Thank you so much for these videos. Flying modern jets is cool and all… but flying these jems of aviation the way they were originally released is such a treasure, and you are making it far less scary than it could be. 🙏
You're quite welcome. Aircraft like this are what I grew up dreaming of flying, so it's great to have it in X-Plane now. She's still a little bit scary... ;-)
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Mechanical engineer specializing in nuclear environmental systems. Have been retired for five years and I spend considerable time on X plane simulator and truly appreciate your lessons.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Not as complicated as your profession which is working 30,000 feet AGL. How ever, I found my work very interesting and challenging and retired at 72 after being in the field for 47 years. I have been following all you tutorials for several years. B742 tutorials are exceptional. Thanks for the lessons.
You Sir are a true gent. Just got this bird and love her but she's a handful! Keep up the amazing guides and I will be trying to burn them to my brain!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Tried it last night with sharedflight beta and it works like a dream! Having another 2 sets of hands onboard makes the world of difference! But keep up the amazing work! I've watch your vids a fair few times now just to understand this "beast" haha
Wow what a wealth of knowledge you have its quite overwhelming but I now know where to go for good guidance on all these technical matters as you break things down so well, thank you.
Thanks Chris, you’re welcome. I had hoped to have the landing video out by now, but there are further changed planned to the localiser tracking planned and I’m reluctant to show what would be the “old” version.
Hi Graham, I know in the flight simulator community asking for dates is a no-no but do you have an update on the changes holding up your 5th video in this terrific series? Through your videos I've got the 200 pretty much under control but still missing is the correct procedure for cruise and descent and approach. Apologies for asking....... Take care.
As always, a fantastic video series! Thanks for taking the time to produce excellent informative videos, being part of the testing team and all the help on the discord. I’m thoroughly enjoying the Felis 742 - it’s no wonder it was called the Queen of the Skies. Looking forward to the next video! Thanks again, Graeme!
Thanks Warren, glad to hear you are enjoying the aircraft. I know she's not without flaws, but it's great fun to operate and I think the product will continue to grow over time.
While speculative (at best) is there any chance you may be doing a series on the Q4XP once it's been released? As always.... I find your videos very helpful because (a) you're very to=the-point and (b) no background music distraction. You are a gem to the flightsim community! Cheers from SoCal.
I would like to do something with the Q4XP as I have a lot of confidence that the FMS system will be something special, however I think the HotStart Challenger will be the next major video series.
Merci pour votre aimable commentaire. Le 747 est une excellente simulation et je l'apprécie vraiment. Je suis désolé, mon français est limité. J'espère que Google Translate est acceptable!
Thank you very much for your response Felis 747-200, Hot Start Challenger650 are for me the best one on XPlane12 Thank you for your vidéos so fine like thses aircrafts Your french is better than my English Wish you a merry Christmas and Fly Safe Best regards @@ReflectedRealitySimulations
Brilliant explanation of the INS working principles, I think its the best and easiest way to understand I´ve ever come across, and have listened to many versions both at the flight academy and aero engineering university . Thank you for this great work and hope next series are coming soon.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Whatever it is, I will watch it. I am a big fan of yours and like how well prepared the lessons are and of course love the video editing skills. Tough flying in real world I always learn something new from you. Great job and looking forward to watch those series as well.
Thanks for this one! I couldn’t get the updating to work with the INS document Felis provides with the airplane. I’ll try it again using your video as guidance and it should work then! This is really helpful!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Yes! Problem was I had the wrong longitude. I took the lat/lon of the DME from Navigraph. If you do that you have to divide the last three digits by sixty to get the correct last number for the INS. Works like a charm now and I love this beautyful add-on even more!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations The developers of this plane owe you a big one. I’ve learned how to love and enjoy flying the 747 thanks to your tutorials. Please keep posting.
gday, firstly, this series has been hugely helpful already, a big thank you. I was just wondering how exactly you got simbrief to spit out a flight plan in that format? or did you manually create such a thing? I'm just having trouble planning a flight with appropriate DME updating stations along the way
Yes that is a little bit of a hassle. I extract the information from SimBrief into a text doc so I can annotate with waypoint numbers etc. You can also use LittleNavMap to obtain the data, but I do find a basic text doc more useful. Unfortunately modern plan formats are not really designed with VOR-VOR or LAT/LON INS navigation in mind. You could even use XNVU, it's designed for the Tu154 navigation system, but does list the LAT/LON coordinates for the waypoints.
Very much enjoying this. Still don't have a graphics card / XP11 - spending money on flying gliders instead - but the description of how INS updates work was fascinating. Part 4 - will it involve an intricate hand-drawn graph? I've heard bits and pieces about fuel planning but never properly grasped it.
Yes exactly as Maciej has mentioned, once the INS has moved forward you can reload the old waypoints. It's confusing to think of just 9 waypoints, Instead think about it as having two active waypoints and up to seven future waypoints. By that I mean if you are flying from 6 to 7, then 8,9,1,2,3,4,5 can all be waypoints ahead of you. You can update the waypoints at any point during flight. Also, if you're flying from 6>7 and VATSim say "Direct ABCDE" (which you've loaded to waypt 9) then just do WAYPT CHG - 0 - 9 - INSERT and that's the INS equivalent of "Direct To".
