User Guide
Before descending into the clouds
Upon entering the clouds
When you regain visual contact with the ground, wait a few
moments to make sure you’re out of the clouds; then take over
and fly normally. This technique works in just about any general-
aviation airplane; over the years, it’s saved quite a few lives. Many
pilots are skeptical about it; FLY! gives you the ideal chance to try
it out and prove that it works.
Not that you’ll need it, of course. With the material in these les-
sons, you have a solid grounding in basic techniques that’ll see you
through the rest of your career - and the rest of the airplanes in FLY!
Flight Instruction
122
1. If you have a gyro compass, turn to the desired
heading. If not (magnetic compass only), turn direct-
ly East or West to minimize the compass’s errors and
swinging tendencies.
2. Extend flaps to the first notch; this will make the air-
plane more stable in airspeed.
3. Set power and trim for a descent of 500 feet per
minute. Check the trim to ensure that the airplane
maintains it “hands off.”
4. Let go of the controls and fold your hands in your
lap! That’s right - at this point, chances are you’d do
more harm than good, possibly wrapping yourself
into a spiral, if you try to fly the airplane. Instead,
5. Use gentle rudder pressure only to maintain heading.
Don’t try to “nail” it, either; it’s better to let it get off 5
or even 10 degrees than to overcontrol. Just try to even
out the swings. Remember: be gentle!
Radionavigation Made Simple
All the aircraft in this version of FLY! are equipped to utilize
four forms of radionavigation: Very High Frequency
Omnidirectional Range (VOR), the Instrument Landing System
(ILS), Nondirectional Beacons (NDB), and the satellite-based
Global Positioning System (GPS). In this chapter, we’ll look at the
techniques for using the first three of these; a separate chapter is
provided for “the wave of the future,” GPS.
VOR
The VOR system was developed at the close of World War
II. While at present it’s rapidly being eclipsed by GPS, for the
moment it’s still the primary means of aircraft navigation in most
developed countries. VOR provides the pilot with both direction-
al, or bearing, information (“where am I in relation to the VOR
ground station”) and left-right guidance along courses directly
toward or away from the station. A military version of VOR, called
Tacan (for Tactical Air Navigation) provides distance information
in addition to the directional data. In the USA, many such stations
are co-located with VORs and called VORTACs; their distance
information is also available to civilian users. Other stations,
called VORDMEs, provide similar capabilities without the mili-
tary system. In use, there’s no difference to a civil user between a
VORTAC and a VORDME.
RADIALS AND BEARINGS
To visualize the function of a VOR, imagine a big bicycle
wheel, with 360 spokes, laid horizontally on
the ground. Its hub corresponds to the
location of the VOR station; the spokes,
since they radiate away from the hub,
are called
radials
.
123
Flight Instruction