Simviation Forums

im having a little bit of trouble figuring this out.. i started kinda backwards (i have an odd learning style) i flew around in kingairs, learjets etc messing around until i found a question, found the answer either here or in the ground school book and bla bla bla. now ive gone back and started taking the lessons to polish my skills and learn more about proper approaches.. before i was just doing it VFR and lining up on the "flight map" that is automatically updated for you like a GPS.. but i consider that cheating.. so thats that.

im in the cessna 172 trying to navigate to the OCF VOR. Ocala, FL. I came from Bartow Municipal (KBOW). I filed an IFR flight plan with ATC.

After maybe 15 minutes, my IFR flight plan was terminated by ATC (im not quite sure why that was..) and instructed to follow VFR and maintain own navigation etc.

Now, I'm 13 nautical miles from this VOR, and my VOR1 gauge shows im dead on course to hit the VOR station at the heading of 300. My actual heading indicator says im going due west.. and flight map says my heading is 327. my autopilot is set on "NAV".

needless to say, im confused. someone throw me a bone.

Hi Deuce,

The first thing is, ATC wouldn't terminate a flight plan unless your refusing to co-operate with their instructions. You need to listen constantly to ensure you don't miss anything. The best way is to go into the ATC settings a start up an check the box to show ATC text automatically. This way you can read the instructions. ATC waits about 10 seconds for you to confirm the instruction, giving you pently of time to do as asked before confirming.

The second thing is, ensure you have the correct VOR frequency dialled in to your NAV1 radio. Turn on the NAV 1 by clicking at the top of the radio stack and turn on the DME the same way.
Once entered, you should correspond the auto pilot with the heading, not the nav. ATC will give you a heading to turn to, ussualy is RWY heading at the begining, so turn you OBS until the red indicator points straight up, from hear, every heading ATC tells, turn your OBS to move the red indicator to the specified heading.

You might have to manually move the VOR to intercept the heading your after, I'm not quiet sure in the cessna, if so, just moves its OBS so the heading is at the top.
From here all three, Heading Indicator, VOR and your Compass should all read the same heading.

Hope it helps a little

SV2003

thanks man. just got a little confused.. in the other aircraft ive flown the AP and all of that was setup a bit differently.