First post and first question

[fran65]

Hi all Sirs,
yes, first post and just a question.
First of all, let me say I'm happy to be here: I'm a fun of "oldies goldies", with no glass cockpit, vor-to-vor flying, and a lot of dusty smoke....
Flying with the great Maltby's piece of art BAC 1-11, I have a little problem during VOR tracking, with a "snake" flying over the route. I hope you understand my english.... Is there a solution? Have you other report about it?

Thank you and ciao from Italy!
Francesco

[DispatchDragon]

Welcome Francesco

Ive been flying DMs 1-11 along time and No, no problems with VORs except the expected deflection as you get closer to the
beacon - Couple of questions?

Are you using realtime weather? FS or ActiveSky or similar?
if so are you correcting for drift?

Try this go out and find a VOR - set the heading needle and then use the course needle to align with the VOR, now engage the auopilot and select "nav" mode - see if that stops the "snakes"

And welcome to the Forum my friend you will find many many helpful knowlagble people here


(some of them cant spell )

Leif

[fran65]

Leif,
thank's for welcome and for answer!
No, in that flight there's no AS weather or similar, so no strong wind...
Not sure, but maybe when nav captured the signal I was too close the beacon...I will try as you recommended.
Bye!

Francesco

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Francesco and welcome to the forum.

Regarding your question on snaking on VORs' I am sure that one of our professional pilots' will be able to answer correctly for you but the only offer of help that I can give is that whilst flying and on heading of a radial to a VOR there will be some wind drift unless of course you have compensated for it.

The other aspect of flying a radial can be likened to that of a bicycle wheel, imagine there are 360 spokes, from the furthest part they are at a distance from each other therefore much easier to fly accurately on the selected heading but as soon as you approach the centre of the wheel (VOR) they become closer so therefore the radial that you are on say, 355 deg will become narrower therefore no longer accurate to fly, on FS9 this may become more apparrent when around 10 DME from the VOR. At around 10 DME ignore the Omni Magnetic Heading Indicator and monitor the VOR/ADF instrument, the needle will still point directly to the VOR you are flying to. NB Just make sure that you have VOR selected and not ADF.

Another point is that after passing overhead the VOR (the VOR/ADF indicator needle will swing 180 deg) have a look at your map and you should see whether or not you have passed overhead or to the side of the beacon.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Nigel.

[forthbridge]

HI Francesco and welcome!

My little bit of advice (really echoing Leif and Nigel) is to try and tune to a particular VOR at least 50 NM out (this is my preference and I have no idea if it is correct to real life) - and preselect my next VOR in NAV2 (basically as a frequency reminder) at about 5NM out, I then select the next VOR, and use heading mode on the AP to align, then flick up to NAV mode. (I only fly the 1-11ED with the different panel). There can be a slight 'snake' as the system locks in, even if you are 'aligned' correctly, although I find this does correct itself fairly quickly.

Personally I only really use the NAV switch on the last VOR of any journey, up to then I usually just you Heading hold and navigate using the needles and HSI coupled with the DME display. If I get within 5 miles either side I am happy - although I almost always align to the next VOR on my route at around 8 miles from the nearest - depending on what degree of adjustment is needed.

As Leif says however, using heading mode and aligning as early and accurately as you can is best. Happy flying! :flying:

[fran65]

Nigel,
Jim,
thank's for tips!
I hope I will try as soon as possible, because to fly with 1-11 is simply a pleasure!