Thanks Jack - very busy at work over the summer so I'm sorry for the late response. Yes I'd love to do a LTN92 video as it looks like a fascinating system. I need to learn how to use it myself and then find some time to record a video. I'll probably wait until XP12 is out of beta and use it as an opportunity to look at the 747 in XP12 too.
I have a question: last week I flew from Amsterdam to San Francisco. Over Northern Canada the INS had the autopilot fly on approximately 264, where it should be on approximately 252 to the next waypoint. I had to switch from INS to radio and use the Heading mode for a while. Is there something you have to do with the INS when you fly in more northern regions? I’ve noticed a difference between Heading and INS, where the one gave me True heading and the other Magnetic. I think that the difference between True en Magnetic was the cause. Is there a way to counter this problem? I want to repeat the flight this weekend to see if it happens again.
The INS will always give true heading. On modern aircraft the magnetic heading is calculated by taking the true heading and applying a magnetic variation correction from the navigation database, whereas older aircraft like the 747 that don't have a navigation database sense magnetic north with a flux detector which is like an electronic compass. It shouldn't be necessary to make any changes for polar flight. The INS mode on the autopilot couples to the INS directly so what the HSI shows is irrelevant, but switching RAD/INS to INS will give you True heading on the HSI also. Remember also it's flying great circle tracks, which don't have a constant heading. If you have a planning tool that provides an average course for the leg then then it won't match up - the value you need is ITT, initial true track, the track flown when leaving waypoint A to fly a great circle track to waypoint B. Hope that makes sense? If you have a specific route and waypoints I can take a look?
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for your reply! I think the average track on the flightplan and the Navigraph display had me fooled. The route that I flew was: EHAM VALK3S IDRID L980 LAM L179 CPT UL9 KENET N14 BAKUR DCT REVNU DCT AGORI DCT 5920N DCT 6230N DCT 6240N DCT 6050N DCT URTAK DCT KLIPS DCT ZSJ DCT YDN DCT GGW DCT DLN DCT DERSO DCT LEGGS BDEGA3 KSFO/EDDYY.I28R It was the stretch from KLIPS to ZSJ where the plane went of the route in Navigraph, but given the fact that it is the longest leg (935NM) between two waypoints I'm pretty sure it's the correct ITT. I hope to fly the route again tomorrow and I will let it proceed and see where I end up. Thanks again!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations I am flying the route again and can confirm that the average heading on the flightplan and Navigraph map had me fooled. I let the INS do it's thing on this flight and it 'curved' me perfectly to the waypoint. Thanks for helping me out!
HOLD is to freeze the INS position to allow a position update to be performed. Let's say you are arriving over land after a long ocean crossing, but the only waypoint is an NDB. You can't automatically update the INS position from an NDB, so instead follow the NDB as normal using normal radio navigation. When you pass overhead the NDB, press HOLD on the INS - you can now enter the NDB coordinates into the INS to manually update the position. By using "HOLD" directly overhead the NDB, it means that you don't need to rush the position entry as the INS was held in place at that point, and when you come out of hold mode having updated you should be exactly on track again. IRL they could also do position updates this way by using the radar in ground mapping mode, although this doesn't work in X-Plane.
When entering the DME frequency via the INS CDU, does this frequency overide the VOR/DME frequency on the VOR control panel? Does the INS CDU send a tuning signal to the DME transponder and or the VHF Nav receiver ( usually a Colins 51RV-4 or a kings KNR6030). IE, can the pilot tune into a VOR/DME and get bearing/distance information on his RMI and HSI while the INS is DME updating on a separate frequency? Thank you.
Sorry for the delay replying Barry. No, it doesn't automatically tune the DME in this case. In fact, we discussed this quite a bit during the beta as there doesn't seem to be a good reason for the frequency to be needed, except using it as to compare the frequency tuned on the radio and rejecting any update if the frequency is incorrect. It's a single radio for each pilot doing all the work, all manual.
One question (absolutely not a pilot here). When you do the INS updating, after the aircraft corrects the course, I can then change to a different VOR on the panel, right? I noticed that when I change it, the updating stops. I'm guessing once the course is corrected, it's done and you can change the VOR frequency, is that right?
Great video with insightful info again Graem! How often do we need to update the INS btw? is it one-time enough? Do we need to get back to system number 5(standalone) from 4(triple mix) after updating?
Typically you'd make sure the INS is updated before leaving land (on an ocean crossing), and again when you reach the other side. If you're INS navigating over land keep it as up to date as possible, but once every 500-800 miles should be enough. The INS has two modes of operation - Aided (PI 4 on that STS page) and Unaided (PI 5). In PI 4 (should be set on all three units in normal operations), if a DME update is commanded the unit will do that and each INS will update its own corrections to reflect the new accurate radio position, so in that respect when DME updating triple mix isn't needed as the three units will have the same position. After DME updating is finished the unit stays in PI 4, and changes to triple mix (that red triangle thing in the video). The means that when the "pure" inertial position drags those correction values away from each other the resulting navigation position is more accurate than each INS could give independently. You shouldn't need to go to PI 5 again unless the triple mix calcs start giving odd values in a failure case and you want unaided (single INS unit) navigation - but AFAIK this kind of failure isn't simulated as yet. Hope that all makes sense?
