Setting my heading and other questions.

[Holmes_Fans]

I have a load of questions so bear with me, I haven't played a flight sim since 2003


How do I know which way I want to head? If I plan a flight from Dallas to New York, I see it showing up on my GPS, but I don't know how to find out exactly what direction I should be heading. For some flights I want to be able to flip on the autopilot.

How do I start a flight from the gate? Is this only possible with the pre-made flights?

Speaking of the pre-made flights, I can't get any of them to work. I click on to do them, and I just get an error and have to restart the game.

On FS2002, you could view what runway is where. How do you do this? Also, how do you get the taxi guide to show up?

thanks for any help

[Nav]

Holmes-Fans, no problem with all questions, we all took a long time to learn the tricks.

To start from the gate, go into 'Create A Flight' from the opening screen. Select your aeroplane, airport etc., then click on 'Change' under the name of your origin airport. A new screen will come up, go to the box bottom left; it will normally say 'Active Runway' but if you click on it it will show options like gates or parking areas.

For route planning, once you're in the cockpit, go to Aircraft/Flight/Planner and enter up your origin and destination. Then click on 'Find Route' ('Direct GPS is best to start with) and the Map View will come up. You can mouse the route over to VORS etc. if you like.

Save the Flight Plan and return to the cockpit. If you then press 'Alt-F - N' - a flight plan table will come up giving you courses, times, distances, fuel requirements etc. etc. 'Esc' to get out of it. You can refer to the 'Map View,' which will have the course marked on it, at any time after that.

To get the 'taxi guide,' get your clearance and runway allocation from Air Traffic Control. The ATC box will then show a number to click for the taxi path, which will come up as pink boxes on the ground.

You can also get a top-down view of the airport in a separate box on the screen, by pressing 'Shift+]' (right square bracket). ']' again to close it.

About all these keystrokes, use 'Aircraft' - 'Kneeboard' - 'Keys' to check them out and find new ones - there are dozens of them!

Need more info. on what you mean by 'pre-made flights.' If you mean the 'Adventures' etc., they SHOULD work OK?

[commoner]

Hi H.........here's a simple way to use the Garmin GPS 500.......

First get flying.........I'm in the C172 just now.

  Bring up the GPS and then...

1. Click on the Direct to Waypoint button..it's a letter D with an arrow through it.

2. Click on the BOTTOM RIGHT of the four white arrows down there in the bottom right corner of the GPS.

3.  Type in the Airport ID for wherever you wish to go.

4.  Click the ENT button THREE times and you will get a red line which you can fly along to your destination...........

 If you want to get the AP to follow the course then...carry on ....

5.  Switch on the AP.

6.  Locate the Nav/GPS switch which will be somewhere on your panel and switch it to GPS.

7. Click on the NAV hold button.

Your aircraft will then turn onto and follow the course line to your destination where it will circle the airport until you turn off the AP.

Looks a bit complicated as it is written but is simple once you have done it a couple of times........

   Good luck..commoner.

It sometimes takes a short while to settle onto the course but it will..if you want to go off course for some reason just turn off Nav hold and you will have manual control again.

[Holmes_Fans]

So I was able to get my course set in the GPS, and set my autopilot to NAV. It started off fine, i was going from Dallas to Hong Kong. I set the autopilot then set the simulation rate up some. I come back and I am flying fine to the northwest. I come back later and I am off the map. It shows me off the map above alaska like I am in space, I was cruising at 30,000 feet. Maybe I just have to come down to 15-20,000 feet when I get that far north?

[Nav]

Oh dear, Holmes_fan.

Firstly, looks like Mercator has a lot to answer for. He's the Belgian bloke who (back in 1569) drew the 'flat-world map' most of us are used to looking at, the 'Mercator Projection.' The world actually being round, not flat, aeroplanes (and ships) follow 'Great Circle' routes around the Earth's curvature.

So, in short, the Great Circle Route from Dallas to Hong Kong does indeed go over Alaska. Google 'Great Circle Mapper' and try out some routes, you'll be surprised to see where great circle navigation can take you.

Secondly, did you set up a flightplan in the way I explained? If you did, you should have been able to see where you were going by calling up the 'Map View,' before taking off; and check your progress along it at any time during flight?

[Holmes_Fans]

I knew it would take me up north to alaska, that's not the problem. I checked the map and I was flying a nice line to the northwest like I should of been. I check it before I was leaving the mainland, and the next time I check it I am completely off the map. I am looking at the rectangle map with the earth on it, and I am an inch above it. All the scenery was the same repeating texture over and over same with the clouds. I think it was just a glitch.