Challenges added

    I will give this challenge a go. I have been meaning to come up with a new challenge, possibly an instrument flying challenge where you will have to fly with the vis right down and follow a flight plan with a series of headings, speeds (wind will be set to zero) and leg times. The final leg will include a set speed, heading and rate of descent and will effectively put you on finals to a certain airport. To prove that you completed the challenge all you have to do is state the destination airfield and runway number! Simples.

    This will be even better when the update comes out and we can rnav and ils.

    Gary

    Hi! I have another flight suggestion...
    After getting the plane pack, I decided that a good way to test them all out and get a bit better at flying them all (particularly the bigger aircraft) would be to try and fly all around Switzerland, landing at all the airports. I started off at Zurich, and went pretty much anti-clockwise around the map, changing the plane each time I landed so I would get to fly them all multiple times. I will include a picture roughly showing my route. The only plane I didn't use was the a380, since it's a bit fast and unmanouversble for small airport to airport hops. I also only used the Learjet once, on the longest flight for the same reason. I even used the wright flyer on one of the stages and a glider too! If you are going to do this flight, these are the only rules: you can't use any plane twice in a row, you must use each plane at least once (except the A380 unless you really want to) and you can only use autopilot on planes that would probably have had it e.g not the wright flyer!
    On this flight, I found a great route between Raron and Ulrichen. Here is my route! I
    V
    Tristan

    I have an ifr challenge which will act as a good introduction to those with little or no radio nav experience. The scenario for this flight is that you are required to fly a Baron from Modesto Airport to Montery Regioanl Airport for maintenance but the baron has no working gps. The day you fly, a warm front has moved in from the NW causing low lying fog and poor visibility. Strong winds prevented you from conducting the flight in daytime. You are therefore required to conduct the flight at night in IMC using radio nav to find you way to Montery and conduct an approach using the ILS. Before starting the flight the following conditions should be set:

    Wind - 300deg strength 1/3 of the across from calm
    Vis - the left hand edge of the vis box should sit in the middle of "low"
    Time - 0600hr UTC

    Start location - Modesto Airport Apron.
    Aircraft - Baron

    for realism autopilot can be used to maintain a Hdg and altitude but not to maintain speed or vs. I don't the baron has auto throttles.

    Navigation System:
    sitting on the apron you need familiarise yourself with the baron's navigational instruments, namely, nav 1, nav 2 inc dme, the adf and the RMI.

    On the baron the radio nav freqs are shown on the central stack where there are 2 rows of 4 freqs. in each row of freqs, the second number from the right shows the active nav freq. the top row shows nav 1 and the second row shows nav2. Nav 1 will automatically select the ils for the nearby runway and set the obs to the runway heading. You will use this for the approach into Montery runway 10 (freq 110.70). The freq is Nav 1 should read 110.70 which is default freq. Nav 2 is alway set to 117.30 which is the salinas VOR and the obs is set to 090deg which means nav 2 will show our deviation from the radial running. Exactly East to west from the VOR station located at Salina airport. The Nav 1 instrument is located to the left of the yoke and nav 2 to right. Both of these instruments are slaved to the nav system in the radio stack.

    The DME (distance to the VOR station) is also located on the central stack, second from bottom. The red number on the left is the DME and it should read about 65nm. The number next to this should read 117.30 (Nav 2 freq).

    The bottom of the working panels in the central radio stack is the ADF. The adf automatcially loads the freq of the nearest non-directional beacon (three digit freq) and it should currently read 367 which is the freq of the WOMAR NDB wich sits 6nm to the SE of Modesto Airport.

    The final instrument to identify is the RMI which is located to the left of the Nav 1. The RMI instrument has a green pointer and a yellow pointer. The green pointer does not function correct and always points to East so ignore it. The yellow arrow however is working and points the NDB station whose freq is currently loaded into the ADF.

    You will see how these instruments work during the flight.

    The flight:
    starting at the apron at Modesto, taxi to the threshold for rwy 10R. Hold short of the runway. Ensure that the controls are working correctly. Set flaps to 50%. Now check that the adf is set to 367 and look on the RMI to what Heading the yellow adf needle points to (should be 110deg) and set this heading into the autopilot. As you change the autopilot heading you should see a heading bug move around the central HSI instrument, this tells you heading the autpilot is set at. Next set the autoplit altitude to 5000ft (you may have to switch to HUD view to do this). You are now ready for takeoff.

    Enter the runway and line up for takeoff. Take off as usual and establish a climb initially at 120knots and then once above 500ft, retract the flaps and increase the climb speed to 140. Turn on the autopilot. As soon the undercarriage leaves the ground and the VSI shows a positive rate of climb, retreat the undercarriage. Check the RMI to ensure that the yellow arrow is pointing directly up I.e you you heading directly toward the WOMAR NDB, if not adjust your heading to bring you back on track. Continue to climb to 5000ft. Once established at 5000ft, level out and set throttle to give a level speed of 180kts.

    Once you are 6nm miles away from Modesto, you will pass over the WOMAR NDB. You will know when you pass over the beacon as the RMI needle will swing 180degs. As soon as this happens, change heading to 180deg. To ensure that you are flying directly South of the NDB, adjust your heading to keep the RMI needle pointing to 000deg. It is now time to look at the nav 2 instrument and DME as you will ow intercept the 090 radial of the salinas VoR station. Currently the DME reads 65.3nm and if you look at the Nav 2 instrument, you will see a red flag which shows the instrument is in active as Salina VOR is too far away. Keep flying south with the RMI needle pointing North until the DME decreases until about 54nm at which point nav 2 will become alive and the red flap will disappear and the White arm will swing to the right.

