I was flying VOR to VOR in a 727-200, and everything was working fine; then, I reached my next waypoint and tuned the VHF Nav (both radios, just to be sure) to the next VOR station. Everything appeared to still be working, but then ATC vectored me to the right, even though the HSI said I should be flying left to intercept the VOR. I checked the GPS and it said that I was way to the left of the VOR course. Am I doing something wrong, or is my HSI messed up?

Thanks,
boeing247

Not knowing the exact circumstances for that stage of your flight, I can't say. As for the ATC in FSX is nothing short of crazy. The ATC is always giving me crazy or downright stupid instructions. ;D

Ever had this happen? ATC tells you to exit the runway at the next taxiway. So you do. Then, when you contact the ground controller they tell you to backtrack to another taxiway on the other side of the runway because that's where the Gate is? Why doesn't the ATC ask us to use the next taxiway to the right or left in first place? That's how crazy they can be! ::)

Mark

Believe it or not, the ATC was actually vectoring me correctly (I was pretty far off course, so they were taking me back on course). What kind of circumstances do you want? I saved the flight so I can just check. Do you mean altitude, speed, etc... or instrument settings?  :)

What VOR were you tracking? Maybe you had the wrong frequency programmed into the NAV radio causing you to be going off course rather than tracking the correct VOR. That's the only thing I can really think that would cause that to happen. Unless, like you say, the HSI is messed up. I haven't seen anyone else mention having this problem.

As for the ATC. I was just having a gripe about it. I did an IFR flight yesterday, and the ATC had been driving me nuts during the flight. :D

Mark

I do agree about the ATC, though. Usually their giving me all sorts of crap directions, but on this particular flight, they seemed to be doing just fine. I'll run FSX later and look up my navigation data. I'm now wondering if I looked at the wrong frequency in my NavLog...

Is there a "Reset HSI" function like there is for the Altimeter ("The altimeter is set incorrectly, press B to set...")?

It is so easy to set a wrong number for the Vor you want to track. I've done it more times than I care to remember. I always check the number a few times after entering the frequency. But somehow, I can still get it wrong. It's usually because I have looked at the wrong frequency.

Mark

Here are some shots of the systems pertaining to VOR navigation (I included the GPS to show the aircraft's true location).

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Here's the VHF radios:

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Here's the navlog entry for the next waypoint:

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boeing247 wrote on May 14^th, 2011 at 10:06pm:

Here's the navlog entry for the next waypoint:

Are you absolutely sure that you were receiving the signal from the VOR? 166nm might have been too far. I know that it shouldn't be. The normal range is ~200nm for the VOR. Aan it should have been in range because you were doing a VOR to VOR flight plan.

Mark

I'm pretty sure that I was receiving the signal, because the HSI is displaying that I'm off course. I flew a different aircraft later VOR to VOR and I had that issue (not receiving a signal), though. However, with that plane, the HSI was saying that I was on course, no matter what heading I chose.  :-/

Can you post the flight plan details please. I want to fly it myself and see if it happens to me.

Ewww. Another ATC flight to do! ;D

Mark

I'll email you the .pln file.

OK.

[edit]Got your email. I'll do your flight as soon as I finish my current flight.[/edit]

Same thing happens to me. Could it be the curvature of the earth? I notice that in your flight plan, your altitude is FL18. Why so low? I think that FL260-FL300 would be better. Even in the 727-200. LOL

I'm going to try this with another aircraft and see what happens.

Mark

Oh, yeah, the altitude. My mistake. I forgot to set it higher. If you look at my altimeter, I actually told ATC to raise my cruise altitude to FL270.  ;)
I'll try it with some others, too.

I have done several flights using your IFR plan and something isn't right. I have tried several different aircraft, not just Captain Sim aircraft, and they ALL have the same problem. This leads me to believe that it's an FSX error. The heading, for example, from MSP (115.30) to DWN (109.00) in  the flight plans is 282^o. But if I set the VOR radial to 282^o, I wind up nearly 5nm off course. This means that the ATC is always telling me to change my heading so that I capture the track displayed on the GPS and not the radial to the VOR. I can follow the VOR radial if I set it to 275^o.

Mark

Thanks for looking into that. That's interesting...

I was flying a different aircraft earlier, and I lost VOR signal. I realized that I was tracking a DME, and not a VOR. Perhaps something similar is happening here, though not the exact same issue.

boeing247 wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 3:29am:

Thanks for looking into that. That's interesting... I was flying a different aircraft earlier, and I lost VOR signal. I realized that I was tracking a DME, and not a VOR. Perhaps something similar is happening here, though not the exact same issue.

What did you use to create the flight? The default FS Flight Planner or some other program?

The default flight planner.

I created the same flight with Flight Sim Commander 9 and using the latest AIRAC (1105) and the problem remains. So I still say that it is a fault/bug in FSX.

Mark

It would appear so. It's kind of funny though that it happened to me while I was flying the 727, which I've always had VOR trouble with. I was just about to give up on it when it happened again, but I guess it's not the plane.

boeing247 wrote on May 14^th, 2011 at 3:50pm:

I do agree about the ATC, though. Usually their giving me all sorts of crap directions, but on this particular flight, they seemed to be doing just fine. I'll run FSX later and look up my navigation data. I'm now wondering if I looked at the wrong frequency in my NavLog... Is there a "Reset HSI" function like there is for the Altimeter ("The altimeter is set incorrectly, press B to set...")?

I tried a little experiment last night with the ATC vectoring me into Newark Liberty (KEWR) flying ILS for 22R about 54 miles out and followed the ATC intructions. Once instructed to contact KJFK, I was vectored towards the East Coast approaching McGuire AFB.  Just in case I set up my radios to intercept a VOR south of KEWR.  Continuing east on a heading of 63 degrees ended up 50 miles over the ocean and almost 98 miles south of KEWR. I simply contacted the tower and requested a different runway. They gave me 22L straight in a new vector directly.  Seems as though the ATC forgot about me for awhile.  Good news though, getting good at ILS aproaches with this old pig.

Forgot about for a while? I would say the ATC forgot about you completely. LOL

The problem has come back, but this time with a different VOR station.  :-/

boeing247 wrote on Jun 5^th, 2011 at 1:59am:

The problem has come back, but this time with a different VOR station.  :-/

Does it happen with other aircraft or just the CS727? I mean at this latest VOR.

I haven't had time to check, but I was flying a payware prop a week or two ago, and it was giving me trouble with other VORs. Almost every VOR I've found has given me a route that's up to two nautical miles off the GPS.

That's really strange. I wonder what would cause this to occur most of the time?