Hi guys,a question this time. How do you correctly hand-fly a DME arc?I have them in the GNS 530 and while I usually hand-fly all the approaches I use to hit the NAV button and slave the AP to the GPS when they come up as I really don't know the correct procedure to do this.Anyone kwith enough knowledge to help me out here? I am interested in the correct RW procedure only.Thx a lot.Alex

Have you seen this article? It is pretty good at describing the the proceedure for flying a DME arc.http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/vordme.htmI also did a google search for "Flying a DME arc approach", and came up with many different articles describing how it is accomplished.:D

Wow, lots to read. Thx fr the pointer.Alex

I fly 90 degrees to the intercept radial, then keep my heading degrees to a centrerd OBS track. (You have to keep turning the OBS to keep it centered and fly 90 degrees to it) follow that around to your lead radial and you won't budge off the arc!!If your DME decreases, fly out 10 degrees, if it increases turn in 10 degrees.Chris

Hi Alex,the FAA published an extremely good IFR handbook with a detailed description of the DME ARC procedure. Grab the first two of these links, DME ARC is covered in the first part (pages 7-15 and following)http://www.scandinavian-va.net/dc/dcboard....esg_id=40&page=

Uwe,yes I have already d/l'ed it after I have seen the link in one of your other posts. Thx fr that. But forgive me when I say that given the fact that I also have a real life I prefer the quick and dirty explanation the likes of Chris'. I will read the FAA stuff over Christmas though :-).BTW thx Chris.Alex - EDDN

AOPA Flight Training magazine had a good article on DME arcs as well. The standard practice I have learned in my flight training and the AOPA magasine stated as well involves the OBS turning method Chris suggested, but not a constant turning.You will fly on the inbound radial and (in light aircraft atleast) start your turn to a heading 90

Yep, that

triacontakaihexagonal? :-roll

You all are teaching it the hard way, when I learned to fly an ARC they taught us in planes equiped with an RMI, trash your #2 vor gauge and replace it with an RMI, this turn the obs 10 degrees is not the way you fly an arc in real life.

I have yet to fly a plane with an RMI in the real world, but that option would be nice. Hehe. Ofcourse de-icing systems besides just pitot heat and having an auto-pilot would be nice too. And HSIs look nice as well. *sigh* Light planes and their limited capacity to carry heavy advanced equipment. ----------------------------------------------------------------John S. MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private 130+ hrs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

It may not be the way *you* fly it in real life but it (turning the OBS 10 degrees periodically) is one technique that I was shown during my instrument training...The primary reason for this post, however, is this link to yet another tutorial on arcs:http://www.stoenworks.com/Tutorials/IFR%2C...Approaches.htmlThere are a lot of interesting/fascinating stories and tutorials on the page above that: http://www.stoenworks.com/Aviation%20home%20page.htmlAll written by a guy that put in some hard Cessna 421 time before hanging up his wings for good.Dave Blevins

Yep, same here, just as described in the AOPA post, twist 10 - turn 10, that's how we were trained to fly an ARC at Delta Connection Academy, which would be pretty "real pilot" like ;-)Cheers,Petehttp://members.aol.com/pzsoulman/myhomepage/logo.gifAMD64-3400,1GB/2700DDRAM,WinXP(SP2),DirectX9.0c,Geforce6800(128MB)(Det.66.81), CH Yoke/Pedals

Wow, this thread has grown overnight. Sorry I couldn't participate, but sometimes you have to sleep too. I thank all of the above posters and can assure you that I will try all of the suggestions.This has helped a great lot.Alex

If you are using an ADF:1) Fly the inbound heading(QDM) until you are about 0.8nm (140kts) outside of the arc and then turn right (for anti-clockwise arc) to a heading that tracks 90deg more than your QDM (inbound track on the RBI/RMI). If you start your turn at 0.8nm then you will end up roughly 0.2 nm outside of the arc which is ideal as it provides more time to setup to follow the arc and more cockpit time to think of the next two things!2) Fly that heading until you roughly 0.2nm outside of the arc 3) Turn left to a relative RBI bearing of 280 (or -80) and then repeat 2. You will notice that this time you will travel about 0.2nm inside the arc before you are 0.2nm outside.If you are using a VOR:1) Fly the inbound radial until you are about 0.8nm (140kts) outside of the arc and then turn right (for anti-clockwise arc) to a heading that tracks 90deg less than your radial.2) Centre the CDI and fly that heading until you roughly 0.2nm outside of the arc 3) Turn left 10deg and centre the CDI and then repeat 2. You will notice that this time you will travel about 0.2nm inside the arc before you are 0.2nm outside.Things to remember (mental math):* All turns are Rate 1 or 25deg which ever is the least. Bank angle for a rate on can be estimated as TAS/100+7.* To calculate the anticipation point (0.8nm in this example0 SpeedKts/60 /3* You need to take account of drift. To calculate your drift: MaxDrift = 60*WindSpeedKts/TAS. ActualDrift = MaxDrift*RealtiveWindVector/60. If the realtive windvector is more than 60 then assume 60.