 (1940)
ASSUMMED POSSITION: SAME S-32° 50’ W-68° 50’ sextantsettings MAG VAR -4.3°
ASSUMMED POSSITION: Fix#1S-37° 00’ W-70° 00’ sextant settings MAG VAR -7.1°
ASSUMMED POSSITION: SAZS S-41° 10’ W-71° 10’ sextantsettings MAG VAR -9.8°
SAME-SAZS
Takingoff SAME 13/08/2011 06:00:00 UTC
TakeoffWeight: 23810 lbs
Fuel: 2400lbs
Payload: 5160lbs.
Crew 240 (Pilot200 Copilot 140)

[Dil52]

Well, we were close
Too busy taking readings and didn't notice the altitude.

And so the saga continues. We had turned to the east onto a 260°/80° LOP since the moon shot told us we were 10nm west of SAZS



Attachment 45860

Attachment 45861


http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFli...LoivbEXhkTZ0lg


We'll post the details later.

dil

[cputters]

I'm still getting flat STAR readings. I even tried taking off on runway heading and after 1/2 hour taking another one with SASA location entered and the new sun data from the sheet and it still came out flat. (horizontal)

It says in your comments not to fine tune the sextant while reading the first time, but should you every time after that as that fine tuning is what offsets your graph to give you a position indicator?

[teson1]

Have you clicked on one of the spots labeled Star-1, Star-2 or Star-3 above the sextant chart?
That loads the results from the current shot into the graph.

Is Azimuth = 0° (or 180°). In that case a horizontal line would be normal, as a star/sun directly N or S is assumed.

It may also be helpful if you could send a screenshot of the sextant during, and after a shot.
Ideally with shift-Z output showing real acft position (as in Dil's message below).

Alternatively, what have you entered as
Assumed position: LAT (deg, min), LON (deg, min)
Star: Azimuth (deg), Elevation (deg, min)
What is output?: Distance N.Miles

[Dil52]

Thanks Gunter,

It's obvious you understand to process.

pcutters,

I guess I should have been more clear when I said NOT to adjust the fine wheel when taking the shots at SAME. The reason we didn't need to move the fine adjustment is that we were merely confirming our coordinates at SAME. When we took the shot, the star naturally was already centered in the bubble.


If the ASSUMMED POSITION settings are not the same as your actual position, then you need to move the fine adjustment to center the star in the bubble. Whenever you must center the star the resulting shot line will be offset from the center of the graph and show the distance.

dil

[Dil52]

salt_air had suggested earlier that we compile a step by step list for taking sextant readings, which was a good idea.

Steps for taking sextant readings

1. Under ASSUMED POSITION: set for Latitude and Longitude.This will be the coordinates of where you want to fly to or from for, example.
It can be the departure airport, the destination airport, or a fixed position anywhere along the route just as VOR an NDB would be when flying IFR flights.

2. Determine a time in the future that you want to take sextant reading shots:
(I usually take them on the hour or half hour unless I’m looking for a specific distance to the Arrival airport and want to know where to begin the descent.

3. Get Data Chart: Go to the USNO site and set the same coordinates and time when you’re going to take the sextant reading shots as in Steps 1 an 2. Then get the data.

4. Choose stars: as close to Zn (azimuth) of 90° or 270° to get an accurate longitude position. Choose a star as close to 0° or 180° to get an accurate latitude shot. Also choose stars with an Hc (elevation) of between +15 and +65 degrees. Readable stars will be in blue. The sun, moon, and planets will be in red.
During the day you'll only have the sun. The best longitude shots will be in the early morning and late afternoon. At High Noon you can get a pretty good latitude shot from the sun.

5. Under STAR: Set Hc (elevation) and Zn (azimuth) of one of the stars you’ve chosen using the course and fine adjustment wheels located at the right of the eyepiece.

6. Take a sextant shot: Click on the eyepiece, then adjust the bubble size by using the adjustment wheel on left side of the eyepiece. Start the shot 1 minute before the time you chose in step 2 and entered in step 3. That time can also be read at the top of the data chart.

7. Center the star in the bubble: by using the fine adjustment wheel. (you have exactly 60 seconds) When the lens and dancing bubble stop (disappears) see step 8. If you're reading stars choose and center the biggest one.