Hey reflected, Whenever I try to update the INS with the VOR's, I keep getting random numbers in DIS/Time that are wildly unrelated to the distance and time to the VOR I am using for updating. I insert the VOR coordinates, elevation, and frequency into the INS, I just cant seem to understand what might be wrong. The distance for some reason is thousands of miles and the time is 999.9. I tried with many stations but I keep getting the same results.
Thanks for the question Scott, and sorry for the delay replying. The INS updating is difficult to begin with. After entering the coordinates for the DME station, and while the INS is still in DME update mode, you need to use WAYPT CHG then choose the waypoint you loaded to DME details into, then INSERT - this is how you actually start the DME update and it should give correct values on the DIS/TIME page.
Hi Reflected. When I am updating my INS sometimes the INS updating light does not show up, even though I press Waypoint Change, 1, Insert. Any reason why this might be? Thanks.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks for the reply. I turned my INS systems onto system 4 when I was on the ground. I also noticed that in my settings the INS SOURCE is REAL and not SIM GPS. Would this change anything?
The 3 CIVA that the B742 Felis brings by default, are they enough? because I have seen other videos that recommend flying better with the Delco Caurusel CIVA
The Felis INS units are much, much better than the "Philipp" addon CIVA. Felis has proper triple mixing and his logic is a lot more reliable. You don't need to buy anything extra to use the 742, it's all included.
Those were manually added. It’s just a list of waypoints extracted from a SimBrief plan, with the DME stations from SkyVector and PilotNav for the elevation value.plenty of time in the cruise to look them up.
I think I understand the DME updating a bit better now. it's a separate submode from nav, so could you for instance preload a bunch of stations along the route and as they come up, flick the DME updating on the corresponding INS ?
Yes, exactly. You can load up a series of DME waypoints just like you can with the nav waypoints. This was important for Concorde where the relative speed meant it was essential to have everything sorted out early. In this videos I tend to show "what you need to do, when you need to do it" but there's nothing wrong with getting well ahead and loading all your DME stations early on.
Sir, I now have the Felis 742 and the other night I ran into a situation with the INS I need your help with. Flying from CYYZ (Toronto) to CYHZ (Halifax) I neglected to put in the coordinates for an arrival as I did not know which one to use. Instead I put in (last 3, MLT, YSJ, and YHZ vor's). Brand new to the CIVA INS, everything was running smoothly unitl BOS CTR asked me if I had access to the FUNDY5 Arrival. I said I had a chart and he cleared me to EBONY to begin the arrival. I then went to the INS panel and drew a blank. I was quickly approaching MLT and then past it as I realized 'how do you put in new coordinates" in flight. There was no 'direct to' like the FMS lol. Is there a procedure to input new coordinates for the FUNDY5 or is it just that simple to find the lat/long and start putting them in. Most videos load the flight plan and it flies it but none show an en-route change really. I absolutely love your instructional videos and I don't think you get the recognition you deserve! Dave
Thanks for the nice feedback Dave, and it's a great question. The INS can't load the procedures directly, so you'd need to find the coordinates for EBONY and load that as a new waypoint. Lets say you load those coordinates into waypoint 5 - to go direct-to use WAYPT CHG - 0 - 5 - INSERT. Waypoint 0 is used to mean "here", so you're asking it to go from here to EBONY. In general though the INS wouldn't be used to fly arrival and departure procedures, so you'd be back to conventional VOR/NDB navigation on the SIDs and STARs. Easiest thing for online flying is to make sure you're not filed for rnav capability, and request a non-rnav arrival or radar vectors!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thank you so much. I believe the waypoint window was showing FROM 6, TO 7 at the time of atc re-route. Would I put the EBONY lat/long into a slot previous to 6 or past 7 - say 8? I'm assuming it is referencing 6 and 7 so a re-program on 7 wouldn't be allowed? I couldn't figure it out, so BOS CTR transferred me to Moncton CTR and they asked if I wanted RNAV to RWY 05. I said not RNAV capable so he just gave me vectors to LOC 05. All worked out, I was just curious as to how to insert a new waypoint. I love flying the yester-year planes and old school navigation. I have the FJS 727 series and the 737-200 and only fly them VOR to VOR...not even INS. I very much appreciate your work. Dave
Really great videos you have produced here, well done and thank you. If after following all instructions up to the point of starting DME updating, ie I have entered everything as per video, and after pressing WYPT CHG, 1, INSERT, the green DME updating light does not come on, remains unlit; does this mean the INS is ok, ie does not need updating, or is something wrong? I have watched video many times, I am following all exactly, but still light does not come on. Is there perhaps an option in settings I am missing that turns off this feature?
