Problems at the North Pole

[Hussein Patwa]

Well I'm in rather a quandry now.  Took off on a direct filed flight plan in FS2004 from Murmansk to Fairbanks (ULMM-PAFA) at 15:50 Local.  Everything was going fine for the first 2 and a half hours or so.  As I was approaching the top of the Arctic Circle, I could see on the GPS that the track line showed a sudden 70 deg turn to the right, unusual for a drect flight plan.  I know the pole does weird things to the aircraft systems.  All was going well until I got to the point where that turn was shown on the GPS track line.  The lat/lon indicator showed Lat: 89:30N and Lon: 48:41E.  Then the aircraft suddenly turned from it's heading of 357 deg to 073 deg, and every 30 seconds keeps turning 180 degrees to heading 253 deg and back again.  I am 1541nm from destination, 3:28 hours flying time, and the nearest airport with a suitable runway is over 1200nm away on a reverse course.  

What can i do?  Local time now is 18:46 and it's pitch dark outside.  

Anyone help with this?  The tilt indicator is showing the aircraft attempting to compensate for the GPS's rapid 180 degree turns,  I assume that were I to disable GPS tracking and set the aircraft to go straight ahead, i would eventually cross the Pole (pity I won't see it numerically as the lat/lon indicator has stopped functioning, and then get far enough away (problems started at 30nm distance to the pole) to resume proper navigation.  But I don't want to do that in case anything bad happens passengers are frightened enough as it is, and Judy my co-pilot needs calming down with, well I'll leave that to your imagination.  Help is very much appreciated.

hussein.

[BFMF]

That's because the North or South poles weren't modeled in FS

The world in FS is modeled like a cylinder, not a sphere, so you can't get to the poles

[Hussein Patwa]

Um, that might be why ATC keeps tell me to head northwesterly and it's not going anywhere.  NOw how do I get out of this.  I suppose I'll have to cancel the IFR plan, head west then rejoin the plan when the GPS lines up again?  Curse the real pilots, they never have this problem!  Anyways, back to Judy

[BFMF]

NOw how do I get out of this

Head south again

[Hussein Patwa]

Okie will do.  I'm surprised that Flightsim generated such a flight plan if it can't fly that route, it should have 'skipped' the usual great circle routing system and routed me no further north than say 88 deg N to be safe.  Oh well maybe the poles will be modelled in the next version of FS.

Hussein.

[Poseidon]

Don't expect much from FS ATC. It is not the arrowhead of AI technology. The more you fly the more possible is to be directed by ATC straight on a mountain. It has happened to many people in here.

[Hussein Patwa]

Thanks.  I'm currently playing with FSBuild, but for some reason it won't save my flight plans where I tell it to and then I can't find them anywhere on the system.  I'll play with it a bit more at the weekend (work amounting up here lol) and see if I can get it to work.

FSNavigator - too slow, system crashed.
Same goes for some of the other flight plan builders, and I havne't found one that is truly accessible to me (I can clearly see the airways and other navaids (white on black contrast works best for me) that I can create my own plans.

Cheers.

Hussein.