8. Under DISTANCE N. MILES: Read an remember the distance. The reading will tell you how far you are from the coordinates you set in step 1, ASSUMED POSITION.

9. Click on Star 1 on the chart. This will give you a line that is offset from the little green circle at the center of the graph. The littlegreen circle is your actual position of your aircraft at that time. (note that the distance reading will change Under DISTANCE N. MILES when you place a line on the chart). That's why it's important to read the distance first. Of course you can always get a good idea of the distance on the chart. Each square is 60nm latitude and longitude.

10. Repeat steps 5 through 9 again for a second or third star reading(s).

11. To advance to another fixed point or destination airport repeat all steps above.

Remember you must have a chart for each “time” you take a reading or series of shots together.Keep in mind that the earth is rotating at a rate of about 1000 miles per hourso the stars are constantly moving at that rate at the equator as well. Of course the North Star and the Southern Cross don’t move as fast since they’relocated above the axis of the earth.

[salt_air]

Still here Dil.



Had my oldest Son up here for the weekend ... let everything go till tonight.

Got some reading to do (it looks like) and I'm going to do a quick and dirty flight then post what I did .... kinda like a quiz to see where I am.

If I do good then I'll keep rolling the same way ... if not I'll need to get back in the middle of the road before I go any further.




Thanks for making the list ... I've printed it and a couple more pieces to use as notes.

I'll post here when complete.




Cheers,

[cputters]

Attachment 45983
Sitting at SASA. Shot minutes before taking reading. (Set Assumed position a couple of degrees out)

Attachment 45984
Sitting at SASA. Shot after taking reading. All stars read horizontally 0 as the blue one.

I notice there is no Distance reading..is this because the reading is 0, or because I'm doing something wrong. (ie. Does a reading of 0 register?)

Do I let the reading run its course or do I have to manually stop it?


edit:

Here's step by step what I did for that reading.

1. Set assumed position a couple of degrees out from actual position.
2. Set sun's readings from chart
3. Bubble size = 3
4. take reading, letting the sextant run its course without interference.

[Dil52]

Sitting at SASA. Shot minutes before taking reading. (Set Assumed position a couple of degrees out)


Sitting at SASA. Shot after taking reading. All stars read horizontally 0 as the blue one.

I notice there is no Distance reading..is this because the reading is 0, or because I'm doing something wrong. (ie. Does a reading of 0 register?)

Do I let the reading run its course or do I have to manually stop it? .

Let it run it's course which is 60 secs. while centering the star in the bubble.

letting the sextant run its course without interference.[/B]

4. as you take the reading, move the star into the center of the bubble with the fine adjustment knob, on the right side of the eyepiece.

Notice the values change under ELEVATION ANGLE as you move the star into the center of the bubble.

Attachment 45987

1. Center the bubble
2. Original ELEVATION value before takeing the shot
3. Notice the different value after centering the bubble. Since the original value was 12 DEG 40 MIN and New value is 13 DEG 40 MIN I already know the differnce is going to be about 60nm. Actually the reading should be about 55nm. Do you know why?

[cputters]

Well, it'll be less because of the lines being closer at the poles right?

Here's my readings being taken at 65, 0 and 90. (Still no diagonal lines..haha)

Attachment 45996

[Dil52]

OK Chris,

It appears to me that there might be something wrong with your sextant installation.

cfg files are not my forte, however I believe salt_air and teson 1 are better than I am at diagnosing those types of problems.


I haven't heard from Salt for a few days, but I'm sure he's still around here in these parts. I know they kidnapped Sally and he might be negotiating or paying a ransom or something to that affect. I hope he's OK. I'm about to fly back and go looking for him. I'm getting a little worried about the whole dilemma.


You can be sure Gunter's looking in and after us as well.


Keep the faith, we'll get you outfitted properly for a nice flight with the sextant, that I'm sure of.

I'm just glad those guys have our backs.


Well, it'll be less because of the lines being closer at the poles right? Absolutely correct!

[cputters]

That'd be right, after all this, my install is corrupt. HAHA

Ah well, all a part of the learning curve I suppose.

