I realised, one good evening, that my FS9 ( Compass & SHIFT-Z function ) suddenly displays true heading i.s.o. magnetic heading. Searching the topic on Google brought me no luck :( , also can't find any (obvious) setting in FS9 to correct the matter. Anybody with the same experience, or even better - a solution ?Cheers !

I realised, one good evening, that my FS9 ( Compass & SHIFT-Z function ) suddenly displays true heading i.s.o. magnetic heading. Searching the topic on Google brought me no luck :( , also can't find any (obvious) setting in FS9 to correct the matter. Anybody with the same experience, or even better - a solution ?Cheers !

The same thing has been happening to me for the past week.I can get it back to reading magnetic by deleting the complete FS9 folder in the My Documents folder [not just the FS9.cfg file in that folder] which makes FS make a new one, however it is good for one flight only as on the next flight the compass is reading the True heading again.Have also tried System Restore which was good for one flight only then returned to reading the True heading.Would sure appreciate any help on this one.

If you've installed any new scenery lately try disabling that and see if you still have the problem.I ended up tracking mine down to a scenery package I had installed about 6 months (guessing) prior. It was a pain in the but to track it down but glad I finally did.

The same thing has been happening to me for the past week.I can get it back to reading magnetic by deleting the complete FS9 folder in the My Documents folder [not just the FS9.cfg file in that folder] which makes FS make a new one, however it is good for one flight only as on the next flight the compass is reading the True heading again.Have also tried System Restore which was good for one flight only then returned to reading the True heading.Would sure appreciate any help on this one.

How would I know if I'm experiencing the same problem? Would SHIFT+Z read differently than the on board compass? If so, which would be correct? I noticed yesterday that my Nav radio was tuned to a VOR and the heading indicator was pointed toward the station but the aircraft was heading 5 or so degrees to the right and I was on Auto Pilot. I don't believe wind was a factor but I'll check it again. Jim D.

How would I know if I'm experiencing the same problem? Would SHIFT+Z read differently than the on board compass? If so, which would be correct? I noticed yesterday that my Nav radio was tuned to a VOR and the heading indicator was pointed toward the station but the aircraft was heading 5 or so degrees to the right and I was on Auto Pilot. I don't believe wind was a factor but I'll check it again. Jim D.

Line up on the active rwy at KSEA, your compass should read 160 or 340 depending which end you're on...mine used to, now it is reading 180 or 360 as the Variation at Seatac is approx 20 degrees East.

If you've installed any new scenery lately try disabling that and see if you still have the problem.I ended up tracking mine down to a scenery package I had installed about 6 months (guessing) prior. It was a pain in the but to track it down but glad I finally did.

Thankyou, have done that and the compass now reads magnetic again.Will add them back one at a time until I find the culprit.Blue skies.

How would I know if I'm experiencing the same problem? Would SHIFT+Z read differently than the on board compass? If so, which would be correct? I noticed yesterday that my Nav radio was tuned to a VOR and the heading indicator was pointed toward the station but the aircraft was heading 5 or so degrees to the right and I was on Auto Pilot. I don't believe wind was a factor but I'll check it again. Jim D.

Jim,The magnetic bearings you are receiving from SHIFT-Z are based on a circa 2005 magnetic north model. Many VOR installations use much older alignments, from the 1965-1980 period. The difference can be in the range of six degrees or more, very noticeable in the absence of wind.Todd

Line up on the active rwy at KSEA, your compass should read 160 or 340 depending which end you're on...mine used to, now it is reading 180 or 360 as the Variation at Seatac is approx 20 degrees East.Blue skies.

Jim,The magnetic bearings you are receiving from SHIFT-Z are based on a circa 2005 magnetic north model. Many VOR installations use much older alignments, from the 1965-1980 period. The difference can be in the range of six degrees or more, very noticeable in the absence of wind.Todd

Thanks for the info guys.Did another flight last night and all seemed to be OK. Did your test this a.m. and one aircraft showed a difference of only a couple of degrees while others were spot on. So I believe there is no problem with my compass readings.BTW, which scenery caused the problem for you?Jim D.

