I think my inner-stick-and-rudder pilot is in there helping the muzzle-loader in me work on target shooting...  

They both need to come out and play.


On to holding altitude and course, as it applies to VFR simming...

As good as the ground scenery has gotten in FSX  (much more accurate bodies of water, rivers, railroads, power-lines, major roads/highways and cities); true VFR simmimg is still pretty tough. To get intimately familiar with pure landmark navigation, takes more time then is realistically proportional. All but the shortest, sim, VFR flights will require some sort of nav-aid. Since tracking VORs, and using NDBs with winds aloft gets into advanced navigation and instrument flight; holding altitude and heading on this level is just that.. holding altitude and heading.

If the C172 is properly trimmed, you're 1/2 home as far as holding altitude goes... and holding a heading is just a matter of keeping an eye on the heading indicator (henceforth known as directional gyro). The only time you'll be challenged, is during and after a significant heading change. The best way to fine-tune these skills is to practice steep turns.

Rolling into; maintaining, and rolling out of a steep turn forces you into coordinated turning, else you'll be chasing your altitude... This is one area where simming is pretty darn close to real flying (sans g-forces).

Since we'll be covering steep turns later (and mastering them).. I'll just touch on the important part, that will make holding altitude through a course change, second nature.

Get your eyes OFF the attitude indicator... focus on the REAL horizon... roll into your turn, hold a constant bank-angle (20-30 degrees) and quickly note where the horizon intersects panel/dashboard. that's your target throughout the turn (and keeps your eyes outside the cockpit).. If your bank-angle is stable, all it takes is a little pitch-input to nail that target. Most heading changes will be small enough that that's all you'll need to do. During a steep turn and/or larger heading change, you might have to glance at the altimeter and VSI, and pitch accordingly. Extended, steep turns might even call for some cross-control and power increase.. but we'll get to that later.

Planning your rollout onto the new heading is just a matter of timing and practice. By the time you can change heading by 30 degrees, holding a perfectly constant altitude; you'll find that rolling out accurately will come naturally..

Practice and discussion encouraged  

But even so, it is still possible to fly in Flightsim using a sectional chart and navigate by visual landmarks with default scenery

Absolutely 

It's very VERY accurate...

Quote:


I know what you mean... There are a few reservoirs near Columbus, that are pretty poorly replicated in FS9..  In FSX, they, and all the other references (highways, roads, city-boundaries) are MUCH more accurate. Same with the inland lakes, rivers... and Great Lake bays and coves in other areas I've frequented for real.

Flying a Lake Michigan shore-line in FSX can be done with a VFR sectional on your lap  

Flying the pattern, at least a leg or two, will give you a good feel for the wind... and a good reference for how much crab-angle you'll need on final. Touch-n-goes are good for stabilizing an approach, because you can immediately execute another approach with what went wrong, fresh in your mind.

The only way to learn this, is to practice, keeping the goal in mind... By the time you're established on final; your airspeed and rate-of-descent will be such that you just ride the plane to the touch-down point, almost as though  you were sliding down a rope... making only slight corrections via the classic method, "pitch for airspeed / power for altitude".

If you sense that you're a little low, you DO NOT pitch up. If if you're at approach speed, and pitch to slow your descent (or gain a little altitude), neither will happen. Oh sure, the descent will slow for a second, but the airspeed will bleed off too and you'll end up just as low (if not lower) with LESS airspeed.

The proper method when slightly low (visual approach only.. we'll get into instrument approaches later), is to just add power. This will not only slow the descent a bit, it will shorten the time needed to reach the runway; hence shallowing the approach-angle and leaving you at a higher altitude at any given point, further into the approach.

Obviously, the opposite applies if you're slightly high. Pitching down will will increase your airspeed, so even if you do end up at the proper altitude, you'll be going too fast to continue a stabilized approach. Pulling the power back while too high will allow you to slow and THEN pitch for airspeed, leaving you right where you need to be.

If you're at the right altitude, but above approach speed; you'd pitch to bleed off that airspeed and then pull the power back to resume the descent.

If you're at the right altitude, but a little slow, you first pitch down to increase your airpseed, and then pull power back to slow the descent.

In actuality, you pitch, AND adjust power, for any correction. Just keep in mind that to stabilize, or re-stabilize the approach, it's the counter-intuitive, "pitch for airspeed / power for altitude".

If you find that you're too far off on either airspeed or altitude for this method... then you're not in a stabilized approach and will likely end up going around.

This is the part of a flight where a visualization of the power-curve helps. I'll leave that for discussion, and then we're done with Part 2..

Hey Brett, and Mobius. Fantastic guide!

One question however, I am not good at judging distance, but is this a good distance to position the downwind leg from the runway?

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/2007-12-16_1-55-5-734.jpg

And two, my Marchetti slices the air so efficiently that it struggles to fly under 130 knots.   Anyway, is it ok to fly 130 knots or more, provided you're not stuck behind a slower aircraft?

Thanks in advance.

and....................

That's one of the reason's I was taught (and teach) pilots to enter the pattern on whichever leg they're already flying (i.e. .. if you're north of a 9/27, left-hand pattern runway,,, go ahead and enter on the crosswind (as opposed to over-flying the field and entering 45 degrees into the downwing leg, potentially putting you in conflict with that KingAir at TPA+500')...