Classic British Flight Sim

Hello all,

I'm the problem. I don't understand the Argosy's Flight System. The Heading Pointer in the Beam Compass turns when the airplane turns, but the Compass Scale doesn't turn. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

I've read and re-read the "Flight System & Autopilot" section of the manual, but I didn't see anything that contradicted that. Isn't the Compass Scale (compass card) supposed to turn as the aircraft's heading changes, like the compass card in the RMI, so the aircraft's heading is always at the 12:00 o'clock position? Is there a way to make it do that?

I'd appreciate your help.

Art

P.S. I will also admit that I had the same problem with that flight system when I took the Argosy school ground at Zantop. Fortunately, Mohawk Airlines hired me before I started Argosy flight training. Mohawk's CV-240s and -440s were much easier to understand!

Hi Art..

Sri this has gone so long without a response.

The system on the Argosy is similar to the same as that fitted to the Viscount and Vanguard. On Frasers panels, the LH control (orange lamp) controls the card and the RH control controls the heading index needle. On the real thing, the orange lamp is just that.. a comparator warning lamp.. the RH control has two positions.. pushed and pulled which do the same job.

With this system, the pilot is expected to move the card index himself. When the system is turned on, the gyro's wind up and point to north. The pilot would taxi to the runway and when lined up for takeoff, turn the card index to the runway heading. With each subsequent turn, he would continue to turn the card index to that heading. It's sounds laborious but Smiths found it very intuitive and tests showed pilots maintained a greater degree of navigational accuracy with this system than with comparable, more standard instruments. I don't think it was 'loved' by all pilots but those who used it from day to day (PeterM for example) found it did the job

Hope this helps
ATB
DaveB

Did the pilot used to have to blow the propeller around too???

Dave: I found the very thorough tutorial of the Smiths Flight System when I downloaded Fraser's most recent efforts. Thanks for your reply.
Garry: No. The Flight Engineer kept the rubber bands wound up.

Art