X-Plane/Navigation and instruments

The GPS

Firstly, let's start with one of X-Plane's simplest navigational instruments: the GPS, or global positioning system. It, essentially, tells you how far you have to go to your chosen destination and what direction to fly in.

The GPS (this refers to the version 7 GPS) recognises several navaids (navigational aids) to help you get from point A to B. These include:

    - VOR's;
    - NDB's;
    - Fixes;
    - Airports

To operate the GPS, first you must know what you want to fly to. Let's work through an example flight to explain this.

Park yourself in the Piper Malibu at Brisbane International Airport (YBBN), and find your GPS. The route we will be taking today is CG ENTRA YSSY. Seeing as though the first waypoint on the list is CG (it's a VOR to save you some time), press the VOR button on the GPS and enter 'CG'. It should say 'Coolangatta' on the GPS screen now. You will notice underneath you will also have a direction to fly in. Now, we have two choices. You can either fly that heading, by adjusting the heading dials on the glareshield, or, (the preferred method if you want to learn the FMS later), find the little dial that says something like 'NAV1 - NAV2 - FMS'. turn the dial so that it faces FMS. You are now ready to fly! Push up the throttle and take to the skies. Enter 20000ft (FL200 for those who care) in the Altitude box and click 'ALT'. Now you don't have to worry about suddenly dropping out of the sky. Then, find the button that says 'NAV', and click it. Your plane should start turning towards the CG VOR. This is because when you turned the autopilot selector to FMS, the aircraft gets its information of the GPS and will fly to whatever is punched into it, in this case, the Coolangatta VOR.

Okay, so you are cruising along, and the distance to the CG VOR has dropped to about 2NM (nautical miles). Time to engage the Heading button so that you can change your waypoint (because otherwise you will find your plane casing Fixes that are on the other side of the world). Turn the heading dial so that it is in line with the way you are going, and click the 'HDG' button. You will see the NAV button stop glowing, and your plane will now be following the selected heading, and NOT the GPS. Then, on the GPS, click on WPT and type in ENTRA. Your distances and headings should change. Then click on the NAV button again, and your plane should start turning towards ENTRA (HDG will have turned off when you engaged NAV). Now, sit back and twiddle your thumbs while your plane flies for a bit.

You are near ENTRA, about 100NM away from it. Time to start descending so you don't fly yourself over the Sydney Airport. Turn the altitude dial down to about 3000ft. Then cruise towards ENTRA a bit more.

You are now close to ENTRA. Once again, turn the heading dial to what you are currently flying and disengage NAV (meaning for you to turn on HDG). Now go you your GPS and click on the APT (airport) button and plug in YSSY (Sydney Intl should appear on the screen). Click on NAV and fly towards it. When you see the runway in sight, land on it.

Congratulations! You have just navigated your way from Brisbane International to Sydney International! You can now use the GPS. Don't be afraid to click buttons on it and see what they do.

--Cale Davis 04:56, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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The FMS

The FMS is essentially a larger and more powerful version of the better-known GPS. It is a very handy autopilot tool which allows you to enter altitudes, waypoints, NDB's, VOR's and airports that your plane can follow. Once again, we will use out YBBN - YSSY.

Open up the 747-400 and place it on the runway at YBBN. Then, locate the FMS. It looks like a computer, with a keypad beneath it.

You will see a little button just beneath the right hand side of the screen, that says INIT on it (1). Press it. YOU MUST ALWAYS DO THIS BEFORE YOU START A FMS FLIGHTPLAN. Now, seeing as though the first place on your trip is YBBN (the place you are starting at), press the APT (3) button. Type in YBBN. Brisbane International should appear on the screen.

LOOK AT THIS DIAGRAM OF THE FMS http://x-plane.org/home/Cale/FMS.jpg

Now press the Next button, and PLAN SEGMENT 2 (or similar) should appear up the top of the FMS screen. press the VOR button, and type in CG. Then press the button next to the FLY AT line (4) and type in '10000'. This is the altitude you will be at when you pass the CG VOR. Press Next again.

PLAN SEGMENT 3 should now appear. Press the FIX button, enter ENTRA, and enter an altitude of 10000ft again. Press Next.

You should now be on PLAN SEGMENT 4, your final entry in the plan. Press the APT button and enter YSSY. Enter an altitude of 1000ft. To do this, you MUST enter a leading 0, so you would enter 01000 in the altitude area. Otherwise the computer will read the altitude as 10000ft, which we don't want. It's a bit high for a landing.

So, now your FMS plan is fully entered. Good. Now all we have to do is fly it.

You would have noticed that while you were entering your plan, a dark red line would have have been drawn across your radar. This is your route.

Turn the autopilot selector to FMS (so it is not facing NAV1 or NAV2, I'll teach you about these later). Then, on your FMS, press the BACK button so you go to the first entry in your plan: YBBN. Press the Enter button (it looks like an arrow). This is now the active waypoint.

Push up the throttle levers and take to the skies! Now you can engage the NAV button (sometimes called LNAV or LOC). Your plane will either: 1) Start turning towards YBBN; 2) Start turning towards CG.

If it starts turning towards YBBN, press the FMS's NEXT button (so it is on CG) and press the Enter button. You will start turning to the CG VOR. Good, you can now go and grab a cup of coffee while your plane flies to YSSY. It should take about 1 hour.

Now, another problem you may encounter after takeoff is the altitude does not work. In this situation, engage the ALT button and enter 10000 in its box. In other words, use another autopilot function instead. It's no big problem, and it sometimes sorts itself out during the flight.

Hello, we have a problem: you are not heading towards the runway at YSSY! What's going wrong? Well, quite simply, you did not enter an approach path into YSSY. Well, seeing as though it is too late to enter a new FMS plan (more advanced pilots can try to figure this out, it's not too hard), you should probably fly it in manually.

Another option is to use the NAV1 radio. This is explained in the next lesson.

In the mean time, go grab a biscuit and a cup of tea...

--Cale Davis 01:03, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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The NAV1 RADIO

Coming soon!