Hi Fred, sorry for the delay replying. You're doing the right things for DME updating, so the most likely issue is not having the INS set for "Aided Inertial Naviation" - this allows the INS computer to store position corrections from either the other two INS units (triple mixing) or ground stations (DME updating). To enter Aided Inertial mode, go to DSTRK/STS, then key in [4] [INSERT]. You need to do this on all three units separately.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks so much for replying. yes, I have done the Aided Inertial Navigation as you explained in the video. You do it so well and clearly. The only difference I notice is that I don't end up with "04" in the display, but "74' or "64". Maybe I have a faulty INS😄
7:10 the DME is also direct, and does not account for altitude. The further from the DME range is taken for update, the more accurate the resultant is as the altitude component is minimised.
The DME simulation does use slant range, you can see this as it doesn’t count down to zero when overflying at altitude. The INS has altitude input from the air data system in order to correctly interpret the DME distance and compare it with the distance over ground to the DME station.
Greetings, your tutorial is amazing, I watched every single part to learn how to fly the 742. One question though, where can I find the coordinates of VOR's (including the elevation) that are not on my route in order to use for INS accuracy correction?
Hi, sorry for the delay getting back to you. LittleNavMap is a free application and has VOR coordinates and elevation. It's also very useful to plan VOR-VOR flights as it shows the proper out and in radials and not just the initial magnetic track.
Greetings, thank you very very much for the reply. I've heard of that before, its that good huh? I'll definitely try it out! thank you very much for the reply again, have a great day :)@@ReflectedRealitySimulations
Have I stepped into some kind of time warp? Must be having a flash back to 2018. Last one out please switch off the lights and leave the key under the mat.
It’s difficult to diagnose this sort of thing in the UA-cam comments as I’d really need to see screenshots. The Felis Discord is the best place to ask and I’m sure you’ll be able to get it working, discord.gg/dEuUR6U
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks for the response. After the comment I discovered that my INS was set incorrectly, which caused it to go orange on the display rather than green.
Sorry for the delay replying. There are several formats for the units, and you need to be able to understand and recognise them, CIVA uses ddd mm.m - degrees, minutes and decimal units. Other systems use ddd mm ss, degrees, minutes, seconds. I believe SkyVector uses ddd mm.mm - decimal minutes to two decimal places so you can simply round the last digit. For degrees, minutes, seconds 6 seconds is 0.1 in decimal, so 123 45 18 would be 123 45.3 (18/6 =3). It’s easy to spot decimal minutes vs seconds - look for any value over 59!
Hopefully you see this. I got everything to work except it following the flight plan. I switch it to INS both the switch and the knob. It follows it then at a certain point it’s like it gets lost.
Sorry for the delay replying, it's been a really busy summer and I haven't had any time for UA-cam. I'm hoping you've been able to get the INS navigation to work now, but if not the best place to look for help is the Felis discord as there are a lot of very active users on there who will be able to help straight away.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations it’s no problem and understandable I got it figured out. It was a decent bit of pilot error 😅. I do appreciate the respond.
It's derived from the waypoints list shown on the simbrief BAW format, just copied into a text editor to group together and add the INS numbers. Once I've done the plan I keep it for future use.
I'm watching this channel for over a year now. I'm really sad that this hard work doesn't get recognition
Thanks for subscribing for so long - I'm glad you like the content.
Thank you so much for these videos. Flying modern jets is cool and all… but flying these jems of aviation the way they were originally released is such a treasure, and you are making it far less scary than it could be. 🙏
You're quite welcome. Aircraft like this are what I grew up dreaming of flying, so it's great to have it in X-Plane now. She's still a little bit scary... ;-)
You single handedly made my maiden flight on this bird a success. Sir, your knowledge deserves all the praises possible. Thank you.
Thanks Felipe, hope you are enjoying the 747-200 - the real Queen of the Skies!
Extremely helpful stuff where GPS seems to be the cure for all navigation related questions and understanding in aviation sim land.
This whole series has been invaluable. Thank you!
Thanks for the nice feedback!
the best sim tutorial in english. :)
Thanks!
Graem, your tutorials are the best. Me being a retired engineer, I appreciate the details you provide. Thanks.
Thanks Gurinder, very kind feedback. What field of engineering were you in?
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Mechanical engineer specializing in nuclear environmental systems. Have been retired for five years and I spend considerable time on X plane simulator and truly appreciate your lessons.
That's a fairly complicated field of work. Glad your enjoying the videos, I hope to complete the 747 series shortly.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations
Not as complicated as your profession which is working 30,000 feet AGL. How ever, I found my work very interesting and challenging and retired at 72 after being in the field for 47 years. I have been following all you tutorials for several years. B742 tutorials are exceptional. Thanks for the lessons.
I am loving this 747-200 series!
Thanks Stewie - I've been testing it for a long time so it's nice to see everybody else able enjoy it too now.
You Sir are a true gent.
Just got this bird and love her but she's a handful!
Keep up the amazing guides and I will be trying to burn them to my brain!
Thanks for the nice feedback, glad you're enjoying the aircraft. It's hard work for a while but should become a lot easier with practice.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Tried it last night with sharedflight beta and it works like a dream! Having another 2 sets of hands onboard makes the world of difference! But keep up the amazing work! I've watch your vids a fair few times now just to understand this "beast" haha
Wow what a wealth of knowledge you have its quite overwhelming but I now know where to go for good guidance on all these technical matters as you break things down so well, thank you.
