Low Flying Navigation Training

[Charlie Alpha]

Has anyone seen these videos on Youtube about low flying navigation? They are terrific stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQWZEVaoFKQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6oGa1bq ... creen&NR=1

This is what I am trying to do in my Tiger Moth at the moment - practicing cross country flying by the seat of my pants without looking at the map view on FSX. It is very difficult guessing a heading and distance/flying time and getting to the right place. The only way to know for certain (without looking at the map view!!!) is to "land and ask" (ie land taxi to the side of the airfield and then look at map view). The FSX scenery really does not seem to tally at all with maps not even roads, rivers or railways.

I was doing a circuit of the remaining WWII airfields at the weekend on FSX starting from Duxford out East to Cambridge, Mildenhall and on to Honnington and then back West to Wyton and Wittering by this sort of dead reckoning and map reading, I thought I was doing pretty well. I got to Wittering okay and decided to head for Sywell but ended up in Cranfield as I flew too southwards. I thought I was in Sywell and only realised when I landed and then looked at the map view

I think I may need VFR scenery to be able to fly like this as the FSX scenery looks nothing like it should - more expense

CA

[Phantom of the Ruhr]

CA,
I love those old training movies. I'll try and save you some money as i think i understand what you're trying to achieve. Obviously you're aware that those a/c had navigators and the pilots just had to fly accurate speed and headings and call out the landmarks. The nav used a stopwatch to calculate ETA's.

In a tiggy in FS, most of the work is done on the ground before you take off. I first select landmarks which I know are in FS and then on a notepad jot down courses,turning points, elapsed times etc.
I used free addon scenery to provide landmarks that weren't in FS.

This is an example in FS9. I added in Flamboough Head, Whitby, Tyneside docks, York minster. Plotted the courses from my map and then flew the route.

It was fun because having added the landmarks, I'd set myself a treasure hunt to find them. To give myself an extra element of fun, I timed my departure from Sandtoft to ensure that i kept to time enroute and because it has no lights had to make it back before dark. If i got lost or didn't keep the speed up, i'd have to divert to Church Fenton.(which i did because i took too long starting the a/c )

Here's the video of that trip (in a lanc of course) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtFR18VL3ac

BTW i find it impossible to manually fly an exact compass course, so if I'm off by a couple of degrees I apply a correction the other way for a similar time and that way I can fly fairly accurate legs without having to concentrate too much on the compass.

Two sites for FS freeware; http://www.avsim.com/

http://simviation.com/1/front-page

[Pat_Pattle]

I've been following your posts with interest CA. I think your approach to this is great. I do the same thing in FS9 with photo scenery and also in BoB2 and CFS3 as the major roads and rails are about in the right place for VFR. this is in conjunction with the BoB maps I purchased from Shockwave.

However, photoscenery has the downside in my book in that it's 'modern'. I have a belly full of modern life every day which is why I immerse myself in 'historic' flight sims.

You must have enough hours in to progress to a Miles Master by now!

[Charlie Alpha]

Hi Phantom Hi Pat

Thanks for your comments. Love the video Phantom - is that with fraps? I haven't tried making videos yet - maybe I should to document my progress. I have difficulty with one engine let alone 4 I will look into the free add on scenery Phantom - thanks.

I would really like to fly over genuine WWII landscape - BOBII looks the closest I am going to get, but I have to earn my wings yet. I am still flying around in my TM over modern day England.

In my complete ignorance I thought that it would be easy to replicate WWII landscape by using the shockwave maps and old aerial photography, some CAD/CAM software and bags of time and enthusiasm. Then I saw the forum post about how the mods guys go about creating the scenery for BOBII I take my hat off to them - the amount of sheer effort for small areas is incredible.

Maybe one day I will get to fly an Accu Sim Spit over photoreal English WWII scenery

Regards

CA

[Phantom of the Ruhr]

Hi CA,

Yes that was done with fraps full. A bit of googling will find you the full article. I'm sure I don't need to warn you of the risks and precautions with unknown software

That was my first attempt at everything, FS, Lancaster and film making so it's a pretty poor video.

I find filming to be an invaluable learning tool. On that video I had trouble starting the engines because I'd left the rear exit open and would never have known if I hadn't spotted it in the movie. On another occasion, I crash landed and couldn't figure out why. I backtracked and scratched my head and only on replaying the film did I realize, I hadn't put the wheels down

The replay in FS is as unreliable as BoB and only screen recordings can show the full picture.

Maybe one day I will get to fly an Accu Sim Spit over photoreal English WWII scenery

...and even better being able to fight it in realistic conditions
This is what I'm looking for(without the bugs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-CZvp2YQRA

[Charlie Alpha]

That does look glorious!

CA