I have been following this thread with interest - the headings in my Flight Simulator setup have been wrong for a long, long, time. I was aware that wrong headings could be caused by AFD files but I'm pretty sure these are only local to the airport concerned. I did not realise that it was possible to wreck the headings worldwide with a single file!I have just spent over three hours eliminating the rogue file, which actually turns out to be two rogue files. It did not take me long to find the problem was in the Addon Scenery/scenery directory, and I temporarilly eliminated all non-AFD files (checking that solved it) and re-introduced the others a few at a time. As my setup is quite old, this directory holds quite a lot of old clag that these days I would put in its own directory structure.The first offender turned out to be bglib.bgl . I have no clue what it does/did, or what scenery it belongs to, with a name like that. I have taken it out, hopefully there will be no bad side-effects.The second took a little longer to track down, and turned out to be YDNI_EXCL.BGL, one of four files with names starting with YDNI dated June and August 2004 - I have removed all of these as I'm pretty sure they are no longer pertinent. YDNI is Darnley Island, Australia and is appears to be adequately covered by the Torres Strait scenery files by Ross Casey dated October 2004 (which I have in a separate folder). Quite why a file like that should mess things up worldwide is beyond me.So those are the two offenders as far as my system was concerned. I'm looking forward to being able to navigate a bit more accurately now! Hopefully these may save some people some time tracking down their own problem files.John

Thanks for the info guys.Did another flight last night and all seemed to be OK. Did your test this a.m. and one aircraft showed a difference of only a couple of degrees while others were spot on. So I believe there is no problem with my compass readings.BTW, which scenery caused the problem for you?Jim D.

Still have not found the file, have disabled all addon scenery except South America where I am flying at present, will enable the others as needed.Will post it here when I find the culprit.I did a search for the files John H posted and I do not have them.Trev.

Well, since my 1st post about this problem, I haven't found my solution.At the time I decided re-do FS9 from scratch.All was fine ( re. magnetic issue ) till 2 days agoI had PMDG 737-600 base files installed for a long time, when I added the SP's & upgrades to -700/800 & 900that's when my magnetic problem came backSo I came back to my post, hoping to find a solution - no luck it seemsWill try disabling add-on scenery ( I only have Afri on the scenery lib active as I don't fly anywhere else )CheersJan

Ok, have to admit - I did actually find a solution in this threatI disabled all scenery, except Africa & default libs, magnetic issue solvedSo now I need to do the tedious thing & find the scenery, then the actual file that causes this problemThanks guys !Jan

I have discovered a problem with the same symptoms. I have a theory that there is some sort of problem triggered when FS indexes all the scenery and creates its scenery database. I think it is dependent on your specific scenery database -- two users can have the same scenery addon with no problem on one and a problem on another. I saw the problem went away for a bit for someone after blowing away the fs9 folder in documents and settings -- the "facilities" subfolder for that is where the database is found and I think that is why at first it might appear to be fixed. It takes something subtle to trigger it. All I can say is that first try with nothing but stock scenery installed and slowly work your way back and see if you can find the one file that is causing the problem. I think something as little as moving that file to a different scenery folder can fix it.I use a program than runs with fsuipc called AFSD.exe http://pagesperso-orange.fr/hsors/afsd.htmland that has a page you can pull up that shows what fs is reporting as the magvar for your aircraft location. Of course at some places in the world the magvar is 0.0.scott s..

If my memory serves me correctly, and often times it doesn't, I seem to remember reading somewhere this issue is caused by pre-FS9 Afcad files. If you have some old scenery that might have it's origins in FS2k2 you might want to check these first.Hope this helps,JoePS. The fastest way to isolate problem addons is to activate half and check the sim.If the problem is there, de-activate half of those, if not activate half of the remaining.By doing this half-at-a-time procedure you can isolate the problem quicker than adding things 1 or 2 at a time.

I had the same problem : my aircraft compass was displaying true heading instead of magnetic heading - and navigations had become a nightmare !It took me just a few hours to identify the culprit on my system (Fs2004) : an AFCAD file for Fès Airport (GMFF, Morocco), by Ian Audisio, downloaded at flightsim(dot)com.The zip file is named "af2_gmff.zip".The AFCAD file itself (AF2_GMFF.bgl) is dated 12th June 2009 and weighs 20.0 ko. Remove it and you should be cleared for easier Navs.All other AFCADs created by Ian Audisio work fine by me.Hope this helps.

Not sure how many of you use this addon, but I've had no problems since installing and all headings now actually correspond to those found on current charts and plates. Before they were off by a few degrees or more, depending on where you are.http://hsors.pagesperso-orange.fr/hssoft0705/MagDec_Update.rarUpdates to 2010.