Being new and all, I want to fly from X to Z, how should I be doing this???

[Wizbiscuit]

Sounds like a stupid question I am sure, hello BTW I new here...

So I have been messing with X-Plane for a while now, going rather well I think, anyway I picked up X-Aviations Cessna Corvalis TT and am really liking it, I assume this a pretty good plane to start with??

Anyway more my question, I want to fly from one airport to another, really what would be the right procedure to do that, I have been using GPS, but it never seems to work correcly, so I end up just selecting NAV on autopilot and kind of semi-automatically point the NAV at the GPS arrow, now I assume this is wrong and really daft, but when I get to the airport I ask for a ILS then get spun around in circles for a while (I assume I am coming in from the wrong direction, or picking this up to late), then I get put nicly online for a landing, then normally I have to switch of AP as its not decending (I understand ILS is a little fiddly), then I decend like a rocket, boucing down the runway, and if I am really lucky I stagger out of the plane for lunch...

So as you can see I think I am lacking any real idea, now I see lots of help about ILS, VOR's and all this great stuff, but as a beginer, what should I be working on and what should I ignore for now, as said already I am not flying anything large and and funky....

Hope that makes just a little sense, if not, well.... duno...

[woweezowee]

you may want to check the links I shared here:

http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=884.msg7292#msg7292

[OlaHaldor]

I use the Reality XP GPS. It's really good. And to my surprise, it automatically talks with the instruments in several 3rd party planes. Hurrah!

This way I can make the whole trip from A to B through VORs, with ILS and God only knows what, and it will do all the dirty work for me..

I have the Reality XP 530.

[Wizbiscuit]

Hey thanks for the info guys, the Aviator90 videos look fantastic, I will plod through those...  ;D

That reality looks pretty smart, cost a chunk though, but I will check out the manual and such, looks like I maybe should plump for that....

Thanks again.

[JGregory]

Wizbiscuit,

Hi!, and thanks for buying the Corvalis!

Have you tried following the tutorial that comes with the aircraft?  That should help you a lot in getting familiar with flying from one airport to another using the FMS and then the ILS approach into KPDX. After that you should be able to fly anywhere!

If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask, I am always willing to help.

JiM

[Wizbiscuit]

JiM, thanks for the answer, really is a great plane dead pleased with it, took a bit of a leap on it as getting honest reviews is always a tricky thing. For sure may pick up some of the other stuff off the site, the new planes are getting better and better 

I did read some of the manual, being payware and as expected the manual is pretty big, was mainly looking at how to use the GPS stuff, will have to have another poke about see if I can find the part you say about FMS and ILS approach. I assume its in the main 170 page doc (boy you plane guys like a lot of detail  ;D ).

[JGregory]

JiM, thanks for the answer, really is a great plane dead pleased with it, took a bit of a leap on it as getting honest reviews is always a tricky thing. For sure may pick up some of the other stuff off the site, the new planes are getting better and better 

I did read some of the manual, being payware and as expected the manual is pretty big, was mainly looking at how to use the GPS stuff, will have to have another poke about see if I can find the part you say about FMS and ILS approach. I assume its in the main 170 page doc (boy you plane guys like a lot of detail  ;D ).

There is a separate document called "C400_Tutorial" in the Documents Folder.

Jim

[Wizbiscuit]

Ahh great, serves me right for not checking all the documents, these end users huh?  :

;D

[Lukasz]

Also you may want to check this one:

http://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/Navigation%20tutorial.html

Here's the beginning of the text:

"BASIC NAVIGATION

© Hal Stoen, 1/2/2000

About the author:

The reader has a right to know the qualifications of whom is doing the writing. I soloed in 1966 and received my Commercial license several months later. For the next 20-some years I made my living flying airplanes: flight instructing, charters, mail, commuter airline and ending up as a corporate pilot for the last 15 years or so. In that time I accumulated over 6,000 hours while operating a variety of aircraft ranging from the single-engine Cessna 150 to the four-engine Dehavilland Heron. I retired from aviation in 1988 and now ride in the back like most everyone else- and yes, I am a poor passenger.

Background information:

The act of flying an airplane from "a" to "b" can appear quite daunting to the uninitiated, however in practice it is not all that difficult. As with most things in life, it's easy once you know how to do it. Air navigation can be done by a variety of methods. The purpose of this manual is to explain in simple terms how this is done so that the armchair flight simmer can enjoy his experience more fully.

Navigation can be broken down into two basic groups: visual (VFR), and instrument (IFR). The acronym VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules, IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. You should have a good understanding of the flight instruments before you read this tutorial. If you do not, please read the tutorial "How to fly computer flight simulators" before proceeding with this tutorial.

My apologies to my non-American readers. In this tutorial I use the American weights and measures- inches, feet, etc. It is not my intent to be jingoistic, it is the only system that I know.

In addition, I appreciate that the reader would like to "jump right in and fly someplace". Flying and navigating can be complex however, be it in real life, or on a flight simulator. For this reason it is necessary that some basic information be covered first.

Bear with me, we will get there."

[garrettm30]

I have to add that I very much appreciate Mr. Stoen's work. I did a lot of reading on his site and even purchased the CD to support him in all the help he gave me when I was a beginning virtual pilot.

As for learning about IFR, the site that taught me the most was several lessons by Andrew Ayers in the free training section from the virtual airline Emerald Air. You don't have to be a member of the airline. Here is the link:

http://www.emeraldair.net/navig.html

These days, thanks to the lessons on the link above, I don't care to do much relying on the FMS, and I definitely don't want my flight plan done for me. Now that I know how to read the charts, that's half the fun.

[Shrimpfarmer]

Thanks for that useful link I am going to try and learn about this and try it myself.

[Wizbiscuit]

Yer, thanks guys thats some great links, I have been going through the aviator90 videos in order, just flying the patern around and then relanding has turning out to be a really obvious but good thing to do. I am starting to see the order I need to be learning things.

[Lukasz]

Also I would highly recommend buying real life aviator's manual or whatever it's called - a book that you learn from, when you learn to fly a real plane. Lots of additional info, formulas to calculate useful things, descriptions of procedures and the like. Plus you can always have one opened next to you, while flying, either as a source of knowledge for general flying or as a description of specific things to train, like landing or traffic pattern and approaches.