Can anyone shed some light on Polar Operations in the NG series aircraft? Not even Polar operations but let's say just northern ops - ie: a flight from Yellowknife to Cambrige Bay or along those lines, where true heading is he name of he game. I believe there is an op spec for the NG which allows ops beyond 70ish degrees. Not sure if it involves an equipment package or perhaps just procedures.I for the life of me can't find a heading reference selector anywhere... I'm pretty sure they exist. That's basically all I need. Supposed to be on the aft overhead somewhere...

Can anyone shed some light on Polar Operations in the NG series aircraft? Not even Polar operations but let's say just northern ops - ie: a flight from Yellowknife to Cambrige Bay or along those lines, where true heading is he name of he game. I believe there is an op spec for the NG which allows ops beyond 70ish degrees. Not sure if it involves an equipment package or perhaps just procedures. I for the life of me can't find a heading reference selector anywhere... I'm pretty sure they exist. That's basically all I need. Supposed to be on the aft overhead somewhere...

You don't know how long I searched for the heading reference selector. I literally thought I was going to go crazy if I never found it. (I never did) I've searched and searched in the FCOM and can't find where it's located...

Heck even a key command would suffice for me. I'm sure it's coded into the simulation somewhere! No need to remake the VC.

Can anyone shed some light on Polar Operations in the NG series aircraft? Not even Polar operations but let's say just northern ops - ie: a flight from Yellowknife to Cambrige Bay or along those lines, where true heading is he name of he game. I believe there is an op spec for the NG which allows ops beyond 70ish degrees. Not sure if it involves an equipment package or perhaps just procedures. I for the life of me can't find a heading reference selector anywhere... I'm pretty sure they exist. That's basically all I need. Supposed to be on the aft overhead somewhere...

FCTM page 163. The primary roll mode for polar operations should be LNAV, which may be used with the heading reference switch in the NORM position. HDG SEL/HOLD are functional but require the manual selection of TRUE heading reference. Deviations from planned route may be accomplished in HDG SEL.Note:Do not use HDG SEL or ROLL CWS north of 89 degrees 30 minutes North latitude or south of 89 degrees 30 minutes South latitude, due to rapid heading and track changes occurring near either pole. At latitudes north of N85 or south of S85, the true heading on the RMI may differ from the True Heading displayed on the MAP, due to position differences between IRU-L and FMC.

Good spot, but I still can't find the switch anywhere.

Good spot, but I still can't find the switch anywhere.

Me neither !! From what I can gather it is something to do with a more advanced HUD. Fred.

It should basically change the compass heading on the Nav DU to a true reference...and all the other navigation doo-dads associated with that.

It should basically change the compass heading on the Nav DU to a true reference...and all the other navigation doo-dads associated with that.

It will automattically change to True if you fly towards the poles.

Hmm. Well didn't for me...although I was only going up to 74 degrees latitude. You see, up in Canada we have 'Northern Domestic Airspace' where all navigation is done with a true heading. It roughly extends from just north of Yellowknife to the pole of course.Are you sure you are not thinking of the MD11? That thing for sure automatically switches to a true reference. I'm pretty confident that the NG's do not.Really, it's quite obvious that the heading reference switch wasn't implemented. All I xan really hope for now us perhaps a nice little key command snuck in the next update... Pretty please?

For the life of my I can't find the switch either, so I guess it wasn't modeled. I even tried looking to see if it was somewhere in the aircraft configurations but alas, it isn't. The same goes for Metric flight level ops. I've flown a few flights in Russian and Chinese airspace and all I could manage to do is round the altitude to the nearest tens of feet. The MD-11 has a metric changeover option and a metric flight planning option as-well but I still have to find it in the NGX. The same applies to QFE approaches such as at LXGB and most of the world.... Since there's no QFE secondary display, you need to do it the old fashion way and calculate everything. MJ O'Donnell

Bummer. Sorta choked that it's a no-go for true northern ops or in your case a metric changeover. Once again...even just a key command would be spectacular...no need to play around with the VC.

For the life of my I can't find the switch either, so I guess it wasn't modeled. I even tried looking to see if it was somewhere in the aircraft configurations but alas, it isn't. The same goes for Metric flight level ops. I've flown a few flights in Russian and Chinese airspace and all I could manage to do is round the altitude to the nearest tens of feet. The MD-11 has a metric changeover option and a metric flight planning option as-well but I still have to find it in the NGX. The same applies to QFE approaches such as at LXGB and most of the world.... Since there's no QFE secondary display, you need to do it the old fashion way and calculate everything. MJ O'Donnell

Don't you just push the meters button for that? Or I am thinking of something else?

Hmm. Well didn't for me...although I was only going up to 74 degrees latitude. You see, up in Canada we have 'Northern Domestic Airspace' where all navigation is done with a true heading. It roughly extends from just north of Yellowknife to the pole of course. Are you sure you are not thinking of the MD11? That thing for sure automatically switches to a true reference. I'm pretty confident that the NG's do not. Really, it's quite obvious that the heading reference switch wasn't implemented. All I xan really hope for now us perhaps a nice little key command snuck in the next update... Pretty please?

Check out the FCOM Vol 2 page 541 !! Bottom of page !!

Where exactly is this heading reference switch located on the real plane?

Where exactly is this heading reference switch located on the real plane?

Wow, there is none... On a related topic though, I found IRS alignment to be erroneous at high latitudes. First of all it should not align at all at very high latitudes at all (don't recall exact number). Not sure what excatly it would do there, but I don't think it should align. Then the alignment times are also a bit off. At high latitudes (where it should not align) alignment time shows some ridiculous number like 16667 minutes. But it indeed counts down from there, so it seems to be aligning. Very odd. Also at lower latitudes the times are off, I believe. Furthermore, whenever alignment time exceeds 15 minutes (which it does at around 60-70 degs), that is 17 minutes, it should still show 15 minutes for the first three minutes and then count down from there.Then the ISDU numbers appear in the wrong order when entering position manually...IRS position entry will "snap" to actual aircaft position when entering a slightly wrong position and preventing any external updates like GPS... Uh there are things to be fixed methinks.