Thanks Phil, just a lot of time doing this sort of stuff I guess. Glad you're finding the videos useful.
Hi Graham. Just a simple but huge "thank you" for the 4 -200 videos. Incredible work; much appreciated.
Thanks Chris, you’re welcome. I had hoped to have the landing video out by now, but there are further changed planned to the localiser tracking planned and I’m reluctant to show what would be the “old” version.
Hi Graham,
I know in the flight simulator community asking for dates is a no-no but do you have an update on the changes holding up your 5th video in this terrific series? Through your videos I've got the 200 pretty much under control but still missing is the correct procedure for cruise and descent and approach.
Apologies for asking.......
Take care.
As always, a fantastic video series! Thanks for taking the time to produce excellent informative videos, being part of the testing team and all the help on the discord.
I’m thoroughly enjoying the Felis 742 - it’s no wonder it was called the Queen of the Skies.
Looking forward to the next video! Thanks again, Graeme!
Thanks Warren, glad to hear you are enjoying the aircraft. I know she's not without flaws, but it's great fun to operate and I think the product will continue to grow over time.
While speculative (at best) is there any chance you may be doing a series on the Q4XP once it's been released? As always.... I find your videos very helpful because (a) you're very to=the-point and (b) no background music distraction. You are a gem to the flightsim community! Cheers from SoCal.
I would like to do something with the Q4XP as I have a lot of confidence that the FMS system will be something special, however I think the HotStart Challenger will be the next major video series.
Merci pour cette série de vidéos de très haute qualité. J’envisage d’acheter ce 747-200 Classic, et j’ai l’impression que c’est un avion qui se mérite
Merci pour votre aimable commentaire. Le 747 est une excellente simulation et je l'apprécie vraiment. Je suis désolé, mon français est limité. J'espère que Google Translate est acceptable!
Thank you very much for your response
Felis 747-200, Hot Start Challenger650 are for me the best one on XPlane12
Thank you for your vidéos so fine like thses aircrafts
Your french is better than my English
Wish you a merry Christmas and Fly Safe
Best regards
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations
Brilliant explanation of the INS working principles, I think its the best and easiest way to understand I´ve ever come across, and have listened to many versions both at the flight academy and aero engineering university . Thank you for this great work and hope next series are coming soon.
Thanks Sajeel. I think the next major series will be the upcoming HotStart CL650 Challenger, but there are a few more 747 videos coming too.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Whatever it is, I will watch it. I am a big fan of yours and like how well prepared the lessons are and of course love the video editing skills. Tough flying in real world I always learn something new from you. Great job and looking forward to watch those series as well.
Were you ever crew on the 747 Classics in real life? From a B744 driver myself, your knowledge is truly impressive, hats off to you sir!
Just what I was looking for! Great to see the depth of the systems in this aircraft! I think it's at the top of the buy list!
Glad you liked the video, yes there’s a lot of systems to play with on the 747!
I love this plane, thank you so much for your tutorials, they helped me too much
Glad you like the 747, it's a great aircraft and it was a lot of fun making the videos, so I'm happy to hear they are useful!
Thanks for this one! I couldn’t get the updating to work with the INS document Felis provides with the airplane. I’ll try it again using your video as guidance and it should work then! This is really helpful!
Sorry for the late reply, I hope you were able to get the INS updating working.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Yes! Problem was I had the wrong longitude. I took the lat/lon of the DME from Navigraph. If you do that you have to divide the last three digits by sixty to get the correct last number for the INS. Works like a charm now and I love this beautyful add-on even more!
Amazing channel. Your explanations are very clear and provide information that I can't find anywhere else.
Thanks a lot!!!
You’re very welcome! I try and provide the sort of tutorial that I’d like to watch myself.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations The developers of this plane owe you a big one. I’ve learned how to love and enjoy flying the 747 thanks to your tutorials. Please keep posting.
gday, firstly, this series has been hugely helpful already, a big thank you. I was just wondering how exactly you got simbrief to spit out a flight plan in that format? or did you manually create such a thing? I'm just having trouble planning a flight with appropriate DME updating stations along the way
Yes that is a little bit of a hassle. I extract the information from SimBrief into a text doc so I can annotate with waypoint numbers etc. You can also use LittleNavMap to obtain the data, but I do find a basic text doc more useful. Unfortunately modern plan formats are not really designed with VOR-VOR or LAT/LON INS navigation in mind. You could even use XNVU, it's designed for the Tu154 navigation system, but does list the LAT/LON coordinates for the waypoints.
Very much enjoying this. Still don't have a graphics card / XP11 - spending money on flying gliders instead - but the description of how INS updates work was fascinating.
Part 4 - will it involve an intricate hand-drawn graph? I've heard bits and pieces about fuel planning but never properly grasped it.
It wasn't a graph, but was mostly mouse drawn!
fantastic tutorial :) but is possible to insert new waypont duting a flight? for example when we get new direct on vatsim control?
You can overwrite any of the nine waypoints at any time.
