VFR navigation by following roads

[jfri 42]

I read a book about FS navigation (by Bill Stack). One example wasto simply follow roads. There was an exercise about.I find this very difficult. I often pick the wrong road ore get astray. And still I have tried it were I have FSGenesis 38m mesh andthe American data roads rails streams. I also tried in a USA Megascenery area NC. I find the AD roads more distinct than the Megascenery roads.I also wonder if this even is allowed. I think I have heard of guy who tried to navigae by simply following roads with the aid of a road atlas, and he lost his certificate because of that. Could that be so?

[ronzie 21]

You can certainly fly using road/river navigation providing you obey VFR terrain clearance, minimum altitude, and visibility rules. Minimum altitude is a function of population density. In addition, you can not wander into controlled airspace or prohibited or restricted areas with whatever restrictions are in place, such as minimum altitude over nature preserves, or probibited areas such as government or military sites.Some restrictions are posted on a temporary basis via NOTAMS expected to be checked by pilots when planning a flight. An example is a presidential visit to a location where all unofficial flights are grounded within a certain radius of the president following a specified schedule.Flight operations that cause a nuisance or violate safety practices or cause hazrard concerns to others as well as established rules are causes for certificate suspension or revocation.Altitude limits may have both minimum and maximum limits in various airspaces and you have to stay within the appropriate envelope.

[Guest davidvoogd]

It's certainly legal in Canada, and I don't see why it would not be allowed elsewhere. If you find it hard to find and follow the right road in FS, that's quite realistic. In my real world flight lessons I have often used roads for navigation around the practice area, and it can be hard to see if the road you are following is the proper one from the air. The best way to figure it out is examining the interesections, towns and other landmarks that cross the road to see if it is the right one. Just be extra careful when following them around restricted airspace. Also for real flying you should still always use a VNC / Sectional so you can see where different airspaces are. With a Road Atlas you could accidentally wander into controlled or restricted airspace without knowing it. The man above who lost his certificate probably did because he did not use a proper chart.

[JimmiG 244]

Yup, pilotage, my favorite form of navigation - it's quite dificult at first to tell which road is which especially with photographic sceneries where roads are not as distinct. Generally railroad tracks are easier to distinguish and follow and this is especially fun with the England and Wales VFR scenery. They look like roads but they have smoother bends and roads tend to cross them at 90 degrees rather than exiting and entering as ramps.It's very dificult at first but it becomes easier with practice. One problem I had initially was judging how far on the chart I had actually moved. Doing some planning, setting up waypoints and determining how long it should take to fly between them etc. before doing the flight helps here and this is obviously what you should do in real life (planning the flight :) ). Pick a slow plane with good visibilty, the default Cub is great for this and a fun little plane to fly.

[Guest PhilipsCDRW]

Hahaha, I live in Britain, and everywhere that isn't Scotland has been added into Flight Sim as photographic textures, taken by an actual aircraft that flew over that point a couple of years ago. And the mesh is based on radar-mapping data, also from aircraft not spacecraft, that was commissioned for insurance companies to work out flood damage liabilities. Every road and tree and hill is present in my FS...(But it's no good when I want to fly to France...)

[jfri 42]

>and this is especially fun with the England and Wales VFR>scenery. They look like roads but they have smoother bends and>roads tend to cross them at 90 degrees rather than exiting and>entering as ramps.>Where can I find these scenerys? How are they compared to the USA 2004 Megascenery series.>It's very dificult at first but it becomes easier with>practice. One problem I had initially was judging how far on>the chart I had actually moved. Doing some planning, settingYes that was one thing I forgot about. And I fly the F1 C172 or DA 20 100 Katana.

[Guest Peter Sidoli]

The problem with VFR flying or any flying to be accurate is making sure that whatever you are following is what you believe it to be.It is more important than ever to use other features like rivers, railway lines, hills etc to confirm the feature you are actually following.So many pilots have mistaken a river and followed a branch of that river up the wroung mountain valley which ends with no way through or follow a road and pick up an offshoot which goes where you dont want to go.It is therefore so important to double check with other features that you are following what you think you are.Distance can also be misleading so that you look at your map and see a town feature in the distance which matches what you think you see on your map only to find that it is twice as far away as it appears.Night flying is notorious for decieving the brain and VFR night for a non instrument trained pilot always seems lunacy to me especially with the danger of inadvertantly flying into cloud yet the powers that be allow it which makes me question whether they do always know best.Peter

[quantumleap 1]

>The problem with VFR flying or any flying to be accurate is>making sure that whatever you are following is what you>believe it to be.Agree with that and would expand it to say that it is making sure that wherever you think you are is where you actually are.When I was learning to fly my first instructor drummed into me that I always had to have three things found on my VFR navigation charts which I could then see out the cockpit to confirm I was where I thought I was. This requirement served me well later on when I had to switch to a new instructor (first got a job flying Pilatus PC-12's for a charter company) and I got taken up on a marginal VFR day (3 to 4 SM visibility). We'd done some departure and enroute procedures for practise flight test cross-country part and he decided to throw in a diversion (which with the visibility on the day really was good practise). He told me to head to a small town close by which he named and divert from there back to our home airport. I saw a town, picked out a radio tower which was shown on the chart close by the town and so slowed the aircraft down and started to work on my diversion planning. At this point my first instructor's voice started talking to me "that's two, what's the third?". It was then I became aware that I was not where I thought I was and was therefore "temporarily unaware of my position"!So I flew the aircraft in the normal diversion planning square pattern, and started picking out three visual reference points I could see and then started trying to match them back with the chart. My instructor obviously aware what had happened started to pressure me into doing something. I actually told him to "please be quiet while I fly the plane and work out where I am!". When I finally thought I had everything in order again (three new points visually and matched to my chart), I pointed out to him where I really was and finished off the diversion back to the home airport.All the way back, I was mentally beating myself up this event, and was expecting a hard time when finally on the ground as my instructor said he wanted to talk about what had happened. I was surprised when he said "I'm going to be filling in the forms right now to recommend you for your flight test. What happened out there today proved I no longer need to be in the plane with you." He commented I'd followed the golden rule of "aviate, navigate and communicate", hadn't paniced, and was sure that if a similar situation ever happened while I was out on my own, I'd cope with it. I said a quiet thank-you for my first instructor's three point rule.>Night flying is notorious for decieving the brain and VFR>night for a non instrument trained pilot always seems lunacy>to me especially with the danger of inadvertantly flying into>cloud yet the powers that be allow it which makes me question>whether they do always know best.I learned to fly in Canada, and always found it interesting that night flying is just a small part and included in the US private pilot license training. Here to get a night rating you have to do a minimum 15 hours extra training requirements beyond your PPL. This includes at least 5 hours of additional instrument training (on top of the minimum 5 hours required for the PPL), 5 hours of dual flight including at least a 2 hour cross-country and 5 hours solo (including at least 10 take-offs and landings to full stop).

[ronzie 21]

I got my PPL here in Minnesota, the "Land of 10000 Lakes". Unless a lake is really large and oddly shaped, puddles alone do not make good check points. Roads and puddles are better, especially major roads with intersections. Add some other cue to make a group of three and you can define your area as long as you have been noting your track progress all along.Since it is good practice to keep an eye out for good emergency landing spots if your single engine dies, pilotage and keeping track of your visual location all comes in stride.