That's where Navigation is very important. When flying cross country, there are many way to navigate from point to point, weather it's by visually by landmarks, navigation radios, GPS, ect.

I would suggest reading as many online tutorials as you can find, and getting an aeronautical chart to leard to read.

Flight 1 has FSDiscover. It includes points of interest and geographic names which you can toggle while flying. It can also serve as a navigation tool with an orange path painted on the ground but that kind of takes some of the fun out of doing it yourself.

You can also cheat and just pull up ATC. Eventually you'll fly near a major airport or city/town, which can be seen by by selecting the nearest airports option in the ATC window.

Ang2dogs wrote on Aug 21^st, 2007 at 1:27am:


I almost never use the GPS while navigating in FS. I always use sectional charts, and my navigational radios...

These are great threads..    angusmax has the right idea...  

Programs like FSNav are great for planning the flight (though it's more fun and challenging to do that "by hand" too..  chart, straight-edge and notepad in hand), but if you run FSNav-like stuff in flight, what's the point ? You aren't doing any sort of piloting when you can look at a screen that shows exactly where you are, and has a big line for you to follow. All you're really doing is using your yoke/joystick (or worse, autopilot) to trace along that line. It's like watching a simulation, rather than doing it.

FSX/FS9 are great for learning and practicing navigation. If you can navigate there, you can do it for real. VORs, NDBs and visual cues (weather allowing) are all you need... to know where you are, where you're going, and how to get there.

One thing I like about FSDiscover is that it has an extensive library of geographic names for the US. A lot more than even the most detailed maps which usually only show towns and roads. Places like Dead Horse Creek, Crooked Hollow and Long Pond. Lots of fun just flying over and looking at all the different places.

Pick two airports at random, about 100nm apart, neither of which you're familiar with (neither with an ILS), in an area new to you, too. Put the trusty C172 on the ramp at the first one. Set user defined weather to; overcast, 1 mile vivsibility, moderate wind (random direction). You've now been chosen, as the best, available pilot, to get timely, urgent cargo to the other airport.

Get a VFR sectional (or low-altitude IFR chart) (or use the map in FS  (only for planning purposes.. you CANNOT pull it up in flight)) and see what nav-aids you'll be using. Wrtite their frequencies and the radials you'll be tracking on your note pad. Got to www.airnav.com and get instrument approach data for your destination airport, download and print appropriate approach plates...  Pick a safe alternate airport, too ... (just in case).

We'll "simulate" the you have filed IFR and have been cleared as filed on your own navigation, and won't talk to the over-worked ATC guys again, until you're cleared for the approach (else ATC will just "tell" you how to get there).

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS....  Takeoff into the soup and spend the next hour or so, with just you and your instruments   ......  NO GPS  

After tracking a VOR radial or two (or three), and cross-referencing your position by VOR/NDB, for a nerve-tesing hour, you'll fly the approach (by the plate INCLUDING procedure turn)..  

You'll likely not see the runway on your first approach (if you're new at this), so be prepared to fly the published miss and go to the hold to re-group, and accept that you might have to divert to your alternate (a bigger airport, with bigger runways and an ILS) if you can't find the runway on your second try.

If/when you're able to descend out of the soup and see those glorious runway lights barely a mile away... and pull off a textbook, bare-minimum, non-precision, instrument approach.. you'll walk away from the computer mentally tired and feeling pretty good