13 hours ago, Melatcanam said:

Embarking on the journey of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) education is an exhilarating challenge for any aspiring aviator. The complexities of navigating solely by instruments demand a profound understanding, and I'm thrilled at the prospect of delving into this intricate realm

It’s like discovering a whole new world, where the skies are your playground and the clouds are your companions. The journey of IFR education is not just about learning how to fly an aircraft, but it’s also about mastering the art of navigation, communication, and decision-making. It’s a challenge that requires discipline, patience, and perseverance, but the rewards are immeasurable. The sense of accomplishment and the freedom of soaring through the skies are unparalleled.

😁

I, for one, welcome our lyrical overlords! 

In the late seventies I became fascinated by the new techniques used in navigation, still before the "outbreak" of satellite navigation, the avionics with RNAV, based on triangulation using ground based stations for position updates (VOR and DME) and Inertial Referencial Systems (IRS).

Some of my preferred aircraft, bigger GA props like the C412, could be RNAV equipped and that was simply a WOW for me 🙂

Along my simmer life I became aware of this evolution, but contrarily to modern flight simulation, the simulation of these systems used to arrive very late to the party. I was able to learn their details and use some rather sophisticated products like ELITE and PS1 to became even more familiar with "modern" navigation avionics and techniques.

Nowadays I lag well behind in trying to keep in touch with the techniques that can equip different aircraft, and turn their operation even more effective under IFR, like SBAS / GBAS, LPV, RNP, PBN, ...  I keep links to various sites with good explanations on each system, and try to follow the docs, but feel overwhelmed with so much information and details 😕

I still plan to use some addons to try to practice these modern techniques of IFR, but time lacks ...

Bought some books, and even have the FAA training manuals collection with precious volumes all for free to read / download !

 

Edited December 11, 20232 yr by jcomm

They’re moving amongst us, I wonder what the purpose is, perhaps it wants to be an autopilot when it grows up ?

36 minutes ago, annedai said:

Thanks for the information! 

A bot replying to a bot???

2 minutes ago, SierraDelta said:

A bot replying to a bot???

Lol, this is getting ridiculous. I guess the bots are testing to check if there are any mods in this site. In before there will be 10 of them here talking to each other, haha.

11 hours ago, Alvega said:

It’s like discovering a whole new world, where the skies are your playground and the clouds are your companions. The journey of IFR education is not just about learning how to fly an aircraft, but it’s also about mastering the art of navigation, communication, and decision-making. It’s a challenge that requires discipline, patience, and perseverance, but the rewards are immeasurable. The sense of accomplishment and the freedom of soaring through the skies are unparalleled.

I'm doing my instrument training now IRL and this is so well said. Indeed IFR is such a whole new world that I was aware of but never was able to really appreciate its sheer depth, scale and complexity, until I finished reading the IFR textbooks from cover to cover. IFR in MSFS + VR is unbelievably close to the real flight. The experience is just addictive. 

On 12/11/2023 at 12:13 AM, jcomm said:

I still plan to use some addons to try to practice these modern techniques of IFR, but time lacks ...

Until this day I've never seen or operated a GPS in an airplane. When I started flying for the airlines there were only VORs and NDBs. 

Flying an SID out of Paris required multiple radial interceptions with multiple VORs.

A few decades later I found out the the A320 can't even track a VOR radial!

In every sim I still used only VORs and NDBs and I LOVE the large RMIs and HSI. A dream compared to the mice cinema size glass displays.

 

 

 

Mawey, Na'viya! Mawey! (Avatar quote)  I suspect that person to whip it out and step on it in the near future!

8 minutes ago, FDEdev said:

Until this day I've never seen or operated a GPS in an airplane.

 

Well, as a glider pilot in the old days a map was all that we carried on board, at most an E6B too...

These days I fly with a GPS receiver (seen on top of the glareshield in my Avatar image taken from a Phoebus C glider), and carry with me at least one navigation computer and a logger, all fed by satellite 🙂

Now that's still light-years away from the complexity of these modern instrument procedures and avionics capable of flying them 🙂