BradThanks a million for the advice. It helped quite a bit. I still have problems maintaining the VOR needle 90deg to the wing, I think my problem might be in me banking to steep or to shallow. But, I managed to at least remain within 1.5 miles of the arc, on my first attempt into NZWN. I'll keep on practising until I eventually get it right.Thanks for the advice, I do appreciate it very much.RegardsStephen

Hi Stephen,in addition to the many things the other gentlemen wrote in response to your original post, I would just add these few lines from the 737 Flight Manual (Continental Airlines):"The distinguishing feature of the DME arc is you are required to fly your aircrafts along a circular track around the VORTAC station at a specified distance....When turning onto an arc, plan to lead your trun to avoid overshooting the desired arc. A good rule-of-thumb is to lead desired DME indication by 1% of your ground speed.Keeping a bearing or radial indicator near the wing tip will keep you close to the desired arc. Flying in a series of short, straight legs are usually the best techniques to use. Do not attempt to fly in a continuous bank....If you drift off the arc:- if getting closer to the station than desired, turn to put the station behind the wing tip;- if getting further from the station than desired, turn to put the station ahed of the wing tip;- technically speaking, correct 10 degrees for each 1/2 mile outside the arc and 5 degress for each 1/2 mile inside the arc....For most DME transitions, a lead of approximately 10 degrees will be adequate for turning from the arc to the final approach course".Hope this helps.

Hi,your statement: "And BTW you don't "turn and level out, turn and level out", you do that in a single fluid turn." seems not to be correct, at least if reading the 737 Flight Manual that states for the DME arc procedure:"Flying in a series of short, straight legs are usually the best techniques to use. Do not attempt to fly in a continuous bank.".Regards.

Stephen,Gald I could be of help. The needle is only a help, the way to assess how you are doing is keeping a close eye on the DME indication. In older systems you actually had a rate of closure indication as well as your distance so you just got on teh arc and kept the RoC indicator at 0 as you keep the distance. Easy huh? :)

Hi EnricoThanks for the advice. It is much appreciated. I will fly a few of these arc procedures today and will keep this post advised of success or failure (on my part). Up to now I overshoot/undershoot the arc and in doing so, I end up flying zig-zag trying to get back to the DME distance. I imagine I have quite a number of sea-sick pax in the back there :-) Guess what Brad said is true, the chief pilot will call me soon, not for tea and cookies, but probably for a demotion back to C152's.Let me explain a bit why I am so intrigued about procedures. Designing them is my day job. I work as a flight procedure designer, used to be a controller for 10 years, had a PPL (300 hours) and now work as a procedure designer. Before GNSS, we designed procedures and checked them in FSim (conventional procedures). The real test flights of our procedures takes place at our local airline in there sims (boy, what fun it is for me, I get to fly them almost every month) and then off to the aviation authority for approval and publication. Now with GNSS, I built the procedure in the LEGS page with all neccessary constraints, and then test fly it in FSim. Then the same procedure is flown in the real a/c sim and checked there. FSim and the PMDG a/c makes it easy for me to check whether my procedures will be flyable and it is a great tool for me. I only use it as a checking tool, and must admit, it works great. And what is great, I can check my procedure under different conditions (weather, weight conditions, failures, pilot workload etc.) thus trying to design simple, yet effective procedures. The greatest part though still remains the actual test flights in the real sims. I usually get a chance myself to fly 3-4 circuits or procedures when time allows and this is great. Flying became too expensive for me to maintain my PPL, so I was forced financially to give that up. I have wonderful memories of my PPL days. I now live my dream through my work, FSim and PMDG. My employer has given approval for us to use FSim as checking tool in our job, and so they gave us nice big screens and FSim. Wish I had a faster pc to upload to FS9, but now I am happy with the 600/700 and FS2002.Thanks again for all the help.Stephen