The big VOR topic

[Guest]

Thank you, you're very welcome! I can imagine the amount of information that's been gathered (if that's the right word...) in this topic during the last few days may have become a bit too much... so feel free to ask for help if you are having problems with something. As you may have noticed I like to talk about all this...

[BaronKen 144]

Very nice thread Jeroen; I don't know how long you've been "simming", but using VOR's and NDB's for navigation, especially of course IFR flight, is how we used to fly "in the old days" before the advent of mainstream GPS. Part of the fun of flying was planning your flight using VOR's and NDB's and flying along both jetways and VFR flight routes as well. In fact, some of the old scenery addons (SubLogic in particular) included very nice charts with the scenery. The USA East and West scenery addons had great charts that covered the entire USA. I used them for years. Later editions of FS started including built in flight planners which sort of negated needing to use the old charts.

 

What you're doing here brings back many old, fond memories. And, you're doing a great job of tutoring as well. Keep it up!

[HiFlyer 9,374]

The big dirty secret..... How many long time simmers did not do VOR.

 

No, I didn't either! :LMAO:

[enamel 4]

The big dirty secret..... How many long time simmers did not do VOR.

 

I have to admit, I am really surprised by this as well!

[LAdamson 240]

Very nice thread Jeroen; I don't know how long you've been "simming", but using VOR's and NDB's for navigation, especially of course IFR flight, is how we used to fly "in the old days" before the advent of mainstream GPS. Part of the fun of flying was planning your flight using VOR's and NDB's and flying along both jetways and VFR flight routes as well. In fact, some of the old scenery addons (SubLogic in particular) included very nice charts with the scenery. The USA East and West scenery addons had great charts that covered the entire USA. I used them for years. Later editions of FS started including built in flight planners which sort of negated needing to use the old charts.

 

What you're doing here brings back many old, fond memories. And, you're doing a great job of tutoring as well. Keep it up!

 

I actually fired up FSX, and turned the simulated OBS dial. Haven't done that for years, but wanted to check out the "line of sight" VOR signals from Hilo on 116.9. Was curious since there is a mountain in the vicinity. I did loose the signal at lower altitudes, but can't say how accurate the simulated line of sight, is. FWIW, you can look up some of the specs on these Hawaiian VORs to see line of sight distances and altitudes, in respect to the radials.

[jcomm 5,996]

The USA East and West scenery addons had great charts that covered the entire USA

 

Yep! I still have ATP Rev. D' box and diskettes !!!! :-) Great sim, even when fs5 was released...

[Guest]

I don't know how long you've been "simming", but using VOR's and NDB's for navigation, especially of course IFR flight, is how we used to fly "in the old days" before the advent of mainstream GPS.

 

Well... I've started flying on the Atari somewhere around 1987. Some three, four years later I switched to PC and started using MSFS. I've had years when I only flew for a week and I've had years I flew a few months. It wasn't until FS9 that I started to fly more and more and buy addons and by the time FSX was about 2, 3 years old, it was more or less the only game I played (apart from some racing games). So all in all you could say I've been simming for some 25 years... and it wasn't until Flight was released that I learned all about VOR... (and bought rudder pedals).

 

I did know a little bit about VOR (I am certain I flew towards a VOR a few times, using the CDI) but that was about it. I couldn't really USE it. Triangulation was a complete mystery to me. I never full understood the TO/FROM indicator (never heard of that line of ambiguity). And so on. I just didn't get it! So I never used it. Until Flight came along and forced me to learn it! And thanks to some very kind people on this forum (who didn't totally flame me when I started with an alternative VOR method, which I have abandoned completely now ), I think I now more or less 'get it'!

 

BTW Flight also had me finally learning how to read approach charts: another thing I never could (or didn't feel the need to do). It's great doing real world approaches in Flight!

 

P.S. I am looking forward to using NDB in Flight: I am sure a plane will come that makes use of it, otherwise MS wouldn't have added NDB's.

[Sigma54 0]

never heard of that line of ambiguity

Or the cone of uncertainty!!! Lol!

 

P.S. I am looking forward to using NDB in Flight: I am sure a plane will come that makes use of it, otherwise MS wouldn't have added NDB's.

 

Flying by NDB sounds tricky! I think we will have to have a tutorial on those when they come out because they seem more complicated in some ways than VORs!

[dburne 2]

What is NDB?

[Brett_Henderson 5]

Or the cone of uncertainty!!! Lol!

 

 

 

Flying by NDB sounds tricky! I think we will have to have a tutorial on those when they come out because they seem more complicated in some ways than VORs!

 

More complicated; in that it requires more discipline, and a stronger situational awareness.. But this thread's author will no doubt pick it up quickly, and share it enthusiastically.. I'll help if needed.. :)

[Sigma54 0]

I'll help if needed.. :)

 

Thanks! I've been able to pick up how to use VORs... I've read about the NDBs and a bit how they're used and it does seem a bit headache inducing! Hopefully, once they are operational and I can practice, it will become a little more clear as I think practice would probably help a bit in terms of getting a better feel for them!

[trevorbee 0]

 

LOL You're getting close. Keep on trying, troverbee.

 

Jeroen (best of three). Sorry.

 

And touche.

[dburne 2]

The big dirty secret..... How many long time simmers did not do VOR.

 

I have been flight simming with MSFS for quite a number of years, and as you can tell, no I have not done true VOR flying.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

I always prepared my flight, plotted out the path from VOR to airport to VOR, filed the plan, called Clearance Delivery, contacted the Tower, flew the SID, stuck to the airways (Victor, of course) etc. ... I did all that in the past, but definitely stopped after ProPilot and have never bothered since.

 

So, I am fascinated by the people who are moving into navigation and the use of navaids. I wonder if any of you have given it some thought and figured out what has motivated you, why you are interested in navigation now? Is it something about Flight? Is it because the structure of the game gives it a purpose that was missing in past versions of FS?

 

It would be very interesting to understand what this means, and probably the devs who read this forum will find it interesting as well.

 

Best regards.

Luis

[RoboRay 126]

I'm sure the lack of an "easy-mode" moving-map GPS is one factor. It's hard to motivate yourself to learn something challenging when there's an easier way staring you right in the face.

 

I learned VOR navigation 25 years ago, ironically, in early versions of MS Flight Sim. When I started on my PPL a couple of years later, my CFI was quite impressed at my "intuitive understanding" of radio navigation techniques. :Whistle:

 

Had I started out in "modern" flight sims featuring GPS displays, I probably would never have bothered with VORs and my CFI would have not been so pleased with my rate of progress.