[dca910]

*****
The reason the lines are horizontal may be because your Azimuth is set to zero. To get a vertical line, you need to enter an az of 90 or 270 degrees.
*****

[Dil52]

*****
The reason the lines are horizontal may be because your Azimuth is set to zero. To get a vertical line, you need to enter an az of 90 or 270 degrees.
*****

dca910, Thanks for the input! first post, welcome!

Anyone who can help Chris get up and running is more than welcome to join in!

I'm assuming, when Chris said he took readings at 65, 0, and 90, he was talking about azimuth. That should have given him a diagonal (65), a horizontal (0), and a vertical (90) line. Unfortunately the screen shot is showing the AZIMUTH set at 0°.

dil

[Dil52]

This is the documentation of the last flight.


In this flight we’re made at night flight from Mendoza (SAME) and to arrive in San Carlos de Bariloche (SAZS), sometime near sunrise.


We made the flight plan to leave Mendoza at 3:00 AM localtime and arrive in San Carlos de Bariloche sometime near sunrise.

The intermediate Fix#1 Point is located at S37° 00.00’ W70° 00.00’ just to make the settings easy even numbers. Then SZAS located at S41° 10’ W71° 10’.

We can use the moon up until about 6:00AM local, when it’ll be setting in the west for our longitude reading and by the time we reach as far south as 40°, ACRUX, which is the Alpha star in the Southern Cross, will be available for our Latitude readings.

The fuel is be about 50% to allow an hour or so in case we need it to locate SAZS.

SAME-Fix#1-SAZS Mendoza to San Carlos de Bariloche,Argentinea
TO Flight time: 13/08/2011 03:00AM local, 0700 UT (UTC -4)
SEXTANT (NAVAID) Fix#1 S37° 00’ and W70° 00’
Real World Weather: Yes
Winds 12,000’ W270 20kts WCA 8°; 18,000 W270 39kts WCA 16°
Aircraft: DC3 RR41 (1940)

ASSUMMED POSSITION: SAME S-32° 50’ W-68° 50’ sextantsettings MAG VAR -4.3°
ASSUMMED POSSITION:Fix#1 S-37° 00’ W-70° 00’ sextant settings MAG VAR -7.1°
ASSUMMED POSSITION: SAZS S-41° 10’ W-71° 10’ sextantsettings MAG VAR -9.8°

SAME-SAZS
Taking off SAME13/08/2011 06:00:00 UTC
Takeoff Weight:23810 lbs
Fuel: 2400 lbs
Payload: 5160 lbs.
Crew 240 (Pilot 200 Copilot 140)


Star Shots 7:30AM UT LOP S-32° 50’ W-68° 50’
MOON 117 57.0 S12 33.4 +40 53.8 282.5 Lon reading Star1 Blue
ALPHERAT 71 38.4 N29 09.4 +27 57.2 357.2 Latreading Star2 Green
Note: The highlighted numbers are the Hc +40 53.8 (elevation) and Zn 282.5 (azimuth).
We merely copied and pasted the lines from the USNO Navigation data charts.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/celnavtable.php
If anyone decides to fly this flight at any other (date and time) the star shots and Moon shots will be different.
Shot 1Attachment 46017
We’re getting heavy turbulence at 3:45AM local time. We’regetting 200’/min fluctuations in level flight It’s becoming obvious that we’reapproaching the roaring 40’s.
(Please note my unconventional way of calculations. To save agebretic processes as dividing both sides by the same number to cancel, we just converte hours to minutes and did the math.

Formulas: Speed or (Rate) = Distance/Time or Time=Distance/Speed orDistance=Speed*time
d=r*t or r=d/t or t=d/r
r=d80*60/t30=160kts


Star Shots 8:00AM UT LOP S-37° 00’ W-70° 00’
ALPHERAT 79 09.6 N29 09.4 +23 17.3 351.3Lat reading Star 1 Blue
MOON 125 13.0 S12 28.1 +35 05.0 281.5Lonreading Star 2 Green
Shot 2Attachment 46016
Reading was 80nm: Note that once you place the line of the graph the distance reading under DISTANCE N. MILES changes value and is not the true reading distance.
Speed (rate) = Distance/Time

