Hello there my fellow aviators. I think that FSX navaids have too much range, according to what I've read in wikipedia... it states that the range is limited to the horizon but also gives some ranges passing 100nm as well... dont understand.

I also now about skywave propagation of NDBs, so I'm not SO noob :D

 

 

Here are the FSX values (used ADEx to check,, from varius airports around the world):

 

DME High Altitude: 195.05NM

DME low altitude: 60.02NM

 

VOR/DME Low Altitude: 60.02NM

VOR/DME High Altitude:195.05NM

 

VOR High Altitude: 195.05 NM

VOR Low Altitude: 60.02NM

 

NDB HH: 112.53NM and one managed to throw 75.02NM

NDB H: 75.05NM

NDB MH: 37.51NM

NDB Compass Locator: 22.51NM

 

 

I mostly fly GA aviation in alaska and below 7500ft (Unpressurized aircrafts btw). I simulate air taxi and bush flying, my goal is to make it as realistic as possible, I don't even use GPS! (yes, I'm a vintage virtual flyer :D:D:D)

 

Any imput from a Real world Pilot is appreciated, as i'm just a virtual one.

Cheers and Happy Flying!! ltnicolas (Nicolas)

Good list, Nicolas. I think it depends, but I'd say the general NDB in FSX has a way to short range. Flying Russia with those few nm available was a pain for me. The rw folks spoke about way higher possible ranges than those 30+ nm.

I wonder is there any way to mod the ranges?

the range can be set to anything in the scenery but i'm not sure what limit the instruments work to.

the panel system doesn't define a limit for instruments. an adf radio, for example, interrogates the tuned ndb and gets it's range. if the player is within range, then the radio would indicate signal reception.

 

with respect to the ndb and vor definitions themselves, in the bgl files I mean, they're going to be spread among a lot of different files. it would be technically possible to create a utility that would [binary] update those files to selectively change ranges. in the bgl, the range is a single-precision floating point value.

Thank you for the info. I also know that at night yo have the Skywave propagation that enhances the NDB range greatly.

 

I wish there were a way to update the navaids rannge "on-the-run", something that could calculate the maximum range of the nearby navaids according to time of day and aircraft's altitude. sadly I only know Java, think C++ is needed for something like that.

...and you would need to update scenery also!

 

CoolP: Got curious and checked western Russia... Man it has few navaids! Eastern side seems more populated'

updating at runtime based on wx/time-of-day conditions would be difficult, not "impossible".

Only problem is that FSX does not model, like any other sim I know about, lne of sight restriction for VORs, thus making flight in mountainous terrain irrealistic. Other than that, I think MSFS and FLIGHT, and I believe Prepar3d as well, all do well in this area....

accounting for terrain would also not be strictly impossible, but it might be kinda heavy on performance. maybe. i'll think on it.

And bad reception on range, now its on/off.

I made a mistake above: the adf radio will look for stations no more than about 80 nm from the player position, regardless of the signal strength encoded in the ndb definition in the bgl. apologies for the mistake.

Guys(and gals): if you want to modify a single NavAid you can use ADEx. Just open the closest airport you find, edit it, export it to a .bgl file and put it on FSX/Addon Scenery/Scenery.

 

NOTICE: the Navaid power output and the effective range are independent... you could put a compass locator NDB to have a range of 300NM f you want.

 

then.. .. Problem?? update an entire navaid database.....