When computers entered the aviation world it became possible for the computer to 'create' an imaginary navigation aid based on a direction and distance from a ground-based navaid. Often this entailed a zigzag course as navaids could not be perfectly aligned with each other in a straight line - airport to airport. Flying over the various navaids was to ensure that the flight was on the correct route. Such a navaid may be a VOR, NDB or similar device. Prior to complex computers, pilots were required to use established on-the-ground navigational aids and would fly directly over the navaid. RNAV is is an acronym for Area Navigation (a Rea NAVigation). I will also touch on the concept of Performance Based Navigation (PBN). Rather, this post will be a ‘grass-roots’ introduction to the concept of RNAV, RNP, LNAV and VNAV. This post will not provide an in-depth review of these systems such a review would be lengthy, confusing and counterproductive to a new virtual flyer. LEFT: Collins Mode Control Panel (MCP) showing illuminated LNAV annunciation (click to enlarge). New flyers to the Boeing 737NG often become confused understanding the various terminology used with modern on-board navigational systems.Īlthough the concepts are easy to understand, the inter-relationship between systems can become blurred when the various types of approaches and departures are incorporated into the navigational system. Please consider sending a few dollars ( Thank You.) All funds donated will be used to offset the cost of server and website hosting. Maintaining this website costs a considerable sum of money each year. The definition of the acronym OEM is Original Equipment Manufacturer ( aka real aicraft part). I use the words 'modules & panels' and 'CDU & FMC' interchangeably. Do not complain if you do not like what you read. All reviews and content are 'frank and fearless' - I tell it as I see it. Note: I have NO affiliation with ANY manufacturer or reseller. I hope there are not too many spelling and grammatical mistakes.Īrticles are updated from time to time as procedures and information change. Writing for a cross section of readers from differing cultures and languages with varying degrees of technical ability, can at times be challenging. Any feedback from the AirTrack team would be very much appreciated.The purpose of FLAPS-2-APPROACH is two-fold: To document the construction of a Boeing 737 flight simulator, and to act as a platform to share aviation-related articles pertaining to the Boeing 737 thereby, providing a source of inspiration and reference to like-minded individuals. The actual behavior of the plane reflects exactly what one would expect from FMC sourced LNAV mode.Īs far as I can judge, this could also be a feasible solution for the AirTrack app. This means that the FSX autopilot must be set to HDG SEL in both cases, which is the only small drawback of this otherwise elegant solution to the FSX-specific LNAV limitations for external applications. In both the HDG SEL and the LNAV modes, the vasFMC software writes the actually desired heading to the FSX HDG SEL variable. To be not only complaining, I'd like to make a suggestion for an FSX-specific workaround, which also has been used by Alex Wemmer for his vasFMC software: I just faced the same problem and must say that I'm a little bit disappointed by this fact, which in my opinion, at least for FSX users, significantly reduces the usability of this otherwise excellent app. Having said that, we'll be working on a new communications protocol so we'll try to make as many things work as possible, but as I said, the lack of a standard API and the lack of support for the flight sim itself is making things difficult. This and FSX being relatively old and abandoned by Microsoft doesn't give us much hope :( In order to have both in sync you have to enter the exact same flight plan in FSX independently and activate LNAV there.Īs for the future, the problem seems to be that the standard FS9/FSX API doesn't allow FMC/flight plan related changes to be made that easily by external apps and that as a consequence each plane implements a flight plan / FMC in its own independent way, which makes it impossible for one app to be compatible and work with all the different planes and implementations that exist in FSX. Likewise if you enter a flight plan in AirTrack, AirTrack will follow and report on it just fine, but this will not be propagated to FSX. So if you switch to FMC, the app itself will work in FMC mode and provide you all the FMC guidance it can, but this will not be propagated to FSX. The Source = FMC has no effect on FSX it only acts on X-Plane and is used by the app itself internally. Most things work, and it does change a few AP bits like heading dial or speed dial, but other things in the AP may not work. Indeed AirTrack does not totally control FSX in terms of auto-pilot I'm afraid.
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