Iffy Navaids
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Hello all,
Congrats to Just Flight on a thing of beauty that is the 146. I'm a modern jockey almost exclusively so this reversion to manual throttles and steam gauges is a joy.
I'm struggling with getting consistent VOR signals and any ADF at all at the moment.
Today on a flight with three VORs I had the first two plumbed in and followed fine until needing to switch to the second. Nothing. No DME or needle. Dead. Switched back. OK. Tried again. Nothing. Switched back. Nothing. Relatively sure I have freqs in and obviously had for the first one, yet it eventually failed to capture even only 30nm outbound.
I have yet to capture one ADF beacon.
Anything obvious I can do to check my navaid skills?
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Can you provide some specific examples of VORs and NDBs that you are testing with? Apart from the MSFS range/signal limitations (VOR/DMEs having too short range, VORs and NDBs not being received until airborne etc), I'm not aware of any issues following the release of v1.3.
Is the same issue occurring when starting a flight from the runway or selecting the 'Ready for takeoff' state?
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@martyn Hi Martyn,
The example was EGJJ to EGCC so, off the top of my head, the VORs were Guernsey, Yeovil (the VOR not the TACAN), Trent, Wolverhampton, Manchester.
The ADB was Jersey.
Not tried a ready-for-take-off/from runway scenario. Will test. Thanks.
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@the-sledge Thanks, I'll give that routing a test here. The Jersey NDB and VOR both worked correctly for me, although the VOR was only received once in the air.
A couple of gotchas that come to mind are remembering to select ADF mode on the ADF unit and RMI:
And for VOR navigation, remembering to switch on both the NAV 1 (inner knob button) and DME (mode knob), and NAV 2 (rotate inner knob):
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Ok...from what I can see it's just not seeing some navaids until way too late e.g.
Can see Welshpool 115.95 and Trent 115.7 VORs from 60+nm
But can't see Wolverhampton 108.6 until almost o/head.
And e.g. Blackbushe 116.20 I get a DME but no direction/course info.I also noticed a tendency for the VOR/ILS DME to get stuck when switching between NAV1 and 2.
Likewise NDBs - can see Gloucester 331 from ways out but not anything else really.
Is the distance a sim issue? Seems ridiculous to not see an NDB until you can actually see it out the window.
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@the-sledge There are many different classes and types of VOR and NDB stations with different power and range limitations, so it's important to determine the type and range of the VOR or NDB you are trying to use.
Based on the information below, Wolverhampton (108.6) is a low power DME, intended only for terminal area navigation. And, the Wolverhampton NDB (356) is also low power and used for terminal area navigation only... The MSFS Map also shows WOL (108.6) with a DME symbol and DME description.
https://ourairports.com/navaids/WOL/Wolverhampton_DME_GB/
https://ourairports.com/navaids/WBA/Wolverhampton_NDB_GB/This might be a useful reference website for the area you are flying in...
https://ourairports.com/countries/GB/navaids/list.html?start=150&show=&sort=
http://www.pilotfriend.com/flightplanning/flight planning/uk_navaids1.htm
