I'm feeling stupid. How to plan VFR flights?

User Support Hub Aircraft & Systems
, ,
1

Hi!

I have been playing around with FS2020 for some years now, but due to health issues Im having a hard time looking at long youtube videos explaining things for me, or read long articles. My memory is affected, but when Ive learned something - its there. =) I want to learn how to plan and fly VFR in a correct way . If its possible, by using free tools. Ive read about “little navmap”, “simbrief” etc - but Ive only had a look a them for a short while. I feel kind of stupid when not learning in a pace I want to. Also, I always have flown GPS (when its avaliable). I cant fly VOR’s, and to be hones - Im not sure what it is. What the difference is by VOR’s and other helpful instruments when flying.

Can someone please do a “lets fly VFR in a correct way for Dummies” for me and others that really need more info. I cant follow people saying they are doing instructional videos for newbies, and then talk about things we dont know what it is - or - talking fast in a cool way (they think?).

I want basics. How to think, what to do, and why we do these things. Actually I miss the same info in videos that are tutorials about starting up airplanes etc. Why are we flipping these switches etc. What is happening in the aircraft and why does it need to be done (what will happen if we dont press that button etc).

So…its not just planning, I want a guide that make me feel comfortable and that makes me feel like Im actually learning and not just wathching a dud collecting subscribers. There must be people out there that know this, has been in the same situation and could learn things from step A and in a nice pace.

Im just getting so bored of just flying around. Well, theres often nice views - but I want more from using a sim like this.

Any ideas are more than welcome! =) Have a nice day.

5 Likes
2

Do it old-school, its fun…

https://davekearley.co.uk/navigating/

6 Likes
3

Totally not an expert here, but VFR, at its most basic can be done without any navigation instruments at all.
You can just use visual references. Next step would be to augment this by flying a course correcting for wind.
A VOR is a radio beacon, at a defined location, that emits a signal that allows the VOR radio ( or receiver ) in the plane, to set a course relative to that beacon. A VORDME, allows you to do the same, but also communicates the distance to that beacon. DME = distance measuring equipment. VOR’s + radios can augment a visual flight, but are an IFR required instrument only. If you fly the good old Stearman, it has no navigation instruments at all, besides the compass.
Access to and/or avoidance of controlled airspaces could be done with a tool like LittleNavMap, where you can see where the boundaries of an airspace are in three dimensions ( shape plus altitudes ). Usually you can avoid controlled airspaces by staying below a minimum altitude.

Now do bring in the experts :slight_smile:

1 Like
4

Hey I resemble that…:slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Join thepilotclub.org and join thier FREE virtual PPL program. It will teach you everything you need to know about flying, and in VFR too. Then as you advance you can moving in to IFR and higher type ratings. :). They are super friendly and super supportive, and weekly or more VFR GA flights!!!

2 Likes
6

The ability to successfully fly VFR is the result of several learned elements. There isn’t a magic bullet that teaches this, rather it’s the tried and true progression that flight instructors all over the world use. The key to flight instruction (even simulated) versus watching a video is evaluation and feedback, and measuring your progress against all the standards to come up with a plan that tailored for you.

You could just fire up the sim and go because none of this matters in a sim except how to get from point a to point b. There’s no risk in anything you do there, so trial and error is completely appropriate in that regard. However, all of the things we learn in real life happen because smart people have identified ways to not hurt yourself or others and none of it exists in a vacuum - it is all interconnected. So I’m going to go into detail of what all of that might look like in a more realistic setting because you seem genuinely honest in learning and I don’t want to say “all you have to do is this,” because in reality, if you want to learn right, it’s a lot of “this.”

Here’s what a typical progression might look like (this is a typical, generic, rough outline applicable to the US):

Basic control of the aircraft - flying headings, maintaining altitude, airspeed, climbs, descents, and turns using correct technique. Understanding the basic six-pack of instruments (but not over-reliance on them like in IFR flying). Some basic maneuvers go here - stalls and slow flight in particular, perhaps turns around a point to start understanding the effect of wind and groundspeed. Use of checklists.

