You can adjust the default zoom in the cockpit, if you wish. I changed mine to 0.75, which I find to be the best mix of readable instruments and peripheral vision. Edit the following file:

 

%appdata%\Microsoft\Flight\Cameras.CFG

 

(in cockpit view section)

 

InitialZoom = 0.75

 

You can also adjust your view up or down (in degrees) by adding:

 

InitialPbh=7.0

 

This example tilts the view down 7 degrees.

Now, a question. What is a proper procedure for intercepting a radial? I mean in terms of airspeed, roll, or the time to complete the maneuver? It seems I always end up a few degrees off, enough to spoil the navigation.

 

Airspeed: just keep your current airspeed: there isn't any need to adjust your speed when you intercept a radial.

Roll: keep it normal. Simply make a gentle turn and don't roll past the indications on the turn indicator (those little lines than align with your wing: don't know how to call them).

Time to complete: take as much time as you need with your current speed and a normal roll...

 

In short: there aren't any real rules (afaik) for intercepting a radial and there isn't one official procedure. It all depends on your speed, which angle you start to intercept and how close you are to the VOR. When you approach the radial at an angle of 90 degrees you will have to roll more and start earlier then when you intercept at an angle of 5 degrees. Obviously. You might want to look at the little dots left and right from the center of the VOR gauge to give you some indication, but when you start intercepting 20 nm out it will take quite some time for the CDI to move from one dot to another while when you are 2 nm out, the CDI will zip along that line as if Tarzan is hanging on to it.

 

Don't get too upset when you overshoot the radial. I do it all the time. I think I also posted that in one of my tutorials already. Obviously I only make screenshots for tutorials when all gauges show what they need to show, but most of the time I am struggling getting and keeping the CDI's centered and so on, hahaha! And somebody else already posted that real world pilots have the same problems.

 

Try to think ahead and when you think you are getting close to the intercept, turn a bit more to the heading of the radial already, so you can intercept it slowly over time. You do not have to intercept the radial at a certain angle and in one perfect turn or anything! Just make sure that at one moment in time you will be flying on the desired radial: it doesn't really matter how you got on it, really... If you overshoot it, don't pull the joystick (or whatever) to the opposite direction at once but slightly adjust your heading a bit to slowly center the CDI.

 

EDIT: Come to think of it: one tip: do not only look at the CDI, trying to get and keep it centered: look at the heading indicator and check if you are flying the desired heading: that's more important then looking at the CDI all the time because then you will probably chase the needle and never fly on the right heading. So when you see the CDI is centering, don't keep looking at it too much but focus on the heading indicator and try to fly the heading of the desired radial. As soon as you are doing that, look at the CDI again and if you are a bit left or right, make very small correction to center the needle slowly.

I think a mistake a lot of people make is to only look at the CDI while you should be making sure you are flying the right heading. You can center the CDI (briefly) without flying the right heading at all!

 

RoboRay posted a nice trick to intercept a radial using the HSI (in the Maule): you have to keep top of the Deviation bar alligned with the er... lubber line (the white line that points at your heading). When you do that, you will slowly intercept the radial. But er... I think RoboRay can explain it better...

 

P.S. Glad to hear my 'approach' worked for you!!!

 

P.S. 2 And yes, do as RoboRay posted: change the default zoom!!! I have a 24" monitor and I have zoom at 0.70: even with that setting I can hardly read the gauges: the idea of using default zoom on a 22" monitor... oh my, no, thank you. I don't zoom in more because of course you also zoom into the scenery. It is a trade off/compromise but the default zoom is way too far back imho.

The lubber-line trick was posted by somebody else. I always intercept at 30 degrees, unless I'm really close to the station or destination and need to be on the radial quickly. I'll just start turning gradually in to the radial as the CDI begins to center, feeling out my wind-correction angle as I go.

 

Intercepting at a high angle gets you to the radial quicker, but adds distance as you are flying less directly toward the destination.

