by Snave » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:10 pm
Good airmanship would have you circumvent an overflight while en route and not under direct ATC control.
The reason is simple: If all the `moths` are flying around a particular `flame, the chances of two moths coming together in the air is substantially greater. Nasty! If you go for an overflight, then ALL aircraft following the same idea will all arrive at the same point in the sky. It's only timing, vertical separation and plain old luck to keep them apart - and they'll be flying in from every direction!
So no, unless you like dogfighting I wouldn't overfly the field unless I was told to do so by ATC...
Instead I would fly a circuitous course around the VOR, in the same direction as prevailing aircraft using the field (to minimise the speed difference and maximise time to react to imminent conflict) but a set distance from it, in the manner of a `hold`. I would then recover the original course and utilise the `from` radial on the VOR to resume the journey, achieving the desired track by using the HDG function throughout.
Sounds complex but it's very, very simple:
Set yourself a 5 mile limit on the VOR. When you approach the VOR flying directly toward it, listen to the radio traffic for the field and learn the pattern direction and runway in use. At about 6 miles out open the GPS and use the pictorial representation in high zoom to match your circuit to the fields, but five miles out. Turn the aircraft away from the field using the HDG mode. Stay around 1200ft AGL, as you don't want to crossing the approach or departure `lanes` at a height that is even close to what the traffic would be at five miles out, so you ensure vertical separation. Use the HDG bug and the A/P in hdg mode to scoot around the circumference keep the distance as near five miles as you can (moving the hfg bug about ten degrees a time usually works).
LEAVE the VOR needle on the previously set `to` course.
As you work your way round the airfield and the VOR you will eventually notice the needle go into `From` mode with the arrow pointing back rather than forward. when the needle itself goes live and starts to move again, turn back towards your original course (still in HDG mode), then as the needle gets one dot out you can finally switch BACK to NAV mode and the aircraft will smoothly regain the same course as before.
If you look at the FS map at this point you will see how you have tracked right around the airfield, like a wheel around a hub, but picked up the exact same line on the map as you would have if you had actually overflown.
Easier to do than say. General pilotage rules say stay away from airfields unless you intend to use them, or the `corridor` to fly over or around them is clearly known and understood by all traffic.
Having mastered this you should then move on to flying in corridors by looking at how you can flight plan for these corridors in the sim. Eventually, you can program all these routes - and the circuitous avoidance of airfields and other areas into the GPS and let that control the whole flight and do the avoiding for you..!