Yes exactly as Maciej has mentioned, once the INS has moved forward you can reload the old waypoints. It's confusing to think of just 9 waypoints, Instead think about it as having two active waypoints and up to seven future waypoints. By that I mean if you are flying from 6 to 7, then 8,9,1,2,3,4,5 can all be waypoints ahead of you. You can update the waypoints at any point during flight. Also, if you're flying from 6>7 and VATSim say "Direct ABCDE" (which you've loaded to waypt 9) then just do WAYPT CHG - 0 - 9 - INSERT and that's the INS equivalent of "Direct To".
Hey man, hope you are doing well. Looking forward to a LTN92 tutorial as its in beta now 🙂
Thanks Jack - very busy at work over the summer so I'm sorry for the late response. Yes I'd love to do a LTN92 video as it looks like a fascinating system. I need to learn how to use it myself and then find some time to record a video. I'll probably wait until XP12 is out of beta and use it as an opportunity to look at the 747 in XP12 too.
Fantastic explanation! Many thanks :)
I have a question: last week I flew from Amsterdam to San Francisco. Over Northern Canada the INS had the autopilot fly on approximately 264, where it should be on approximately 252 to the next waypoint. I had to switch from INS to radio and use the Heading mode for a while. Is there something you have to do with the INS when you fly in more northern regions? I’ve noticed a difference between Heading and INS, where the one gave me True heading and the other Magnetic. I think that the difference between True en Magnetic was the cause. Is there a way to counter this problem? I want to repeat the flight this weekend to see if it happens again.
The INS will always give true heading. On modern aircraft the magnetic heading is calculated by taking the true heading and applying a magnetic variation correction from the navigation database, whereas older aircraft like the 747 that don't have a navigation database sense magnetic north with a flux detector which is like an electronic compass. It shouldn't be necessary to make any changes for polar flight. The INS mode on the autopilot couples to the INS directly so what the HSI shows is irrelevant, but switching RAD/INS to INS will give you True heading on the HSI also. Remember also it's flying great circle tracks, which don't have a constant heading. If you have a planning tool that provides an average course for the leg then then it won't match up - the value you need is ITT, initial true track, the track flown when leaving waypoint A to fly a great circle track to waypoint B. Hope that makes sense? If you have a specific route and waypoints I can take a look?
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for your reply! I think the average track on the flightplan and the Navigraph display had me fooled. The route that I flew was:
EHAM VALK3S IDRID L980 LAM L179 CPT UL9 KENET N14 BAKUR DCT REVNU DCT AGORI DCT 5920N DCT 6230N DCT 6240N DCT 6050N DCT URTAK DCT KLIPS DCT ZSJ DCT YDN DCT GGW DCT DLN DCT DERSO DCT LEGGS BDEGA3 KSFO/EDDYY.I28R
It was the stretch from KLIPS to ZSJ where the plane went of the route in Navigraph, but given the fact that it is the longest leg (935NM) between two waypoints I'm pretty sure it's the correct ITT. I hope to fly the route again tomorrow and I will let it proceed and see where I end up. Thanks again!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations I am flying the route again and can confirm that the average heading on the flightplan and Navigraph map had me fooled. I let the INS do it's thing on this flight and it 'curved' me perfectly to the waypoint. Thanks for helping me out!
Hello Captain, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Could you please tell us some practical reasons for the HOLD function on INS?
HOLD is to freeze the INS position to allow a position update to be performed. Let's say you are arriving over land after a long ocean crossing, but the only waypoint is an NDB. You can't automatically update the INS position from an NDB, so instead follow the NDB as normal using normal radio navigation. When you pass overhead the NDB, press HOLD on the INS - you can now enter the NDB coordinates into the INS to manually update the position.
By using "HOLD" directly overhead the NDB, it means that you don't need to rush the position entry as the INS was held in place at that point, and when you come out of hold mode having updated you should be exactly on track again. IRL they could also do position updates this way by using the radar in ground mapping mode, although this doesn't work in X-Plane.
When entering the DME frequency via the INS CDU, does this frequency overide the VOR/DME frequency on the VOR control panel? Does the INS CDU send a tuning signal to the DME transponder and or the VHF Nav receiver ( usually a Colins 51RV-4 or a kings KNR6030). IE, can the pilot tune into a VOR/DME and get bearing/distance information on his RMI and HSI while the INS is DME updating on a separate frequency? Thank you.
Sorry for the delay replying Barry. No, it doesn't automatically tune the DME in this case. In fact, we discussed this quite a bit during the beta as there doesn't seem to be a good reason for the frequency to be needed, except using it as to compare the frequency tuned on the radio and rejecting any update if the frequency is incorrect. It's a single radio for each pilot doing all the work, all manual.
One question (absolutely not a pilot here). When you do the INS updating, after the aircraft corrects the course, I can then change to a different VOR on the panel, right? I noticed that when I change it, the updating stops. I'm guessing once the course is corrected, it's done and you can change the VOR frequency, is that right?
Great video with insightful info again Graem!
How often do we need to update the INS btw? is it one-time enough?
Do we need to get back to system number 5(standalone) from 4(triple mix) after updating?
Typically you'd make sure the INS is updated before leaving land (on an ocean crossing), and again when you reach the other side. If you're INS navigating over land keep it as up to date as possible, but once every 500-800 miles should be enough.