First we must first figure out how far we’ve traveled since the first reading. From our flight plan we know the total distance to fix1 was 257nm so (257 to fix1) – (80 from 1st reading) = (177 miles to fix#1 after 1st reading)
From (177nm from fix1) – (80nm to fix1 forshot 2)= (97nm traveled at cruise speed in the second half hour)
Speed was r=d/t or d97*60/30t=194kts.
At rate of 194kts. we should reach 80/194*60=24.7min or 4:25AM



Star Shots 8:25AM UT
ALPHERAT 85 10.6 N29 09.4 +22 19.7 345.7 Latreading Star 1 Blue
MIAPLACI 309 07.0 S69 46.0 +25 01.1 160.9Latreading Star 2 Green
MOON 131 01.9 S12 23.8 +30 27.8 277.5 Lon reading Star 3 Red
Shot 3 Attachment 46015
It looks like our average speed calculation worked prettywell.
I notice by the now, by the Moon shot we were just west of Fix #1


Star Shots 9:00AM UT
ACRUX 269 38.8 S63 10.1 +15 22.4 171.5 Latreading Star 1 Blue
HAMAL 64 29.6 N23 31.1 +25 01.2 6.8Lat reading Star 2 Green
MOON 139 45.2 S12 17.4 +24 07.2 274.7Lonreading Star 3 Red
Shot 4Attachment 46014
Speed was r=d/t or 255-155=100nm and 100*60/35=171kts.Obviously we had a strong headwind during this period of time.
At rate of 171kts we should reach SAZS 155/171*60=77min orat 5:54AM


Star Shots 9:30AM UT
ACRUX 277 10.1 S63 10.1 +16 22.7 168.1 Lat reading Star 1 Blue
MENKAR 58 15.1 N 4 08.2 +43 11.1 17.8 Lat reading Star 2 Green
MOON 147 01.3 S12 12.0 +18 35.9 269.9 Lonreading Star 3 Red
Shot 5Attachment 46020
Speed was r=td or 155-65=90 and 90*60/30=180 knots
At rate of 180kts we should reach SAZS 65/180*60=21min or at5:51AM

Hind sight is 20 20: At this point we made a mistake by keeping our heading anWCA the same. Notice that the red line is the moon shot. The moon was exactly270° azimuth and our longitudinal position right at ASSUMED POSITION at SAZSLOP.
At this time we should have turned to heading 180 degrees true or 170.3degrees magnetic and, allowing for about a 15° WCA, we should have turned to aheading of 185° magnetic.


Star Shots 9:51AM UT
ACRUX 282 25.9 S63 10.1 +17 16.4 165.8 Lat reading Star 1 Blue
MENKAR 63 31.0 N 4 08.2 +44 09.6 10.7 Lat reading Star 2 Green
MOON 152 06.5 S12 08.3 +14 43.8 266.6 Lonreading Star 3 Red
Shot 6Attachment 46019
Before we could get a screen shot to the readings we crashedinto the mountains somewhere west of SAZS. This shot we took later at theapproximate location of where we crashed at 5500’ I don't shy away from my errors. I'm getting so good at them, they're just 2nd nature to post now.

We were in the process of taking these shots and were taking documenting the flight and didn’t realize our altitude dropped to 5500’. By still failing to correcting our heading and even while descending we ended up about 25 or 20 nm west of SAZS when we took the Moon shot for Longitude. Notice That the longitude (redstart3) line is offset. It should have been cutting directly through the littlegreen circle at SAZS.

The sextant was giving us good information, we just failed to analize it properly. Obviously the wind direction changed from the original forcast at SAME.



Attachment 46018

The moon in the western sky approximately a Zn of 270°.
Notice that the Moon phase is a waxing crescent which is out of sync in FS9.
In FSX it's only about 2 1/2 days off so far. It'll get worse as the years pass since the phases are varible.
The rise and set times, azimuth and elevation of the Moon, in the Celestial Navigation Data Charts, are still correct.
Actually the Moon phase would be a Full MOON when this flight was made.

I hope everyone can follow this step by step documented flight.
Except please stay above the surrounding terrain until you spot the airport at SAZS.

dil