dnme

I guess as part of question 1 above, I am also asking, how do we navigate distance? Say I wish to travel 5 miles in a straight line as part of a landing pattern (no waypoints). How do I monitor distance? I'm sure this is the most stupid question I have asked yet and I really apologise

If you try to search the Beta forum, you cannot. If you go to the advanced search page, it does not exist in the list of available forums to search under. Say you want to search Titles Only in the Beta forum... Steps: ------- Nav to the Beta forum Click "Search This Forum" Click "Advanced" (this is where we can choose to search titles only) Now notice that the "Search in forums" list no longer contains the Beta forum Can this be rectified?

Neither TACAN nor ILS, Just coming in manually. I don't know what you mena by "Straight in or overhead break".

Folks I have been practicing, reading and watching videos on landing. Few questions as follows..... 1. When starting your downwind leg, how far downwind should you travel? How is this measured? i.e. is it measured in time or miles? 2. When turning onto say your base leg or final, are these 90 degree turns? how do you measure them - do you use the hdg tape on the hud or visual? I see a lot of people talking about turning onto base leg, or final leg etc. But how do you know when to start the turn so as not to overshoot / oversteer etc. I tend to travel too far, then turn and then have to compensate for my mistakes etc.

Many thanks OP. Can I ask where do you get the information from? I have never seen it in the mission planner

so just to get my head around the basics... We fly way/steer points manually. If we want to be on the correct course to a waypoint, we use the CDI on the HSI but have to dial in the heading manually on the HSI. Therefore, would it be fair to say that navigation in the A-10c is not overly sophisticated? Also, someone mentions above that waypoints can be good tools to keep you out of trouble (sams etc). But if you have to fly them manually - is it not the case that all your attention is now focused on turning, speed, alt etc as you have to fly the waypoints manually ?? How are you meant to defend against sams if you are concentrating on flying/navigating?

Yea, I guess I'm not wording my question very well. I started by reading the chapter "Navigation", Manual p.441, After reading it I understand very little. It seems to take me through the panels and switches without a context. I am going to watch the video tutorial again now and try and get my head around this.

Yeah I get that. I'm wondering if anyone has any good simplified navigation tutorials I might fly or watch? I'm finding the manual impossible to follow.

why not just use gps or compass? also, if AP does not follow waypoints, why is there Path Hdg in AP at all? what path does it follow?

Back again to annoy all the experts I have started reading the Navigation sections of the manual and I am struggling to understand it. Is it possible to get the principles of it explained in a much simpler form? Is it possible to approach navigation from a task based pov? I now realise that the a-10 does not follow waypoints automatically in auto pilot. Therefore what's the point of creating waypoints at all if you have to fly them manually anyway? I'm very sorry for these (what must be annoying) questions. I guess I need to be able to simplify the topic and take it one step at a time and mot importantly - from a task based perspective. What do I mean by task based? I mean starting off crating a simple plan, the premise being that for this exercise, we might use the EGI for nav. Then an explanation of the egi, then the flight itself. In other words, learning by example and keeping the jargon and acronyms to a minimum for beginners.

Still getting to grips with an x52 Pro, using it default out of the box. I must look into how the dam thing works one of these days.

I thought it was the "a" key?

Many thanks

Hi bfeld Any chance you could upload that profile?

I see a lot of posts and advice on here and other forums advising people to 'Run as Administrator'. So, why not just set this up as default * Start * Run * Type "control userpasswords2" (without quotes) * Select your username * Click properties * Select group membership tab * Click Administrator * Click Apply, Apply etc You can also use this dialog to automatically log you in * Start * Run * Type "control userpasswords2" (without quotes) * Select your username * Uncheck "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" * Follow dialog instructions etc You should now be setup as Administrator explicitly. May also help to set User account control settings to "never notify" which gets rid of all the nagging. Assumes Windows 7 (I'm using Professional 64bit). Assumes you are the owner and preferably sole user of the PC.

I find TrackIR very awkward with these skewed views. I scrunch down and left etc, my head held in an awkward position as I have to strain my eyes forward to see the screen, then I look down at the keyboard or mouse and by the time I look back up at the screen, the view I had is gone.

Oh my god what have I started ;) Folks Please bear with me. I am doing my best, I have reverted back to FC2 in order to lessen the learning curve. I am activity based. I do approach the manual with a task i mind. In my most recent example, I could not figure out how to engage ILS and I could not figure out how to get the radio going (remember now....FC2, NOT a10c). I spent days, asking on forums, re-installing, creating mission after mission and importantly re-re-re-re reading the manual. It turns out that 1. ILS is transmitted from one end of a runway only 2. Radio menu key is actually # NOT \ (on UK keyboards) The manual never mentioned either. This is just one example. I have others. That's why I find the manual poor. I will admit to becoming frustrated in the past day or so and I apologise for that. Everyone here has a point and is being more than fair and considerate especially to me. Thank you for that. I will end with this. IMO ED manuals are weak for all the reasons that I have pointed out on these forums over the past few days. However they create the most spectacular flight sims ever. Stunning. I love the software and am in awe of the programmers. I'm done.