In here you might learn the preflight walk around, though that’s kind of moot in the sim, as well as cockpit management. But hey, there are some mods that if you forget to check the oil, or leave the chocks in, you’ll have issues. Some basic systems knowledge might be applied here. Start to learn performance planning and weight and balance as part of the preflight actions.

Operating around an airport - takeoffs and landings (eventually several variations of these, including short and soft-field, and crosswind), go-arounds, traffic patterns, communications. Performance climbs - understanding Vx and Vy, Understanding airport information - markings, lighting, comm frequencies, where to find info. How to taxi (not joking!). Scanning for and avoiding traffic and obstacles. More basic maneuvers like rectangular patterns (correcting for wind drift), s-turns across a road, possibly steep turns. This is about the point you’d be ready to solo in the pattern.

After that, start prepping for the cross-country - understanding aeronautical charts, aviation weather, and airspace (these are very broad topics). Applying basic navigation skills - pilotage (use of landmarks), ded reckoning (headings and timing), and radio nav (GPS, VOR, NDB, etc). Lots and lots of prep work on understanding regs.

Meanwhile, more maneuvers to demonstrate your ability to divide your attention, to compensate for changing control pressures, aircraft orientation, and the effect of wind. You will learn emergency procedures - what to do when systems fail (or things catch on fire), what to do when you’re lost, or when the weather gets bad. How to escape from a cloud - unusual attitude recovery. This is about the point you’d be ready to do a solo cross-country. More emphasis on charts, navigation, enroute communications, and avoidance of Bad Things). Deeper dives into aircraft systems.

You’ll start learning night procedures and basic aeromedical factors that affect that. Night flying is a different animal - some countries don’t let you do it without additional ratings.

More emergency procedures and performance maneuvers. Increasing task saturation. Then it’s just exercising over and over, so you can meet or exceed standards and pass the written, oral, and practical tests.

Then, you earn your private certificate, which allows you to fly VFR on your own.

There are a few things I left out, again this is just a basic outline, and the order might be different depending on curriculum and progress. But the key is that the requirements for a private certificate is learning how to safely fly an entire VFR flight on your own, and vice-versa.

7 Likes
7

And don[‘t forget your VFR restrictions…. In Canada they are:

image
image2048×2732 460 KB

1 Like
8

I’ve not been flying long so I haven’t got around to learning IFR etc.,
I decided to begin learning my navigation from the earliest days of navigation and work forwards. I wanted to navigate how the earliest aviators did it.
So, I opened my map (Google maps I’m afraid) and began:
I needed to fly due South from the airfield until I hit the river, then turn right and follow the river until I reached the Motorway bridge, turn right and follow the Motorway……etc.,
To add to the complexity, when ready, fly a bearing against the stopwatch.
Quite happy with this currently, it’s very basic and quite a challenge sometimes, I’ll move up to ADF/NDB at some stage.
Little NavMap is great when you progress and want more of a challenge as it links directly in to the flight Sim (free) as is Sky Vector for a little more detail perhaps.

3 Likes
9

I think it’s worth persevering with Little Navmap, because you can build some good flight plans there and export them to MSFS. I have learnt only what I need to know in Little Navmap, it didn’t take too long and the built in documentation is very good. Here is a 21 minute intro which might help to get you started.

1 Like
10

Those are good tools being mentioned - I love how LittleNavMap interfaces with the sim. There are add-on scenes for it that add sectional charts, Google Maps overlays, even IFR charts. It’s basically the functionality of ForeFlight, but for the sim.

Not to shameless self-promo, but you seem genuinely interested in learning… I stream twice weekly and just about every Friday night we go through a lot of this stuff, talking through the flight planning process and my thought processes regarding the various aeronautical decisions. Then we go fly the route using VATSIM and trying to follow RW procedures as best we can.

Sometimes we focus on one aspect more than others (due to time limitations), sometimes we do simple VFR, sometimes it’s IFR work in high-performance aircraft. But if it’s less than obvious, it’s about the process. I love the process. Lots of folks from enthusiasts to RW pilots fly along or chat, and we’re all constantly learning and applying RW topics to our love for the sim. Info in profile if you’re interested.

Anyway you cut it, find someone who will interact with you, to whom you can ask questions - it needs to be more than watching a one-way video or in-sim “tutorial.”

