How do you fly long haul?

[an-225]

I don't interrupt the flight by pausing or saving, but I do speed up time. As much as I love flying, long haul flights are nothing more than just watching the autopilot fly the airplane anyway - if I'm not getting payed to fly the airplane, I'm going to speed up the time.

[Nav]

there was NO GPS on the HP 42 as it hadn't been invented yet.

Sure thing, Turbofan - but I think there's room for some 'balance' in all this. I started off doing everything the hard way - as I said earlier, on my first RW I flew the DH88 Comet all the way round manually (and sometimes saved time on the featureless stretches over water by flying manually at up to 8X speed, try THAT for a thrill! ).

But later I realised that if I was rich enough to own a vintage aeroplane nowadays, and wanted to fly it longhaul, the first thing I'd do is equip it with an autopilot and GPS. Anything less would be risking not just my own life, but other peoples' too.

I find, too that having the 'aids' allows you to try more ambitious things.

[BFMF]

As much as I love flying, long haul flights are nothing more than just watching the autopilot fly the airplane anyway

If that's how you fly, sure. That does sound boring....

But if you don't let the autopilot do all the flying and navigating, its actually kinda fun...

It really depends on how you want to fly long flights. For me, I navigate using real charts(or the built in map if I have to for information), pilotage, dead reckoning, nav radios ect. I never create a flightplan and couple the autopilot to the GPS to watch the computer navigate for me. I don't even use the GPS.

Flying cross country flights when you're the one actively navigating, checking your sectional charts, cross referencing the chart vs landmarks on the ground, busy dialing in nav radios and navigating down radials to your checkpoints, calculating your own heading/speed/location, and using your compass and clock makes things a lot more challenging and interesting.

You can still do it in the heavies. File an IFR flightplan, and instead of checking the GPS direct to option, plan your route over VOR stations spaced out 1-2 hundred miles. Don't use the Nav option on the autopilot, and don't even touch or look at the GPS. I'll guarantee you that you won't be as bored...

[BFMF]

[quote]But later I realised that if I was rich enough to own a vintage aeroplane nowadays, and wanted to fly it longhaul, the first thing I'd do is equip it with an autopilot and GPS. Anything less would be risking not just my own life, but other peoples' too.


I find, too that having the 'aids' allows you to try more ambitious things.

[Nav]

You can still do it in the heavies. File an IFR flightplan, and instead of checking the GPS direct to option, plan your route over VOR stations spaced out 1-2 hundred miles.

Actually, BFMF, 390 miles apart is enough. Then you can fly the 'From' leg from the first VOR, and the 'To' leg to the next. High-altitude VORs have a range of about 195 miles. Only thing is, click on each VOR and make sure that they're not 'low-altitude' - those only stretch to about 50 miles.

Fortunately, to my relief, I didn't miss the islands and managed to land with less than half an hour of fuel left...lol

Actually there's even a way of doing that! Devised by Sir Francis Chichester, flying from New Zealand to Australia via Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island in his DH Puss Moth in the 1920s. He pre-set his sextant to the latitude of each island, deliberately aimed well north of track, and kept taking sunsights until the sun was on the horizon. Then he just turned due west until he found them!

The 'laugh' was that, as you say, on the last leg he reckoned that he couldn't miss Australia, and didn't bother with the latitude trick. Finished up fifty miles off course and only just had enough fuel to get to Sydney.

I once re-enacted that flight; the hard way like you, no A/P or GPS. Easy for me to find my latitude in FS2004, of course - all I had to do was press 'Shift-Z' - but it was easy to imagine just how 'alone' he must have felt. Literally 'life or death' - no fear at all, that guy.

[BFMF]

You can still do it in the heavies. File an IFR flightplan, and instead of checking the GPS direct to option, plan your route over VOR stations spaced out 1-2 hundred miles.

Actually, BFMF, 390 miles apart is enough. Then you can fly the 'From' leg from the first VOR, and the 'To' leg to the next. High-altitude VORs have a range of about 195 miles. Only thing is, click on each VOR and make sure that they're not 'low-altitude' - those only stretch to about 50 miles.

True, you could assuming that the VOR's have that much range.

Actually there's even a way of doing that! Devised by Sir Francis Chichester, flying from New Zealand to Australia via Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island in his DH Puss Moth in the 1920s. He pre-set his sextant to the latitude of each island, deliberately aimed well north of track, and kept taking sunsights until the sun was on the horizon. Then he just turned due west until he found them!

The 'laugh' was that, as you say, on the last leg he reckoned that he couldn't miss Australia, and didn't bother with the latitude trick. Finished up fifty miles off course and only just had enough fuel to get to Sydney.

I once re-enacted that flight; the hard way like you, no A/P or GPS. Easy for me to find my latitude in FS2004, of course - all I had to do was press 'Shift-Z' - but it was easy to imagine just how 'alone' he must have felt. Literally 'life or death' - no fear at all, that guy.

I know that early aviators and navigators used sextants to navigate, but as far as I know, I'm not aware of any way to simulate that in the flightsim. I think it would be cool, but people are too obsessed with GPS nowdays...