    Continue to fly 180deg away from the WOMAR NDB until around 33.7nm DME when the ADF will automatically switch to 263 which is the CHUALA NDB which is located 12nm SW of Salinas airports. Adjust your heading to fly directly toward this NDB (heading will be around 201deg). You are now ready to accept the Salinas 09 radial. Watch the Nav 2 instrument and at around 13.2 DME you should start to see it swing to the left which shows that that you are approaching the radial and need to turn onto a heading of 270dwh to fly towards the Salinas VOR. The trick is start the turn early so you roll out on the new heading with the vertical vor needle straight down the centre of the instrument. To do this, I recommend that you start your turn before the needle touches the second dot from the centre, this will be around 11DME. Once you have completed the turn onto heading 270deg, you can adjust your heading to bring your aircraft onto course and keep the needle in the centre of the vor display. Unfortunately you are fly the wrong way for the 090 radial and ideally you would set the vor obs to 27 but this is not possible in AF2. You can still however fly the 27 radial but you need to be away that everything on the VOR display is in reverse. Therefore the VOR display will show that you are flying 'from' the VOR station when in fact you are flying 'to' it. The VOR needle will also work in reverse so if the needle is left of centre, the runway is actually to the right of the aircraft NOT the left and a turn to the right would bring the needle back to centre. Try to keep the needle in the centre of the VOR display and continue to fly directly towards Salinas VOR. Using the DME to track your distance to go. Fly direct,y over the Salinas VOR

    You will know when you fly over the Salinas VOR because the DME will count down to zero and start counting up again. Also the direction indicator on the VOR display will flip for 'from' to 'to'. Once you have flown over the VOR station, continue to fly along the 27 radial and keep adjusting your heading to keep the needle in the centre of the display. Now descend to 2500ft. Continuing to fly along this radial, the ADF will retune to 385 which is the MUNSO NDB which is located 5nm to the W of Montery Airport and is situated on the localiser for runway 10. Continue along the 27 radial until the the NDB is located 180deg for the aircraft, to do this watch the ADF needle (yellow) on the RMI. Just before the needle reaches 180deg, turn onto a heading of 180deg and then adjust your heading so you fly directly to the MUNSO NDB.

    Now descend to 1500ft and reduce speed to 140kts. Watch the DME as the the MUNSO NDB sits 16.3nm from the Salinas VOR. Once established at 140kts, select 50% flap. You are now about to turn onto finals for runway 10 and so need to start a turn onto headin 110 before reaching the NDB (start turn around 15.7-16.0 DME).

    Once you have complete the turn, reduce speed to 120kts and watch Nav 1. Nav 1 will switch to freq 110.70 shortly after the turn, the freq will switch and oth the HSI and nav1 will display the ils localiser. This is like the VOR indicator and will show your deviation from the runway centreline. If the needle is off the left, the runway is off to the left and you must turn to the left to line the aircraft up with the centreline. Now adjust your heading so the vertical needle on both the HSI and NAv 1 is in the centre of the display. You will also see the horizontal line on the nav 1 move down the instrument. This indicates the glideslope and as just before it reaches the centre of the display you should start a descent of approx 400fpm. You are now flying the approach for runway 10 and you should be constant,y adjusting your heading and rate of descent to keep both the vertical and horozontal bars on the nav 1 display in the centr of the instrument, lined up with the dots. Now extend your undercarriage and select full flaps. Decrease your speed to 100kts. You are now ready to land. Maintaining your approach and keeping the ils bars in the centre of the display, at 750ft, look up out of the front of the aircraft and you should see the runway in front of you.

    You can now disengage the autopilot if you were using it and hand fly the last stages of the approach with a an approach speed of 100kts. Perform a normal landing. Once you have landed, vacate the runway to right, fully retract the flaps and taxi to the hanger. Flight complete.

    This is a simple ifr flight that will introduce novices to fly both inbound and outbound of a NDB, inception and flying a VOR radial using DME and then intercepting and flying a localiser and glide slope at a runway in order to land in low visibility in AF2. I have writte this as a simplified step by step guide and in the future I will detail some ifr routes without the step by step detail. Using this technique I can take off from any airport and land at either salvinas, Montery or Watsonville airport without looking at the map or using the navigation feature and with terrible visibility.

    I hope you all enjoy this route and using AF2 radio nav. I would appreciate any comments or feedback.

    I hope people find this useful.

    Please note that the approach flew here is not a real world approach and is once that I have created for AF2.

    Gary

    Thanks Gary. I haven't tried this kind of navigation so will give this a try over the weekend if I get some time. I'll just need to try and summarise your instructions into a more palatable flight plan of sorts as it is a lot of information to go through during the flight.
    Should be fun. :)

    Donka, thanks for the feedback. I realise that my post was very descriptive but I had to assume no prior knowledge of rnav. I recommend that someone use this guide, reads a section, flys it and then pauses the flight to read the next bit. My future flight plans will not be as description and will assume some basic knowledge and experience.

    Gary