Just landed my first complete free flight

[loki6]

I tend to agree, using VORs is a lot of work for a simple flight...I`ve just fired FSX up and had a look at the route; plenty of geographical features to manage without. Mind you, as you progress and start to get your head round concepts like the VOR, it just gets better.

As for the a/c being uncontrollable....what are you using, a joystick? I had an issue with a force feedback stick when I started. Go to an external view when you`ve loaded everything up and pan round the aircraft....are the control surfaces where they should be? I found with my stuff that for some reason, the rudder was always hard over to one side (corrected by one full deflection to the other side, whereby it would centralise when I let go). I use a control column and separate pedals now....not without their issues by the way

[Brett_Henderson]

Heck.. on a good VFR day, you could just about see BOTH airports at the same time. No problem at all, if all you were looking to do was make the flight.

I don't think he's making it more difficult, so much as trying to learn VOR navigation..

[beaky]

Heck.. on a good VFR day, you could just about see BOTH airports at the same time. No problem at all, if all you were looking to do was make the flight.

I don't think he's making it more difficult, so much as trying to learn VOR navigation..  And even on a flight this short... if visibility goes bad, knowing how to VOR navigate can save the day  :)  ... and it's much easier to learn on short flights like this  ;)

Yes, of course I know what he's after... but he's better off learning VOR nav out away from a major city, on longer legs that involve flight direct to stations as well as intersections.

As for knowing radio nav as an emergency contingency, I see your point, but long before I was told how to use the OBS I was told more than once to not get caught in bad vis.
Especially going anywhere near that Class B cluster...  :o

Flying the route proposed using VORs would be trickier than any nav work I had to do on my PP check ride; let's put it that way.

Reminds me... what did I have to do for the radio nav portion of my flight  test? Can't remember now, exactly.
I know the DFE had me plan the usual XC to Allentown (via Victor airways), then had me divert visually somewhere... probably Morristown.
At any rate, the flight as originally planned would have required good radio nav skills, but nothing fancy.

[Brett_Henderson]

I know that times have changed. When I took my PPL checkride, GPS wasn't even a military pipe-dream. Even Loran was reserved for the well-heeled aviators. You couldn't get out of ground school until you proved you could find your way around by VOR. The oral part of the exam was much more thorough than the practical, but make no mistake; you were intimately familiar with the OBS knob by the time you were turned loose in an airplane alone

[RudeandRude]

sorry I've been away for a couple of days.  I'll have to catch up with the thread...but first I need to catch up on some sleep.

[congo]

[quote]sorry I've been away for a couple of days.

[loki6]

Congo

Is there rudder trim for the skylane in FSX? I had a quick look yesterday while thinking about rude`s control problem, couldn`t find one.

Anyway, flew the route as described and experienced no such issues.

Brett H:

We must be of different generations, the aircraft I learned to fly was only equipped with ADF...and I was discouraged from having anything to do with that....all visual stuff, and much fiddling around with the Dalton Computer....ah, those were the days.

[waspiflab]

GREAT!!
Landings took me ages to master I died 1,000,000 times

[RudeandRude]

[quote][quote]Also, until I find out why my plane is pulling left I pretty much can't do anything.

[Brett_Henderson]

Brett H:

We must be of different generations, the aircraft I learned to fly was only equipped with ADF...and I was discouraged from having anything to do with that....all visual stuff, and much fiddling around with the Dalton Computer....ah, those were the days.

Not to far off, generation-wise  :D (I'll be 49 soon)..

Visual stuff is fine.. (until visibility goes to crap on you). They wouldn't turn us loose in a plane alone until we could radio navigate. I'm well over 1500 hours now and still get lost  :-[  I couldn't imagine trying to fly 1000 miles by just a cockpit full of VFR charts, counting on good visibility the whole way  ;)

[macca22au]

So many things to say:

In real flight with slow aircraft torque is real.  You could fly round in circles but by the time that happened you would have already dipped one wing which would complicate the problem.  In the RW in training aircraft you are taught to off-set torque using a boot full of rudder on take-off - and then trim it out using the RUDDER trim.  

In FSX you can check autorudder in REALISM and you dont' have to worry anymore.  But if you want to be more real and if you have rudder, uncheck it, then learn to hold your plane straight by using rudder trim.

Brett:  I am probably two generations before you and at that time in rural Australia there were few VORS, some old Visual Aural Ranges,VARS, and many NDBS.

All of our first cross-countries, including solos, were pilotage only, map, compass, clock and circular slide rule - flight computer or prayer wheel.

It was only later that we were taught how to use the NDB with its ADF in the cockpit.  It was hard, but you really learned drift and mental arithmetic.

Then VOR, and yes learn to fly one radial and intercept another in terminal areas.  It was standard practice before RNAV - the GPS.
And of course before GPS it was the related DME that told you how far you were from station, and you could calculate from its readings the wind and drift.

But NEVER fly into cloud unless you are instrument trained.  Its a different technique altogether and for those without training you are 90 seconds from loosing control.

If it happens get on autopilot and reverse your course.

The Crash Magazines tell us over and over again, that "the accident occured because the VFR pilot persisted in flying into instrument conditions".

[fatmanyes]

I have a question regarding the redbull airaces online.  I have registered with gamespy but cant find any servers, where online can u race in competitions, I have one more question is there any way to  record flight video's while playing in a mission?
info much appreciated

[Brett_Henderson]

[quote]
Brett:

[macca22au]

All correct and very wise.

But when and where I learned to fly the nearest VOR was 200 nm away.  Therefore our faithful ADF supplied us with confirmatory information on progress.

However we were taught to carry every chart, mark our course with a pencil line, and mark it of with cross-bars at 5nm intervals.  That way we could, and did, keep track of every step of the way visually.  And or teaching was thorough.  

And of course we were taught and practiced forced and unforced diversions to alternate airports, a test that was thrown at us not only by our instructors, but back in those days by the government examiners who tested us for our licences.

I finished my active flying as a multi-engined instrument rated pilot, with many hours in a Navajo, but that basic instruction in pilotage was a magnificent grounding.

[Brett_Henderson]

NDB navigation, is a whole art form in its own rite