1 Like
11

Hi there,

First, don’t feel stupid! (I’m sorry that you do!)

I see your question about VFR, but I also see you asking about how to start up an airplane and what switches you need to click and when. Are you looking for the mechanics of how to fly a plane or are you looking to know more about exactly what VFR is, and how to follow the rules?

2 Likes
12

When it comes to the switches, I know which one to press and in the somehow correct order. But for most part - noone explains (in tutorials) WHY i should click these buttons etc. Well, battery I get, and different strobes etc. But “alternate air”, and “cowl flaps”. Well, I finally worked that out, but it would be great to hear that explained in videos etc…its just like we already should know. I don’t - but I try to learn.

When it comes to flight planning, Im kind of stuck just flying around (which might be ok in VFR in good weather , daytime) - but Im not sure Im using the ATC as I should. Is that ATC realistic? (not ready for live real atc yet, hard to remember what to say). But I also want to learn to use radiobeacons (correct word?), VFR, DME etc. yeah, there are probably loads of videos out there…but they all seem to be for people already knowing… (laugh) what it is.

I want a very, very slow description what VOR is, DME and…ADF and… C3PO…and… well, you get it. =) As it is now…Im just playing around, setting destingation in FS and getting there by AP or flying myself. I have no clue how to use the above instruments, and i have no really cloue what they do and when to use them. Also, do you use them in VFR, or is that for IFR? And in VFR do you…well , so many questions…

No, not sure how to follow rules I guess. I was trying to learn patterns when landing etc, but well…I mixed things up. Downwind…Upwind… But I guess I should start with the nice 152 (like the mod for it as well), and then get to a local field in the sim…and just plan a trip sort of… Not just fly. Do I have correct amount of fuel, alternate landing sites… well - all that.

IFR is something else I guess…even though I know the instruments quite ok. But then again, cant plan procedures for takeoff and landing. Its a bit too much, everyting.

I hope Im not a lost case. :wink: Thanks for your support @N316TS - and to the rest of you as well. I’ll dig into what you have been writing a bit more tomorrow. =)

2 Likes
13

Thanks for the clarification! Okay. This question is so much more than VFR. In fact, very little of it is about VFR. I had written up a whole thing on VFR before and then stopped and decided to ask for clarification on the question first.

I’ll quickly answer one of your questions. This is C3PO :slightly_smiling_face::

rs-219361-SW_ep4_090___

(I know you were joking! :smile:)

I’ll answer another question: ATC is not very realistic right now. In fact, there is a very long thread right now about it. This thread could easily detail and turn into an ATC thread, but we’ll just say right now that it’s not very realistic and it requires a huge amount of effort to overhaul.

I can try to answer more of these questions when I get to a computer (instead of my phone), unless others answer them here first.

2 Likes
14

All of it, even the switches, is part and parcel to the big picture.

Not really. In some cases it’s okay, passable, in others it’s wildly inaccurate. Remember, real ATC is human to human communication and predictive, human analytics. The sim has a long way to go here (and there are big threads devoted to this subject).

I wouldn’t teach this without first ascertaining whether a person understands the difference between heading, course, and relative position (bearing). Heading is the way the nose is pointed, course is the imaginary line our airplane makes through the sky (or over the ground) due to wind drift, and relative position/bearing is the compass direction to or from another place. Understanding the directional gyro (heading indicator) is the first step in this. Then we can start tying it together. Visual aids and demonstrations help.

You sure can use them in VFR. But remember, VFR is a whole plethora of visual flight rules (all that airspace, weather avoidance, and not hitting other planes or rocks I mentioned above). The word you might use for this is “can I use them in VMC,” which is visual meteorological conditions, meaning a certain amount of visibility and distance from clouds (dependent on airspace, altitude, and sometimes time of day). And the answer again is yes you can. Radio Navigation is one of the three primary methods of navigation I mentioned above in addition to pilotage and ded reckoning.

Think of it this way: if you’re grilling, your neighbors (usually) love to be downwind of you - the way the wind is blowing toward. If you’re going downwind, you’re moving with the wind. Like going downstream. Upwind is into the wind, or like going upstream. Upwind is what we want for takeoff and landing (there’s a bit more “why” involved in that, but this is the basic idea).

