User Guide

Flight Simulator
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Microsoft
degrees you’ll need to turn a little more to the left (try 295 degrees) to intercept the course and
center the needle. Once the needle is nearly centered, turn back and fly the heading shown by
the index (305 degrees).
7. When you’re directly over the VOR (indicated by an OFF flag), turn to a heading of 255 degrees
and rotate the OBS to 255. Fly the 255 course. (Once again, turn a little toward the needle if you
need to intercept it. As the needle moves toward the center of the display, turn back and fly the
heading shown by the course index.)
8. When the DME display shows 7 miles you can assume that you’re over Wrongway aiport and
you’ve accomplished your objective.
9. Press P to pause the simulation.
Wind Correction While Tracking a VOR Course
I hope you aren’t blown away by all this. But then again, how could you be blown away since I
haven’t talked about wind? Until now I’ve assumed a wind-free environment, but this seldom exists in
the real world. Let’s learn how to correct for wind when navigating with VOR.
Wind correction is broken down into three components:
· Identifying the effect of wind on the airplane
· Re-intercepting the course
· Applying a wind correction
Here’s how this works.
1. Identifying the Effect of Wind - In Figure 13, Airplane A has just intercepted the 030-degree
course to the VOR. Under a no-wind condition, Airplane A could hold a 030-degree heading and fly
to the VOR with a centered needle. With a little wind, Airplane A is sure to drift off course.
Determining wind direction and making the proper correction is vital to successful navigation.
To determine the effect of wind on the airplane, head the airplane in the direction of the selected
course (030 degrees in this example). Now you must wait a bit. If there is no wind, the needle should
stay centered (or nearly so). If a crosswind exists, the needle will eventually show a deflection, as
depicted by Airplane B. How much of a needle deflection should you allow before re-intercepting the
course? Perhaps the best advice in this instance is to let the needle move just a little (perhaps less
than one dot on the VOR’s display), then make a correction.
2. Re-intercepting the Course – If the needle moves to the left, then the selected course is to the
left as shown by Airplane B. The airplane was blown to the right of the course (implying the
crosswind is from your left). Once you’ve identified the wind direction you need to get back on course
before applying a wind correction. You can get back on course by intercepting at a 20-degree angle
as shown by Airplane C. (Strong winds sometimes require that you re-intercept at a 30- to 40-degree
angle.)