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VORs vs. Direct... (Read 1272 times)
Reply #15 - Dec 2nd, 2009 at 11:14am

snippyfsxer   Offline
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This may be slightly off topic, but I must relate my latest experience with simulated celestial navigation in FSX.  First, I downloaded a copy of "autostarx" to put the stars in the right place for a given date.  Then I downloaded a copy of a really cool freeware program called "Stellarium" which allows me to know the AZ an EL of a given star at a given time, in lieu of having to look it up in a table.  Next, I installed the bubble sextant stuff into the B377 panel.  Finally, I programmed my calculator with all of the relavent Great Circle and waypoint equations to be able to compute all the fixes and come up with a precisely timed flight plan.  I flew from Seattle to San Diego using half-hour star fixes and it was...well, less fun that I imagined;  I had to use half-hour fixes because the "chart" on the bubble sextant only goes out to 300 miles and the Stratocruiser flies just a bit farther than that in an hour.  It was a real pain in the butt, but I still felt like a regular old Ernest Gann for doing it!
 
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Reply #16 - Dec 2nd, 2009 at 11:17am

Brett_Henderson   Offline
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EVERY OUTER MARKER SHOULD
BE AN NDB

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snippyfsxer wrote on Dec 2nd, 2009 at 11:14am:
This may be slightly off topic, but I must relate my latest experience with simulated celestial navigation in FSX.  First, I downloaded a copy of "autostarx" to put the stars in the right place for a given date.  Then I downloaded a copy of a really cool freeware program called "Stellarium" which allows me to know the AZ an EL of a given star at a given time, in lieu of having to look it up in a table.  Next, I installed the bubble sextant stuff into the B377 panel.  Finally, I programmed my calculator with all of the relavent Great Circle and waypoint equations to be able to compute all the fixes and come up with a precisely timed flight plan.  I flew from Seattle to San Diego using half-hour star fixes and it was...well, less fun that I imagined;  But I still felt like a regular old Ernest Gann for doing it!


Very coooool   Cool
 
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Reply #17 - Dec 2nd, 2009 at 6:07pm

flaminghotsauce   Offline
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

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Snippyfsxer, if this were facebook, I'd click the 'like' button!
Smiley
 
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