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Hovercontrol Instrument Navigation Course


From the dawn of time man has had 2 great urges well actually I was thinking more of the ones directly related to helos, the ability to fly and the urge to explore. FS2004 presents us with the whole wide world to fly in, and a myriad of places to discover and experience. I'm convinced you could spend the rest of your life flying this sim and not scratch the surface of what's available to the intrepid helo pilot. However, if we want to be able to do this as real as it gets we need to know some things about getting from point A to B, in a word navigation.

What this course is

Welcome to Hovercontrol's INAV Course, this course was designed to teach the basics of navigation in the FS2004 environment. It will teach you the basic skills of using the instruments and acquiring the appropriate navaid information available to plot and follow a course to reach your destination safely.

What this course isn't

This course is not intended to prepare you to fly in full on IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) where visibility is an issue. Flying IFR in IMC conditions is a very complex and intricate topic to cover and although some of the skills you learn here are involved in flying IFR this course is in no way intended to prepare you to do so.


What is Navigation?

Navigation is the technique of planning and flying a course from one place to another. Within Flight Simulator we have some tools to allow us to do this effectively. In order plan and execute this technique we need to know three basic things which are.


What is my current location?

In navigation as with everything else we determine our position relative to other points. There are two main ways to do this and those are

1) In relation to ground based stations.

and

2) In relation to satellite based stations.

I) With ground based navigation we can determine our position in relation to one or more specific ground station(s) (NDB's & VOR's). Thus, a pilot can establish that he/she is at 1500ft, 6.3 nautical miles from the BTG VOR/DME on the 255 radial and as a result knows exactly where he/she is.

II) With satellite based navigation, technology gives us the ability to pinpoint our geographical location precisely using the latitude and longitude coordinates and altitude and have that information displayed on a moving map in real time. By taking and analyzing data which is provided by a network of satellites that circle the globe a pilot can pinpoint exactly where they are based upon their position relative to these satellites.


Where am I going?

For the purposes of this course we will always assume that we have a specific departure and arrival point in mind, or that we are looking for a way to fly from our present position directly to another point.

How am I going to get there?

This is for the pilot to decide taking many factors into account. These factors could include terrain, visibility conditions, weather, fuel consumption, landing techniques, power available, and the list goes on and on. The key issue as far as we are concerned is fuel and for the sake of simplicity we'll try to limit the other variables whenever possible.  


Before proceeding we need to understand the meaning of the abbreviations that will be used:

Glossary

ADF                                 Automatic Direction Finder
DME                                 Distance Measuring Equipment
GPS                                 Global Positioning System
HSI                                  Horizontal Situation Indicator
NDB                                 Non-Directional Radio Beacon
OBS                                 Omni Bearing Selector
TACAN                             Tactical Air Navigation
VOR                                 VHF Omni directional Range
VOR/DME                        Co-located VOR and DME equipment
VOR2 Indicator               VHF Omni directional Range second instrument
VORTAC                           VOR TACAN

ADF
The Automatic Direction Finder is a panel instrument that uses the frequency set in the ADF receiver of the radio. The ADF indicator is used to point directly towards the NDB station.

DME
Distance Measuring Equipment transmits in response to requests from the aircraft and will give you the distance to the station by determining the time between each signal. The distance from the DME is published in the radio stack. It is usually, but not always (e.g. the one at KGNU) to be found co-located with a VOR, hence the term VOR/DME.

GPS
The Global Positioning System is a network of satellites that transmit coded data that receivers can use to determine their position on earth. The receiver used in default Bell JetRanger in FS9 is the Garmin 295 (this can also be found as a freeware add-on for FS2002 from < www.avsim.com > and < www.simviation.com >.

HSI
The Horizontal Situation Indicator is a panel instrument and is uses the frequency set in the NAV1 receiver of the radio. The HSI is the primary instrument and is used to fly to a VOR station.

NDB
The Non-Directional Radio station is a simple ground based AM transmitter that uses frequencies from 190 to 1790 KHz and transmits a single frequency in all directions over a short range, up to 30 miles. It is important to remember that of this frequency range only 190 to 535 KHz is reserved for NDBs. NDBs are all given a unique reference consisting of either 2 or 3 letters.

OBS
The Omni Bearing Selector is a feature on the HSI and VOR2 Indicators which allows the pilot to select a course to fly.

TACAN - Not required for CP(INav)
The Tactical Air Navigation is similar to a VOR/DME but is used by military aircraft only and uses different signals to those used by commercial and GA aircraft.

VOR
The VHF Omni Directional Range station is a ground based VHF transmitter. A rotating directional signal is broadcast from the station while a second (omni directional) signal is broadcast only when the rotating signal passes north. The receiver in your aircraft measures the time difference in these two signals and gives you your bearing (also known as a Radial) from the station.

VOR/DME
This is a ground based station which houses both a VOR transmitter and DME.

VOR2 Indicator
The VOR2 Indicator is a panel instrument and is uses the frequency set in the NAV2 receiver of the radio. The VOR2 is the secondary instrument for navigation and, like the HSI, is used to fly to a VOR station.

VORTAC - Not required for CP(INav)
This is a ground based station which houses both a VOR and TACAN transmitter.


Radio Navigation, the overview

As the name suggests these navaids inside the cockpit take the radio signals from the ground based transmitters and pass that data to panel instruments which provide the pilot with a visual aid for navigation.

So the two components required for Radio Navigation are the standard instrument panel and the radio stack. As these are so intrinsically linked, the diagram below should clarify how the radio stack and instrument panel interact.