 

Oh, and the marks on the Turn Coordinator are for a standard-rate two-minute turn. A full 360 degree circle on that mark should take two minutes to complete.

 

tranglos & FiLooo

 

And anyone else that might be interested...

 

Megs & I did a short flight from - PHKO V11 UPP V16 OKALA V22 ITO

 

If you guys want to set a time to meet on AVSIM Teamspeak - Hangar Talk Channel, we could do that flight together and surely get you squared away.

 

We flew it in FSX in the C172... which I would prefer solely from the standpoint you can set the autopilot to maintain Heading and Altitude... that way concentrating on the VOR stuff.

 

Just let me know,

-Rob

Thanks for the replies and tips! The reason I asked is I'm often finding it hard to make precise turns. I think it's because of lack of true perspective on a flat 2D screen, and because it's hard to make turns without peripheral vision to establish points of reference. In a sim you can't just twist your neck to look right or left, and panning with a hat switch there and back takes plenty of time. So in the end I usually overshoot.

 

On an proper, deliberately executed approach, there's enough time to correct, eg. when making a turn onto final. But in my VOR attempts so far, I've usually ended up a mile off the target point. This may be OK when flying VFR, but not much good in IFR,

 

I've re-tried the RV-6 ILS challenge last night for the tenth time at least, and got this close to bronze (but not quite). I ended up about two runway widths to the right of the runway. Granted that crosswind adds to the difficulty there, but so far the hardest thing for me is making tiny, one- or two-degree course corrections, necessary for ILS. This difficulty carries over for me to VOR flying, though perhaps this kind of precision is not absolutely necessary there.

so much great information! thanks a ton! as a fan of flying, I didn't know much about it until I got Flight. Though I've heard positive as well as negative things about this game, I think this is great for beginner pilots who aspire to earn a pilot's license.

Desberardo asked this in another topic and I thought it would be a good idea to answer the question over here:

 

So to my understanding, say I'm in the middle of the Pacifc (no island visible yet) and want to find a VOR assuming I have the frequency already, I'd just tune my nav1 to that freq and then turn my OBS until centered and go from there or am I missing a step?

 

Yes, you are missing a step: to fly towards a VOR the CDI should indeed be centered but, very important, the TO FROM indicator should show TO, otherwise you will be flying away from the VOR... You then turn your plane so your heading is the same as the number set with the OBS (although there may be a small difference due to crosswind).

 

Secondly, I'm also confused when people say the reciprocal of the 090 radial. Does that mean if I'm flying with a heading of 090 I'm on the right track heading to the VOR or am I flying away? I know that the the opposite direction of 090 is 270 so do I need to turn my plane around to 270? Im a beginner to all that is flying and would love to learn all that I can.

 

The thing to remember is that radials always and only go outbound of a VOR. The question to your problem depends on your current location.

 

When you are to the exact west of the VOR you are ON the 270 radial. If you want to fly to the VOR, you tune in to the VOR, turn the OBS until the CDI is centered and the TO FROM indicator shows TO and then you will see the bearing to the VOR is... 090! So turn your plane to a heading of 090, keep the CDI centered and you will fly straight to the VOR (although the heading may be influenced by wind).

 

When you are to the exact east of the VOR you are ON the 090 radial. If you want to fly to the VOR, you tune in to the VOR, turn the OBS until the CDI is centered and the TO FROM indicator shows TO and then you will see the bearing to the VOR is... 270! So turn your plane to a heading of 270, keep the CDI centered and you will fly straight to the VOR (although the heading may be influenced by wind).

 

In short: when you fly towards a VOR you set the OBS to the reciprocal of the radial you are flying on! This automatically will be the case when you center the CDI and make sure TO is active. After that you simply fly your plane in that heading.

 

Why use reciprocals? When using VOR you usually fly the same heading as the one the OBS is set to: in that case you can follow the CDI as a command instrument: when the needle is left, you need to fly left and the other way around. You could fly east on the 270 radial with a heading of 090 but the OBS set to 270 (so not on the reciprocal) and you may have the CDI centered... however, in that case you have to use reverse sensing: when the needle is left, you have to turn right and the other way around... Nasty stuff. Using reciprocals may seem complicated at first but in the end it's easier then using reverse sensing.