Entirely. I wouldn’t even bother with it until you’ve got VFR stuff down cold. Sure, we can put the flight plan into the GPS and let the autopilot fly us along, but that’s not IFR, that’s just flying in the clouds. It’s an entirely different landscape and nobody starts there in the real world, we all learn VFR first. Basic, deliberate control of the aircraft following applicable procedures. Crawl before walking :slightly_smiling_face:.

2 Likes
15

As mentioned: try dead reckoning first. You need to plot waypoints on a map and figure the bearing and distance to each. Make the waypoints such that you can navigate between them following landmarks (i.e. travel along a road for a distance, then follow a river, then head toward a large building, etc).

To do this, you might use GTFP (which I wrote and is free). It has a detailed map and lets you click to make a waypoint. The output will be a dead-reckoning report you can print and use as you fly (or view in another window on your computer).

You can also use GTFP’s ‘GPS’ to follow the plane in real time. You head the plane to match the waypoint bearing until the distance to the next waypoint falls to zero. Then you continue to the next waypoint in the same manner.

1 Like
16

‘Huddison’ puts out some very carefully explained YouTube videos of all aspects on Navigation, this one is on ‘ADF / NDB’ navigation……flying towards a beacon. Very basic navigation. I routinely start with his videos when I want to learn something new.

He has some very good ones on customising your joystick/yoke as well. I started with them until I understood what was going on, then went my own direction.

1 Like
17

A great place to start is skyvector.com provided you’re flying in the US. You can typically see about 70 NM once aloft. Use the World VFR chart. Enter departure and arrival airports and it will plot a line between the two airports. If you’re flying a 172 pick points about 20 NM along the line as reference points to fly too. At each point along your route you should be able to match visual reference points from the World VFR map to what you see from your aircraft once aloft. Hop from visual point to visual point until you arrive at your airport. It’s actually a really fun way to use MSFS since the scenery is so accurate. :slight_smile: Fly Safe!

1 Like
18

-you are not a lone :slight_smile:

2 Likes
19

I would then suggest than rather than trying to read long articles, or follow Youtube Videos, which seem to have not worked for you… you ask for help from other MSFS Community members willing to spend some time with you, talking in discord, sharing screens, and flying in MP.

Then you can ask questions as they arise, and learn at a rate you are comfortable with.

This is a GREAT MSFS Community, I am am sure there are many who would be willing to work with you, and get you up to speed with VFR flight planning.

One particular community I would recommend to join is EASTERNHOPS

Great community of mainly GA pilots, very helpful, and very accommodating to new members.
Been around for year, ever since FSX days, and very active now in MSFS.
In particular, check out their Cessna Sunday Events.

Maybe, anyone willing to help BoxiestAbyss920, could PM him and talk about some help for him .

2 Likes
20

Okay. I’m at a computer now. I can start to answer some of these questions. Again, none of these questions are about VFR, so I will talk about VFR at the end and explain that a little.

What aircraft is this on? It could mean one of two different things, and I don’t know which one it is without a little more context:

  1. Alternate static source: There is a system on your aircraft called the pitot-static system. Your altimeter, airspeed indicator, and vertical speed indicator are all part of that system. All three of them require something called “static air”, and that’s ambient air that isn’t “pushed” into your aircraft by the wind (air that’s pushed into your aircraft for the pitot-static system comes through the pitot tube, and only your airspeed indicator needs that one). If your static air port were to become blocked, it’s going to throw all three of those instruments off. So having an alternate static source allows you to have a backup. Some aircraft don’t have an alternate static source. And in those situations, if you’re in an emergency, you would actually have to break the glass of one of your pitot-static instruments. People recommend the vertical speed indicator, since it’s the least important of the three.
  2. Carb heat: On aircraft with carbureted engines, your carburetor operates with something called a venturi, which is a narrow passage that causes the air to speed up and the air pressure to drop. If you remember your ideal gas law from high school, dropping pressure also drops temperature. So it is possible to ice up your carburetor. When ice forms in the venturi, it blocks the air from coming through it, and can lead to fuel starvation and eventually the shutdown of your engine. Turning on carb heat actually takes air from a different source that actually wraps around your exhaust manifold, warming it up. So you can actually melt off some of that ice, or better yet, prevent it from forming, by turning on your carb heat. (Doing so reduces your overall power, and this alternate air usually doesn’t pass through a filter, so that’s why you don’t leave it on all the time.)

