tup61 185 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 ...I feel the need to navigate using VOR. And to use the CDI and OBS and what not... Until now I've been a pure GPS-pilot. But because things can go wrong with the Katana, I feel the need to (finally) figure out how to get somewhere using VOR. But er.. I really need to do some heavy reading about the subject... During my last flight, where I tried to land using an ILS, I noticed that the Directional Gyro was setup completely wrong... It wasn't pointing in the good direction at all! Never knew you had to turn that thing...! Anybody else noticed that you have to manually put it right? (Do you have to do that everytime?) I also do not understand a thing about the CDI... Do I have to constantly turn the gauge using the OBS knob (so that the direction is the same as the Directional Gyro) or should I put the knob at the radial I need... or the direction...? It also seemed to me the NAV radio CDI was showing a different direction... And when entering a LOC freq, do I need to set OBS too...? Apparently not, because the radio showed LOC as soon as it had contact with the freq... I have read about all this in the past, but when I tried to put my little knowledge to use in the Katana, I found out I know nothing... And fooling around with all those buttons and options while flying sucks, because the pull to the left is back in all its ugliness... Time to Google, I'd say... Or maybe someone can write a nice tutorial about navigating in the Katana and the specific radio this one has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentano 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Yes, you must align your gyro with your compass (don't forget magnetic variation), because it drifts along the time. An easy way is look at your GPS HDG indicator and/or using Shift+Z looking at your current magnetic heading. CDI gives you deviation to/from a VOR radials and ILS (loc/gs) tuned on NAV radio. You need to turn your CDI according with course you will fly to/from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPL 39 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I also do not understand a thing about the CDI... Do I have to constantly turn the gauge using the OBS knob (so that the direction is the same as the Directional Gyro) or should I put the knob at the radial I need... or the direction...? It also seemed to me the NAV radio CDI was showing a different direction... And when entering a LOC freq, do I need to set OBS too...? Apparently not, because the radio showed LOC as soon as it had contact with the freq... When navigating with VOR, set the OBS to the radial you need. When entering a LOC frequency, there's no need to set the OBS; because a LOC only has one direction. A VOR has hundreds of radials, but a LOC is just guiding you to the runway. I hope that helped. Just read up on it as much as you can; there's a lot to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Attwood 33 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 When navigating with VOR, set the OBS to the radial you need. When entering a LOC frequency, there's no need to set the OBS; because a LOC only has one direction. A VOR has hundreds of radials, but a LOC is just guiding you to the runway. I hope that helped. Just read up on it as much as you can; there's a lot to learn. That's all very well, but not all of us can read Dutch, much less Double Dutch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tup61 185 Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 Well.... er... I had the idea navigating works better to a VOR when I turn the OBS knob on the CDI until the needle is in the middle and then it shows the direction I have to fly to... but then you have to costantly tturn that OBS knob in order to get in centered... Since that didn't work out I though I had to chase the CDI needle but whatever I do, it seems it stays right or left... I can't make any sense of it: I do think I understand the basics but when I actually try to do something during flight, it doesn't seem to work as advertised... I managed to follow an ILS (although I had to line up using the GPS because the ILS signal just didn't show up as active on the radio. But then another weird thing happened: while the CDI showed me clearly I was too far to the right or the the left, the CDI on the radio just stayed completely left... as if it was stuck. Well, maybe it was... I'll have to do some maintainance, because I was so busy looking at gauges and turning knobs that I overspeeded a few times. BTW When you are in stress during all this, that little NAV freq switch bug I have (that it switches to direct entering instead of switching freqs) gets VERY annoying. And so does the pulling to the left which is worse than ever today. Maybe, just in order to keep ENJOYING this plane, I should forget about VOR, CDI and OBS and simply follow the GPS as I was used to... You need to turn your CDI according with course you will fly to/from. Ok, so when my flightplan says I need to fly to a specific VOR and the heading is 129, I should turn the OBS knob until 129 is at the top and then I should chase the needle with the plane until it is in the middle...? I tried that but then I start flying circles and the needle just stays left... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddz 737 55 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 This may help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bliksimpie 14 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 This may help. Was about to suggest a simmilar site, but I must say this is very detailed explanation. http://www.flightsim...ion_part_1.html and here is a smilulator you can use to teach you how VOR work. http://www.luizmonteiro.com/Learning_VOR_Sim.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentano 0 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Ok, so when my flightplan says I need to fly to a specific VOR and the heading is 129, I should turn the OBS knob until 129 is at the top and then I should chase the needle with the plane until it is in the middle...? I tried that but then I start flying circles and the needle just stays left... The flight plan will show your course (a VOR radial), so you need to turn your CDI according to it and fly aircraft to intercept that course. You must know where are you related to the specific VOR station and that's the "challenge" of IFR flying. If you don't know I believe you'll end up flying circles. I think you must read some documentation about IFR flying, it's easy but demands some practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPL 39 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Ok, so when my flightplan says I need to fly to a specific VOR and the heading is 129, I should turn the OBS knob until 129 is at the top and then I should chase the needle with the plane until it is in the middle...? I tried that but then I start flying circles and the needle just stays left... Believe it or not, that's the basic idea. It just takes a lot of practice to get the hang of. Let me try to simplify it a little. Imagine that you're looking down on your plane from above, and the VOR is off to your left and ahead. You want to fly radial 129. Now, radial 129 can be thought of as a line that passes straight through the VOR on a heading of 129. Let's say that radial 129 is also off to your left; that's why your needle is deflected left. Turn your plane left, but on a heading not too drastically left of 129 degrees. As you near radial 129, the needle will start to center. Now start to turn your plane to heading 129. Since you want to fly radial 129, the plane needs to be flying on a heading of 129. Now the needle should be approximately centered. If it isn't, make very small heading adjustments to center the needle. Remember not to chase the needle, but instead make very slight turns until the needle centers. For example, let's say the needle is just a little to the left. Turn the plane just a few degrees left. Once the needle is centered, turn the plane back to heading 129. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tup61 185 Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 Thanks for the link. I already read something here http://www.navfltsm....vor-nav-pt2.htm and that's got me in the right direction (pun intended), although I certainly will read your link too!!! First thing I know now is that if you want to fly straight to a VOR (so without the need of flying a specific radial) you should enter the freq and then turn the OBS until the needle is in the middle and TO is activated: that will show you which heading you have to fly. I just started a flight I've been doing 2 times in a row already and now things finally are going well. I turned the OBS until the needle was centered and after take off I simply flew in that direction (after making sure the Directional Gyro was setup correct...! It's pretty obvious it didn't help that that one was way off untl now...!). After some time I turned on the GPS and noticed I was right on course. I guess that flying on specific radials is more important for specific approaches and so on and not of real importance if you simply want to fly from VOR to VOR? But I think I know how to do that too now... I'll first get comfortable with just flying straight to VORs though... EDIT Ah, more links and more info has been added while I was typing: thanks! I'll read them all!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddz 737 55 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Ok, so when my flightplan says I need to fly to a specific VOR and the heading is 129, I should turn the OBS knob until 129 is at the top and then I should chase the needle with the plane until it is in the middle...? I tried that but then I start flying circles and the needle just stays left... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bliksimpie 14 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 First thing I know now is that if you want to fly straight to a VOR (so without the need of flying a specific radial) you should enter the freq and then turn the OBS until the needle is in the middle and TO is activated: that will show you which heading you have to fly. Yip that is it. I see the lightswitch has just been flicked.. It is just to understand the basic, then all else will start to fall into place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tup61 185 Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 Think I got it now. The basics, that is... Just finished a (short) flight and managed to 1. find the airport using VOR only (it was a VOR nearby the airport) and 2. I also landed using ILS. Only problem left right now is that the Katana doesn't tell me how far I am from a VOR... During the last flight I sort of knew when I was close (been there before) and I also knew where the runway was and where I had to go to intercept the ILS. Had the ILS been on the opposite direction, I think would have been more complicated... Well, I am going to do some reading (thanks again for the links). The more I know about it, the more I seem to remember stuff... I think I knew it all before but somehow forgotten it all... I'm getting old... If you don't know I believe you'll end up flying circles. Yes, the mistake I made was that the CDI was to the left so I turned to the left... and kept on turning to the left... and after a while I had made a circle but my plane (obviously) was still right from the VOR radial... You have to make a turn less than 90 degrees, I find out now. It indeed depends on where you are. I read a tip that if you have to get to a certain radial and aren't sure where it is and where you are (because the radial may be at 'the other side' of the VOR), you should centre the OBS needle, check if the heading is TO and FROM and then calculate the opposite direction and make a mental picture of the radials to see where you currently are: when you know where you are 'on' the VOR's radials, you know if you should be going left or right to get to the desired radial. Or something like that. Got that from this link: http://www.flightsim...ion_part_3.html (Intercepting a course: where am I). Interesting stuff. And all that thanks to the Katana... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damocles 24 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 When I was learning about VORs as well reading text and theory I found tutorials on youtube good as they show the theory and it's use in practice from a flying lessons. Once you demystify the process it's relatively straight forward and after a few practice goes you'll nail it for sure. When you make a flight plan, write down the VOR frequencies, heading and distance, they become less accurate the closer you are to them - I have a kneeboard [real] with charts/ flight plans printed so the information is quickly available when needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tup61 185 Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 When you make a flight plan, write down the VOR frequencies, heading and distance, they become less accurate the closer you are to them - I have a kneeboard [real] with charts/ flight plans printed so the information is quickly available when needed. Yeah, I thought about printing my plans too: makes it more real, I think. I recently bought a laser printer (after only printing at work for years) so printing plans is an easy option now. Ever since I got the Katana I feel the need to do things as realistic as possible...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcelFelde 527 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 An easy way is look at your GPS HDG indicator At our real Garmin 196 you have to move the aircraft a little so the GPS unit knows the direction you are pointing to. At startup, it knows only the position. As far as I know, the FSX GPS behaves realistic and needs some movement too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tup61 185 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 At our real Garmin 196 you have to move the aircraft a little so the GPS unit knows the direction you are pointing to. At startup, it knows only the position. As far as I know, the FSX GPS behaves realistic and needs some movement too... True. Everytime I start to move the GPS map turns in another direction. It needs movement to show your heading. So now I always simply look at the compass and then set the HI. Never ever had to do that before in FSX. Nice. This really will be my default plane for a long time. (Which is another realistic thing, because usually you don't buy a new plane every few weeks or so... ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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