The INS has two modes of operation - Aided (PI 4 on that STS page) and Unaided (PI 5). In PI 4 (should be set on all three units in normal operations), if a DME update is commanded the unit will do that and each INS will update its own corrections to reflect the new accurate radio position, so in that respect when DME updating triple mix isn't needed as the three units will have the same position.
After DME updating is finished the unit stays in PI 4, and changes to triple mix (that red triangle thing in the video). The means that when the "pure" inertial position drags those correction values away from each other the resulting navigation position is more accurate than each INS could give independently.
You shouldn't need to go to PI 5 again unless the triple mix calcs start giving odd values in a failure case and you want unaided (single INS unit) navigation - but AFAIK this kind of failure isn't simulated as yet.
Hope that all makes sense?
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Excellent! Thank you for the detailed explanation. Appreciate that
Hey reflected, Whenever I try to update the INS with the VOR's, I keep getting random numbers in DIS/Time that are wildly unrelated to the distance and time to the VOR I am using for updating. I insert the VOR coordinates, elevation, and frequency into the INS, I just cant seem to understand what might be wrong. The distance for some reason is thousands of miles and the time is 999.9. I tried with many stations but I keep getting the same results.
Thanks for the question Scott, and sorry for the delay replying. The INS updating is difficult to begin with. After entering the coordinates for the DME station, and while the INS is still in DME update mode, you need to use WAYPT CHG then choose the waypoint you loaded to DME details into, then INSERT - this is how you actually start the DME update and it should give correct values on the DIS/TIME page.
Fantastic videos!
Thank you very much!
This video is so helpful, thank you!
Thank you for all these, Graeme!
You're welcome Sam, hope it all makes sense!
Hi Reflected. When I am updating my INS sometimes the INS updating light does not show up, even though I press Waypoint Change, 1, Insert. Any reason why this might be? Thanks.
It's most likely not in the correct navigation mode. Look in the DSTRK/STS page and the last digit should be "4". Have a look at 11:30 in the video.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks for the reply. I turned my INS systems onto system 4 when I was on the ground. I also noticed that in my settings the INS SOURCE is REAL and not SIM GPS. Would this change anything?
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations That was my Problem and it was driving me crazy. I better had watched your whole video and not skip the first half :D
The 3 CIVA that the B742 Felis brings by default, are they enough? because I have seen other videos that recommend flying better with the Delco Caurusel CIVA
The Felis INS units are much, much better than the "Philipp" addon CIVA. Felis has proper triple mixing and his logic is a lot more reliable. You don't need to buy anything extra to use the 742, it's all included.
Hi there, I noticed on your briefing it listed the VOR/DMEs to DME update to. How did you get those to pop up? Thanks
Those were manually added. It’s just a list of waypoints extracted from a SimBrief plan, with the DME stations from SkyVector and PilotNav for the elevation value.plenty of time in the cruise to look them up.
I think I understand the DME updating a bit better now.
it's a separate submode from nav, so could you for instance preload a bunch of stations along the route and as they come up, flick the DME updating on the corresponding INS ?
Yes, exactly. You can load up a series of DME waypoints just like you can with the nav waypoints. This was important for Concorde where the relative speed meant it was essential to have everything sorted out early. In this videos I tend to show "what you need to do, when you need to do it" but there's nothing wrong with getting well ahead and loading all your DME stations early on.
What an amazing question lol. Exactly what I was going to ask… kinda 😳 But that idea of being able to preload your DME stations is gold. 🤙
Sir, I now have the Felis 742 and the other night I ran into a situation with the INS I need your help with. Flying from CYYZ (Toronto) to CYHZ (Halifax) I neglected to put in the coordinates for an arrival as I did not know which one to use. Instead I put in (last 3, MLT, YSJ, and YHZ vor's). Brand new to the CIVA INS, everything was running smoothly unitl BOS CTR asked me if I had access to the FUNDY5 Arrival. I said I had a chart and he cleared me to EBONY to begin the arrival. I then went to the INS panel and drew a blank. I was quickly approaching MLT and then past it as I realized 'how do you put in new coordinates" in flight. There was no 'direct to' like the FMS lol. Is there a procedure to input new coordinates for the FUNDY5 or is it just that simple to find the lat/long and start putting them in. Most videos load the flight plan and it flies it but none show an en-route change really.
I absolutely love your instructional videos and I don't think you get the recognition you deserve!
Dave
Thanks for the nice feedback Dave, and it's a great question. The INS can't load the procedures directly, so you'd need to find the coordinates for EBONY and load that as a new waypoint. Lets say you load those coordinates into waypoint 5 - to go direct-to use WAYPT CHG - 0 - 5 - INSERT. Waypoint 0 is used to mean "here", so you're asking it to go from here to EBONY. In general though the INS wouldn't be used to fly arrival and departure procedures, so you'd be back to conventional VOR/NDB navigation on the SIDs and STARs.
Easiest thing for online flying is to make sure you're not filed for rnav capability, and request a non-rnav arrival or radar vectors!
