Getting nav aid audio idents.

    They are essential and a core procedure in real world legal and safe instrument flying. Not having them is like not having cockpit windows to instrument pilots.

    The Steam sale has three days left to run. I just got MSFS 2020. It and X-plane do audio idents.
    They do not compete with Aerofly as it does not do audio idents and the admins have not entered into discussion about the lack of idents.
    There is no market place competition because to me Aerofly without audio idents is in a special and separate category of not able bodied home computer flight simulator which I will continue to massively enjoy and support. It has significant strengths that the other two lack.

    (Jan this post is about us users and customers having an opportunity to get audio idents).

    Actually I was busy building a course for NDB / VOR / ILS training for the last few weeks, and also noticed the missing audio ident and sounds for outer/middle/inner marker. The idents are supposed to let the pilot check if the correct station is selected; the marker sounds are supposed to tell the pilot if the right distance to the runway has been reached.

    Both mechanisms would be helpful for the course - as well as everyday flying for GA pilots.

    I noticed that the outdated nav aid information is less of a problem than the outdated magnetic deviation model

    They are out of sync, fly to the variation and you need to add two degrees to VOR radials. It is not a big deal as VORs are supposed to be +/- a few degrees anyway, too precise is bad, too accurate is bad. Aerofly DME (like in real life) is reliable for distance output, the Aerofly range of the VORs and DMEs should be more random and ideally be influenced by altitude and terrain.
    Aero is still useful but there were dedicated professional standard nav capable sims when I was learning.

    (Having got MSFS I’ll look up the 1930s Boeing 247 sim. It has Radio Range a wonderfully useful aid for its time which only needed an ordinary A.M. radio and a pair of earphones. I only just missed the outrageous Omega and the affordable Decca and Loran were being withdrawn around my time).

    Perhaps we will get more navigation and less Yeti?

    Quote from Overloaded

    They are out of sync, fly to the variation and you need to add two degrees to VOR radials.

    Is this the case all around the globe in Aerofly FS4? This could be a great explanation for everything I encountered using VORs.

    Quote from Overloaded

    I only just missed the outrageous Omega and the affordable Decca and Loran were being withdrawn around my time

    Yes, before GPS became widely available, there were lots of interesting ideas regarding radio navigation. I try to keep my skills up in this area - for my next simulated trip to the Baltic States. ;)

    It seems true in several places, I haven’t assessed the entire globe. Another factor is that VORs only are calibrated occasionally so their broadcast bearings might be wildly incompatible with those of relatively close VORs with only tiny actual variation differences but surveyed and adjusted on different dates. My local variation has drifted by about five degrees from when I started so it can be a significant factor.


    Omega had enormous world wide range with only a handful of transmitters but it needed an incredible amount of electricity. I like nav aids but know just enough to know how little fine detail I do know about it. Old cockpits with primitive layouts are my favourite.

    The Baltic was on the great circle route to China from London before the airspace to the east closed. I never got off but the scenery was gorgeous.

    Edited once, last by Overloaded (July 9, 2025 at 12:01 AM).