How to see flown distance

[vulture07]

Hello guys,

 

I am pretty new in this game and only start to get the hang on it.

 

One thing I dont understand is, how to see the distance that I travel during fly.

 

For example when I radio to an airport they tell my to fly a specific course for 11 miles. I can set that course, no problem. But how do I know when I have passed those 11 miles?

 

Sure i can take a look at airspeed, and calculate the necessary flying time, but is there another way? The A10 has GPS and EDI and all, so it should be able to show me the mileage :)

 

Best regards...

[baltic_dragon]

There are quite a few ways to do that - one would be to make an overhead markpoint and set it as a steerpoint - you will get the distance travelled. Or you can use your TAD with "hook-cursor" option (i.e. hook your plane) and create a markpoint at the desired bearing / distance, and then just fly to it.

[hcf]

I got a bit too close to a AAA gun, trying to TDP it, and he shot out my EGI.

 

Taught me to look up TCN and ILS frequencies on the tarmac before takeoff...I usually get that info out of EGI divert page. Without it, I was suddenly flying g blind.

 

So, I was in a spot. I wound up just calling ATC repeatedly for fresh vectors, then eyeballed it into the runway once I had eyes on...landed on two landing gear strut stubs and one blown tire, and ATC was like, "cleared to taxi." Those guys have a sense of humor I guess...

 

Still, I shutdown engines, and ground crew did repairs in 180 seconds. Just levitated the aircraft, put on three fresh tires and fixed all the holes in the wings (and put on a spare elevator to replace the one that got shot off).

 

Anyway, that was more than enough to taxi off the runway.

 

Ground crew is the most efficient resource in the game, I think.

[SyntaxError]

Just tested another way and it seemed to work fine.

 

I used my hud TDC (the block you have on your HUD which you can slew around to mark areas easily) and made a SPI in front of me then hooked it with my TAD cursor, then went back to my HUD to slew it around to the required distance which you can check on the TAD. Works quite well cause you can check distance on the go. The only problem is the TAD hooks to other waypoints that you move the TDC SPI over. Also there may or may not be a 13nm distance limit on the TDC. Didn't really check since I was doing this not that far from the airport.

[Britchot]

... one would be to make an overhead markpoint and set it as a steerpoint - you will get the distance travelled.

 

This is the easiest way I've found to do it.

[aledmb]

sorry for bringing this back to life, but i find it a bit awkward when ATC tells me to fly heading 285 for 16.

 

how am i supposed to know when i have flown that distance?

 

the solutions above seem like hacks, not real tools a pilot would use mid flight, right?

[razo+r]

You could also go full old-school mode and use this

 

t*v=d

[Yurgon]

2 hours ago, aledmb said:

the solutions above seem like hacks, not real tools a pilot would use mid flight, right?

 

I don't think the call itself would be used IRL for the exact same reason that pilot's can't easily tell the distance they've travelled without going heads down and fiddling with instruments, especially when they're not yet travelling along a radial.

 

The ATC in DCS has always been very rudimentary. IRL there would be published procedures, and ATC would control aircraft much more directly (something along the lines of "turn right 258, descend and maintain 5000 feet", then sometime later "turn left 170 for final approach runway 17 left, contact tower on 317.500").

 

What the ATC does in DCS right now is just guide you to a point some 10 nautical miles out of the extended runway centerline; I assume this serves as the final approach fix. From there you can turn final and do your landing approach. This is not an exact science and it's absolutely not a precision approach, nor is it a radar approach. It's just DCS giving you some broad directions to a point where you can turn toward the runway and hopefully see it already.

 

Anything beyond that, like a TACAN or ILS or RNAV approach, is entirely up to you.

 

And you're also free to ignore the ATC, or just contact him so the lights get switched on, and ignore him otherwise. I'm not aware of any penalty or any downside at all from doing this, seeing as the ATC will gladly deny clearances for empty runways and provide them for runways that are (or are getting) occupied anyway.

 

But of course razo+r is totally right, with a little bit of math you can do a rough calculation to comply with the ATC and then use the stop-watch or just a wrist watch to get the timing roughly right.

[aledmb]

26 minutes ago, Yurgon said:

 

I don't think the call itself would be used IRL for the exact same reason that pilot's can't easily tell the distance they've travelled without going heads down and fiddling with instruments, especially when they're not yet travelling along a radial.

 

The ATC in DCS has always been very rudimentary. IRL there would be published procedures, and ATC would control aircraft much more directly (something along the lines of "turn right 258, descend and maintain 5000 feet", then sometime later "turn left 170 for final approach runway 17 left, contact tower on 317.500").

 

What the ATC does in DCS right now is just guide you to a point some 10 nautical miles out of the extended runway centerline; I assume this serves as the final approach fix. From there you can turn final and do your landing approach. This is not an exact science and it's absolutely not a precision approach, nor is it a radar approach. It's just DCS giving you some broad directions to a point where you can turn toward the runway and hopefully see it already.

 

Anything beyond that, like a TACAN or ILS or RNAV approach, is entirely up to you.

 

And you're also free to ignore the ATC, or just contact him so the lights get switched on, and ignore him otherwise. I'm not aware of any penalty or any downside at all from doing this, seeing as the ATC will gladly deny clearances for empty runways and provide them for runways that are (or are getting) occupied anyway.

 

But of course razo+r is totally right, with a little bit of math you can do a rough calculation to comply with the ATC and then use the stop-watch or just a wrist watch to get the timing roughly right.

 

thanks for clearing so many points at once... really appreciated!