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thank you so much. I believe the waypoint window was showing FROM 6, TO 7 at the time of atc re-route. Would I put the EBONY lat/long into a slot previous to 6 or past 7 - say 8? I'm assuming it is referencing 6 and 7 so a re-program on 7 wouldn't be allowed? I couldn't figure it out, so BOS CTR transferred me to Moncton CTR and they asked if I wanted RNAV to RWY 05. I said not RNAV capable so he just gave me vectors to LOC 05. All worked out, I was just curious as to how to insert a new waypoint.
I love flying the yester-year planes and old school navigation. I have the FJS 727 series and the 737-200 and only fly them VOR to VOR...not even INS.
I very much appreciate your work.
Dave
Really great videos you have produced here, well done and thank you. If after following all instructions up to the point of starting DME updating, ie I have entered everything as per video, and after pressing WYPT CHG, 1, INSERT, the green DME updating light does not come on, remains unlit; does this mean the INS is ok, ie does not need updating, or is something wrong? I have watched video many times, I am following all exactly, but still light does not come on. Is there perhaps an option in settings I am missing that turns off this feature?
Hi Fred, sorry for the delay replying. You're doing the right things for DME updating, so the most likely issue is not having the INS set for "Aided Inertial Naviation" - this allows the INS computer to store position corrections from either the other two INS units (triple mixing) or ground stations (DME updating). To enter Aided Inertial mode, go to DSTRK/STS, then key in [4] [INSERT]. You need to do this on all three units separately.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks so much for replying. yes, I have done the Aided Inertial Navigation as you explained in the video. You do it so well and clearly. The only difference I notice is that I don't end up with "04" in the display, but "74' or "64". Maybe I have a faulty INS😄
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks! I think I'm falling in love with this aircraft
7:10 the DME is also direct, and does not account for altitude. The further from the DME range is taken for update, the more accurate the resultant is as the altitude component is minimised.
The DME simulation does use slant range, you can see this as it doesn’t count down to zero when overflying at altitude. The INS has altitude input from the air data system in order to correctly interpret the DME distance and compare it with the distance over ground to the DME station.
Greetings, your tutorial is amazing, I watched every single part to learn how to fly the 742. One question though, where can I find the coordinates of VOR's (including the elevation) that are not on my route in order to use for INS accuracy correction?
Hi, sorry for the delay getting back to you. LittleNavMap is a free application and has VOR coordinates and elevation. It's also very useful to plan VOR-VOR flights as it shows the proper out and in radials and not just the initial magnetic track.
Greetings, thank you very very much for the reply. I've heard of that before, its that good huh? I'll definitely try it out! thank you very much for the reply again, have a great day :)@@ReflectedRealitySimulations
Have I stepped into some kind of time warp? Must be having a flash back to 2018. Last one out please switch off the lights and leave the key under the mat.
Hehe, Timewarp! Hopefully at least one more big video series starting this year too.
Go for it. Until MSFS 2020 X plane was the one for me
My version will not go to the next INS point. it is following heading despite being on INS mode! Help!
It’s difficult to diagnose this sort of thing in the UA-cam comments as I’d really need to see screenshots. The Felis Discord is the best place to ask and I’m sure you’ll be able to get it working, discord.gg/dEuUR6U
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations Thanks for the response. After the comment I discovered that my INS was set incorrectly, which caused it to go orange on the display rather than green.
Where did you do your flight plan in order to get the separate sheets of 9 waypoints?
That's copy-pasted from a SimBrief flight plan, just separated into groups of 9 to make it more logical for the INS.
In skyvector the vor provided has 6 numbers but the civa in felis only has 5 is it fine to remove the last number on the flight plan
Sorry for the delay replying. There are several formats for the units, and you need to be able to understand and recognise them, CIVA uses ddd mm.m - degrees, minutes and decimal units. Other systems use ddd mm ss, degrees, minutes, seconds. I believe SkyVector uses ddd mm.mm - decimal minutes to two decimal places so you can simply round the last digit. For degrees, minutes, seconds 6 seconds is 0.1 in decimal, so 123 45 18 would be 123 45.3 (18/6 =3). It’s easy to spot decimal minutes vs seconds - look for any value over 59!
No Problem! Thx I have a better understanding what ins way points actually are! :)
Did you manually add the DME coordinates to the flight plan or did it come out of some tool?
Manually added. SkyVector to find the DME stations, and PilotNav to find the elevation.
Hopefully you see this. I got everything to work except it following the flight plan. I switch it to INS both the switch and the knob. It follows it then at a certain point it’s like it gets lost.
Sorry for the delay replying, it's been a really busy summer and I haven't had any time for UA-cam. I'm hoping you've been able to get the INS navigation to work now, but if not the best place to look for help is the Felis discord as there are a lot of very active users on there who will be able to help straight away.
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations it’s no problem and understandable I got it figured out. It was a decent bit of pilot error 😅. I do appreciate the respond.
Where iI can find this flight plan template? It is fantastic for INS
It's derived from the waypoints list shown on the simbrief BAW format, just copied into a text editor to group together and add the INS numbers. Once I've done the plan I keep it for future use.
Real men fly trans oceanic using low level VFR.
And by the stars and stopwatch, where Fate is the Hunter...
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations haha I love your channel. Keep up the great work. A true asset to the community
@@ReflectedRealitySimulations what a great book that is!