HSI in Falcon and F/O

[baghdaddy]

HI gang.

One of my biggest (and there's not a lot) probs that I had with Falcon in the beginning is the fact that during the course of doing an instrument landing in Falcon I always battled a little bit to lign up with the ILS early on because you have to pan the view down (2D mode) to lign up the ILS cross hairs in the HSI. And because of looking up and down the whole time and loosing sight of the HSI I could not follow the HSI cross hairs all the time resulting in me always being off centre a bit.

Are there other Falcon piklots that had the same experience and could you guys who do the developing for F/O maybe include a feature where one can bring up a ghost HSI image with a key stroke that appears somewhere in the upper left or right corner when looking straight out infront of the cockpit.

Cheers

[LaWMaN]

HI gang.

One of my biggest (and there's not a lot) probs that I had with Falcon in the beginning is the fact that during the course of doing an instrument landing in Falcon I always battled a little bit to lign up with the ILS early on because you have to pan the view down (2D mode) to lign up the ILS cross hairs in the HSI. And because of looking up and down the whole time and loosing sight of the HSI I could not follow the HSI cross hairs all the time resulting in me always being off centre a bit.

Are there other Falcon piklots that had the same experience and could you guys who do the developing for F/O maybe include a feature where one can bring up a ghost HSI image with a key stroke that appears somewhere in the upper left or right corner when looking straight out infront of the cockpit.

CheersGood idea but if you have a TrackIR you will look up and down and all around with it in FO, no need for keys to change view's works well in Lockon :thumb:

[Seafury]

I firmly believe once you play in a true and proper render of a 3D cockpit, you'll never go back to 2D. Although with the x-plane code, I wouldn't image would be dificult to have a pop up screen for a HSI in 2D mode.

[iowapilot]

I thought that the localizer and glideslope popped up onto the HUD when it was active on the HSI? Maybe that was another sim I was playing, but I do remember vividly doing an precision instrument approach in a fast mover and never having to look away from the HUD.

EDIT: Also wanted to mention that you can and should (if you want to be proficient) be able to fly the approach down to minimums while looking down at the HSI. You have everything you need right there to stay blue side up! :)

[Stuntie]

Here's how I tend to go about it...

You need the runway heading noted down as the HSI/ILS only shows your position relative to the glide slope - not the heading you need to be facing.
Only when the
Most landing circuits involve a turn onto finals from 90deg off the runway heading. Get to a stable altitude on the last leg to final and go heads down to set up the heading part of the approach.
The key is to watch heading HSI bar for movement and gauge from it's rate of movement when to start the turn to final. You can do that heads down.
Once you start the turn you can then go head up and follow the ILS cues on the Hud. (Or even stay heads down if you want) Forget the height bar at first and tighten/relax the bank angle to get the heading bug and the ILS bar moving together at the same rate.
Get on the bar and fly down it till you meet the height bar. Descend as normal.

If the ILS bar is not on the runway heading marker shift the nose to fly about half the difference between the two. Once again watch rate of change and smooth it back into the correct heading.
It's about rate of change and trends. Don't chase the numbers start a trend towads them and smooth on in there.
A nice smooth turn that can be sharpened or relaxed to get you nearer once you see the trend.

Crank up falcon do a daylight take off training mission (lots of fuel, and a chance to note the runway heading) dial in the TACAN/ILS and fly the curcuit at a set altitude e.g. 1-2000 feet and practice those turns to final whilst head down. Don't bother with the descent at first.
Go heads up when you think your on line to see how well you did.

HSI is not hard, it's just that it's flying not fighting, so we all tend to skimp on that bit of training.
But remember F-16 pilots will have flown several dial filled trainers by that point, so the HSI is second nature to them.

[ruprecht]

Tanzanite,
ILS is meant to be an instrument approach, so you don't need to be flicking from head down to head up all the time. Keep your head down, watch your instruments and fly the glideslope and localizer. When you hit your approach minima (say 100-200'AGL in the sim) pop your head up and you should see the runway dead ahead. If you've been paying attention to your flaps, speed, gear, AoA and height, you should just have to hold the stick still and yawn as you grease it on.
Alternatively, as mentioned above, there are a bunch of other options. TrackIR is great, the ILS bars should be in your HUD anyway, or use F4Glass to put your instruments on a second PC screen. Set up an instrument navex in cruddy weather in F4, LOMAC or FS2004 (great thing with FS2004 is you can use real approach plates) and do touch and goes until head-down ILS's are second nature. Then when you can do easy-peasy ILS's, try some NDB approaches in a Robbie22 in a thunderstorm in FS2004 - that's a real man's challenge :)

[baghdaddy]

Tanzanite,
ILS is meant to be an instrument approach, so you don't need to be flicking from head down to head up all the time. Keep your head down, watch your instruments and fly the glideslope and localizer. When you hit your approach minima (say 100-200'AGL in the sim) pop your head up and you should see the runway dead ahead. If you've been paying attention to your flaps, speed, gear, AoA and height, you should just have to hold the stick still and yawn as you grease it on.
Alternatively, as mentioned above, there are a bunch of other options. TrackIR is great, the ILS bars should be in your HUD anyway, or use F4Glass to put your instruments on a second PC screen. Set up an instrument navex in cruddy weather in F4, LOMAC or FS2004 (great thing with FS2004 is you can use real approach plates) and do touch and goes until head-down ILS's are second nature. Then when you can do easy-peasy ILS's, try some NDB approaches in a Robbie22 in a thunderstorm in FS2004 - that's a real man's challenge :)

Ok you make some good points and give good advise. But what I am referring to is peripheral vision. Altough you look down at the HSI and other instruments you can still see a bit of what is happening outside, or am I wrong?

[ruprecht]

Nope - remember these approaches and instruments are designed to be used in total whiteout or total darkness conditions (apart from the last bit from the minima to the tarmac of course). Many pilots will have experienced real instrument training "in the bag"- i.e. with a hood or some other way of totally blocking all visual input so that all you see is the instruments. You don't need anything other than instruments (and not even fancy ones), a bit of alertness and practice to get an aeroplane lined up on late final ready to land in total whiteout.

[baghdaddy]

Thanks mate