 

BTW When you want to fly away from a VOR on a certain radial you set the OBS (obviously) to the radial you are flying on: a radial is always outbound and so are you in this case.

Wow, great stuff. Thank you so much for all this info. I am a visual learner so I need to get in Flight and mess around. When first learning about flying using the reciprocal wasnt making sense, because when you want to go somewhere, you would naturally use that heading instead of using the reciprocal so that was really messing me up.

Just watched the video in the first post.

Good starting point, as the students asked questions I would.

Now I will try and wade through the rest.

Coppy/Paste/Print is my mantra :)

Sorry to ressurect this old thread, but since flights demise, I figure it should be on the front page.

 

Also, This is the first time I have read the entire thread and you guys have made me all gitty now to try VOR and ILS.

 

I leave work in 2 minutes and heading home to plan a VOR/ILS flight. BOOYA!

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed in this thread. Thank you for all of your hardwork and the "dumming-down" for folk like me. (nonpilot) lol.

I leave work in 2 minutes and heading home to plan a VOR/ILS flight. BOOYA!

 

Great to hear!

I keep meaning to check this out more msyelf, have been meaning to for some time, just can't seem to get there from here lol.

Have fun!

I've always used VOR and ADF to find my way around in the previous versions of MSFS so I like the fact that MS included this in their "simplified" sim. I like to fly VFR in GA types and helicopters in FS9 so FLIGHT simulates the type of flying that I like best. Good to see people learning these older skills through FLIGHT.

Yeah, I followed a guide in the tutorials (not one of the top ones, it was on page 2/3) and I modified it just a tad. It wanted to start out in the ocean and i decided to start at a lil dirt strip airport.

 

Anways, I could never get the indicator to switch from: FRM to TO. I royally screwed it up. Did not work AT ALL.

 

I think tonight I will pick an airport on one of the islands and fly to another but write everything down. I dunno, I am still a bit confused.

 

 

QUESTION: With the OBS knob.

I set the airport VOR and made sure it was the ACTIVE VOR (RV6A on the bottom radio(VOR1?))

The VOR dial had the CDI all the way to the left. I turned the OBS knob until that was centered and it gives me the heading(in degrees)

 

I have to follow that heading to get to the airport, right?

 

Also, I am still trying to set ILS, I tried too, because I want to fly INDIRECT so I can be lined up with the runway from far out instead of wingin it, flying over and circling.

 

Yup

Anways, I could never get the indicator to switch from: FRM to TO.

 

You have to be receiving a VOR signal to get the TO / FROM flag

 

Two ways to get the flag to switch:

• Pass over the VOR...
  
• Keep spinning (rotating) the OBS knob...
  

 

I set the airport VOR and made sure it was the ACTIVE VOR (RV6A on the bottom radio(VOR1?))

 

Checkout the following link... go to post #12 (roboray) and you will see a pic of the RV-6 panel. That pick identifies Nav1 and the VOR1 head... same same for Nav2/VOR2

 

http://forum.avsim.n...al#entry2425880

 

The VOR dial had the CDI all the way to the left. I turned the OBS knob until that was centered and it gives me the heading(in degrees)

 

I have to follow that heading to get to the airport, right?

 

 

Maybe...

 

"I turned the OBS knob until that was centered" AND you need a TO indication.

 

"and it gives me the heading(in degrees)" - ok good

 

"I have to follow that heading to get to the airport, right?"

 

You use that as an initial heading to turn to... and you need to keep the needle centered. If the VOR is on the airport grounds... then basically yes ...

 

Please read my post #18 from the below thread... read specifically under "Option 1" and see if that makes sense.

 

http://forum.avsim.n...n/#entry2393287

 

-Rob O.

it is very nice to see that there are still people into ms flight and not fsx or something