Vinny003 Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 Hi, guys!I used the search function but I cannot seem to find what I'm looking for, but I got a question, the dc-3 land using the ILS, right, if not, how the dc-3 is landed safely? Thanks! Cheers, Vincent
Goran_M Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 You can tune the ILS into the NAV radios and manually follow the course bars (on the VOR) on descent. Make sure they are centered. If the horizontal course bar is below the center line, you are too high and vice versa.
eMko Posted March 17, 2014 Report Posted March 17, 2014 (edited) I can't withstand a temptation to say that you don't need an ILS to land an airplane safely. Even having it does not automatically mean a safe landing - do you remember the Asiana crash near KSFO? Captain Sum Ting Wong and his F/O Wi Tu Lo had ILS and yet their landing was not good enough to use the airplane again (see the TV report ). On my local airport many planes are landed safely without any instruments but eyballs. The airport does not even have any pavement on the runway, just 2000 ft of grass marked with pieces of white fabric. ILS is AFAIK newer than DC-3 - at least by ICAO it was certified in 1949 I think. DC-3 were regularly landed even at night without any instruments or just with ADF. (And sometimes on grass as well.) This model has a radiocompass and a DME. So if airport you are going to has a VOR/DME approach, you can look to an approach chart which radial you should fly and how high you should be in certain distance from that DME station as well as the desired sink rate for certain speed. It's pretty safe unless you have 150 ft of horizontal visibility. PS: If you are not familiar with that KTVU trouble I mentioned - these are not real names of the pilots; they just had seen a rude and racist joke on the internet and believed it. Edited March 17, 2014 by eMko
Vinny003 Posted March 18, 2014 Author Report Posted March 18, 2014 Hi, eMko!On the b-17 cockpit, there is the indicator just above the altimeter called the CDI used for VOR navigation which can also be used for ILS approach and landing. Please see attached. Thanks! Cheers, Vincent
eMko Posted March 19, 2014 Report Posted March 19, 2014 Yes, I have also seen an old Czechoslovakian Zlín aircraft (i think it was a type Zlín 43 ... sport two-seater, looks similar to Cessna 152) with american ILS indicator. Likely it was added quite recently (= not before 1989) because we were generally banned from adding western avionics into airplanes built here. Similar situation could be for this panel in Buffalo DC-3: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/42281910 the avionics is much newer than the plane. This model just has the panel very close to original ones, which did not have the ILS. And I think that it's good that they did not add it to the model. It brings more challenge and entertainment to the game.
Vinny003 Posted March 19, 2014 Author Report Posted March 19, 2014 Hi, eMko!Thanks for the info! I really enjoy flying the classic dc-3 of the 1930s! As far as the khamsin b-17 goes, the b-17 has the CDI indicator used for VOR navigation and ILS approaches like in the Czechoslovakian Zlin 43, right? Thanks! Cheers, Vincent
eMko Posted March 19, 2014 Report Posted March 19, 2014 Yes. I'm not sure if CDIs were "original" on B-17 or not, because I never cared much about when American military started to use VOR/DME/ILS/TACAN and other stuff. Simple checking the wikipedia provided me some info about that for civilian use in US ILS was certified in 1941 in 6 locations. Since DC-3 is from the end of 1930s, the "newer" DC-3s and C-47s could have ILS installed from factory. And even Luftwaffe used something like ILS during WWII, so I think it's pretty OK to have CDIs in military aircrafts from WWII.
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