Hey thanks everyone for the help

I don't think you've listened to me or appreciate where I come from. I use manuals in many modes. I am activity based. In the case of FC2, I read the intro chapters, then the chapters on the specific plane (again I am back in FC2 here). I even read the theory chapters (twice) - before I ever turned on a PC. Then I want to start learning........ I do this by trying, Doing, Using etc ..... but in a reasonable manner. If you look at my OP you will see my structure. It's precisely that - a structure. Right now, all I want to do is learn to take off, nav, land. That's it. I do not want to know anything about weapons ...... yet. Step by step you see. Do you get it yet? I don't want to read the history of the a10 yet. I don't need to know about radar yet. I don't need to now about campaigns yet. Right now I just need to take off, nav and land. I have and will continue to practice this until I am proficient at it. Then I will move on to the next stage - perhaps that might be learning the radio. Do you get it yet? Usability, Usability, Usability Reading manuals is a great idea, really great.....if they are written from a usability perspective. A start, middle and end with the user at the centre of its design. Now please, can we move on and back OT

StrongHarm I am using FC2, I reverted back to it to lessen the learning curve. I did state this previously.

Yea fair point. I'm just frustrated after three days of trying to understand a simple concept where the manual let me down yet again. Not loosing sleep though

ED Manuals are weak! in fact I would call them awful. They are very sparse on some points and over verbose on others. No beginning, middle or end. No flow and no usability. I am a new user, I am also new(ish) to flight sims. I have read the portions of the manual that I reckon are appropriate to what I need to achieve, and then read them again. If you look at some of my other posts you will see many examples of where I came unstuck. Manuals are so important. They need to be written from a "Usability" perspective. If you're not familiar with usability, it's a whole area of computing (HCI). The manual leaves out so much, has many mistakes and has no flow. Here's what I have done. I have put the a-10c on the back burner, I then invested in Lomac/FC2 to give myself an easier learning curve. But again I came unstuck with the poor manual included with FC2. So please don't give me RTFM, not in this case! I wish they would rewrite their manual from the ground up. I wish they would give it to a third party to do. I would start off with these questions 1. Who is gonna read this manual? 2. How are they going to read it? 3. What do different users want to achieve? / How quickly do they want to achieve it? 4. Think Use Case 5. Design the manual with the assumption that the user has zero knowledge of anything. I realise that ED's sims are niche market and that funding is tight. And I truly believe that their sims are simply stunning - THE BEST! by far. But the manuals are truly dam awful. I know you'll mostly disagree, that's because you all have some or indeed lots of existing knowledge. It's only when you have to rely on them as a total newbie that you begin to realise their shortcomings.

See now there's a useful bit of information that would have been most useful if included in the manual. Many thanks mate. When you are creating a mission, how do you know which end of a runway to fly from when laying waypoints ? What I'm getting at is - how do I know which end of the runway has the ILS beacon when planning my final approach in the editor? Also, if runways only transmit ILS from one end, what about the theory that you should always take off and land into the wind.What happens then when the wind is blowing the wrong way? Do pilots sacrifice ILS in order to get a head wind?

Dimebag1 I have tried that (creating simple missions just for nav practice). I find that when I reach the final approach waypoint, the aircraft seems to head off in some crazy direction (makes no sense). When I manually line up the aricraft with the runway, I enter ILS mode but I get no ILS bars on the HUD. Does ILS work for both ends of a runway? Does ILS work at all airports in the sim?

With respect StrongHarm - Any manual is good and within your comfort zone if you already have knowledge. DCS manuals are awful. I remember trying to deal with the LOMAC manual a few years ago and found it to be inadequate. Lets take a simple example. Here's a question - "How to I land via ILS in the a-10a in FC2" ? Now that's a pretty well defined question, right? So lets approach the FC2 manual and read the US Aircraft section on the a-10a over (again), Then read the entire Flight Training section (again). You will notice that the section on ILS turns out to be just a small paragraph. No specifics, no mention of pre-requisites, no mention of setup etc. After all that reading, my question remains unanswered. This is just one example of many I have. The difference between you and me is that you have knowledge, experience and good networking in a strong community. I am new, a beginner, a fresh learner and have no knowledge. Therefore the manual is critical to me and the likes of me. And it's me and the likes of me that the manual let's down so so badly.