The cover around an engine is called its cowling. Engines generate a lot of heat, and a lot of piston aircraft are cooled by air. Cowl flaps actually open up a space in your engine cowling to allow greater airflow. However, this also increases drag, so you usually don’t do this during cruise. But that’s okay, because during cruise, you’re going fast enough that air has no problem cooling it. But cowl flaps work great in a time like takeoff when you’re using high power but you’re operating at a slow speed without much airflow. In a small aircraft like a Cessna 172, the engine is sufficiently small that you don’t need cowl flaps. But even if you were to take a step up to the Cessna 182, which has a bigger engine, then you have cowl flaps.

A VOR is a ground-based antenna that broadcasts a signal in all directions that your airplane can pick up. In your aircraft, you can use one of 360 “radials” that come out of the VOR, one for every degree of a circle, to determine you are with respect to that VOR.
Actually, this is a case when I don’t need to explain too much because Captain Joe has a great video on it, which I’ve linked below. The natural question arises: Why do we need those when we’ve got GPS? A few things to know:

  1. The VOR system was created long before GPS was around.
  2. GPS is a system provided by the United States government to its military and also civilians around the world. If something horrible like a massive war were to break out, the civilian signal could potentially be turned off. Or it could be jammed by another actor.
  3. Even barring the awful scenario of #2, having a backup is always good.
  4. There are some aircraft that aren’t equipped with GPS.

Okay, here’s the video:

Distance measuring equipment. Quite often, these transmitters occupy the same space as VORs. So much so that that configuration is called VOR/DME. Their function is in the name, and they are useful in tandem with a VOR because a VOR will tell you what radial or bearing you are flying, but that information alone would not be enough to tell you where you are. You would either need a second VOR’s signal to do that or a DME. One caveat to keep in mind is that they actually measure something called “slant distance”. In your head, if you think of the distance to a DME, you’re probably thinking about the distance along the ground. However, it’s actually the distance to the DME if you were to run a piece of tape measure between the aircraft in the sky and the DME. So if you were at 6000 feet and you were to fly over a DME, the DME would tell you that you’re 1 nm away from it.

Automatic direction finder. That’s the name of the instrument in your aircraft. They use NDB (non-directional beacon) stations on the ground. (The nice thing about VORs is that your instrument is called your VOR receiver and the station is called the VOR station. You don’t have two abbreviations to worry about! :stuck_out_tongue:) In your aircraft, when you tune to an NDB, your ADF points right to the NDB and you can fly to it. (Note that wind will blow you off course, and there is a technique you can follow to fix that.) NDBs don’t always work well in bad weather like thunderstorms. In the United States, they’re actually not being repaired as they break, so they are slowly being phased out. (In fact, one NDB at an airfield near to me was decommissioned a few years ago.) However, they are still being used in other places around the world.

You can use any of the navigation items mentioned above in either VFR or IFR. I had written a whole thing about VFR before when I thought that your thread was about VFR. I will copy the first paragraph of what I wrote here, to help: VFR flying means that you are flying mostly on your own separation of your aircraft from other aircraft. In IFR, your flight plan, ATC, and published procedures dictate what you should be doing. To be unambiguous: In both cases, the pilot in command (PIC) is ultimately responsible for the safety of the aircraft and everyone on board. It’s only a question of how you get from point A to point B.
I am happy to explain more about what VFR is, if that is interesting to you, although I am going away from my computer for a few days and won’t be able to type long posts like this for several days. (Also, I can only talk about it from an American perspective.) CharlieFox00 alluded to some of it, above.

Moderators are not MS or Asobo employees, so remember that this is only my opinion alone and not an “official” statement:
While IFR can be realistic in some aircraft thanks to the Working Title group, it’s not going to be realistic from an ATC point of view. Also, given where you are at right now, I think it would be best if you stayed with VFR for a while until you got comfortable.

Hope this helps!

5 Likes