Post by CoolP on Mar 15th, 2011 at 4:44pm
Mark, I have a few questions towards some expressions used as I don't fully understand them.
Once I come into range of NGF a few minutes before MKK (followed by CHK a few minutes later), I start the alignment process, making sure not to initiate it until CHK has come into range (I'm not sure if that helps or not with it being part of the flight plan).
So do you start alignment there or not?
If the thing you have tuned shows a DME value and you're aware of the coordinates, just start it. There's no other dependency which has to be considered then.
That ID number being displayed corresponds to the available "presets" inside the CDU. The are available from 1-9 and can be loaded via that ADC file the plan converter creates.
In the creating process, you can mark "ADC" on some waypoints and those waypoints will appear in the ADC file then.
If you load that ADC file into the Civa (via the ADEU reader, just like you would load a flight plan, which is AWC), the coordinates from those selected waypoints are written into the preset storage.
So you just have to check their coordinates later, instead of having to enter each one manually.
You can also add waypoints to this preset list which are not part of the flight plan (all offset waypoints=stations would be handled like this).
The thinking behind this is to reduce workload and enable some planning in the question of when and where to update the CDU's position.
So these ADC files contain all your planned update stations and their coordinates with being selectable by this very ID you spoke of.
Here's an example plan from Melbourne to Brisbane.
It gave me two AWC files (the actual plan to follow, including all the waypoints which actually get overflown by our plane), YMML to YBBN.1AWC and 2AWC. The contents of these files can be seen on the left side.
On the right side, all waypoints are shown and also their type is described. As we can only update on some VORs (DMEs to be precise), all those "Intersection" waypoints aren't of any use here.
As you see, the VORs are already marked with "ADC" but two of them are unchecked by "In plan", so they don't appear in the left side view and therefore won't be overflown by us.
What's their use?
Note: You have to manually get them out of the plan (=uncheck "In plan"), otherwise the Civa will try to overfly them.
Look at the view in the flight planner, to catch their location.
See them, namely DU and LAV? Those are the "spikes" on our plan. We don't want to fly that spiky, do we?
As they don't get overflown, those will be some VORs with an offset to our route. They are only included in the ADC file, not in the AWC (left side view, which defines the actual flight plan).
Lets look into this ADC file now and see.
Quote:
Four VORs are named there and each of them has an ID now. This is the preset which can be used later.
So if you want to update on one of those four, make sure to load the ADC into the Civa (don't worry, it won't harm your flight plan there, it just writes into the preset memory) and later look up the corresponding ID of the "update station" to use. That's the point where CDU Keyboard Push DME ID Number enters the game.
As said, this setup requires some planning first and enables some comfortable way of updating later.
I must admit, I rarely use it, if ever. I just watch my charts, look up some DME, tune it and enter its coordinates by hand, so I get rid of this planning phase and just feed the Civa with my flight plan ADEU cards, not the ADC ones.
Your way of using the FSX map for planning is clever, Mark. Although not as comfortable and effective as some payware around, it comes for free and is already there.
So you are, once again, showing that you are a clever user of resources.
Once I come into range of NGF a few minutes before MKK (followed by CHK a few minutes later), I start the alignment process, making sure not to initiate it until CHK has come into range (I'm not sure if that helps or not with it being part of the flight plan).
So do you start alignment there or not?
If the thing you have tuned shows a DME value and you're aware of the coordinates, just start it. There's no other dependency which has to be considered then.
That ID number being displayed corresponds to the available "presets" inside the CDU. The are available from 1-9 and can be loaded via that ADC file the plan converter creates.
In the creating process, you can mark "ADC" on some waypoints and those waypoints will appear in the ADC file then.
If you load that ADC file into the Civa (via the ADEU reader, just like you would load a flight plan, which is AWC), the coordinates from those selected waypoints are written into the preset storage.
So you just have to check their coordinates later, instead of having to enter each one manually.
You can also add waypoints to this preset list which are not part of the flight plan (all offset waypoints=stations would be handled like this).
The thinking behind this is to reduce workload and enable some planning in the question of when and where to update the CDU's position.
So these ADC files contain all your planned update stations and their coordinates with being selectable by this very ID you spoke of.
Here's an example plan from Melbourne to Brisbane.
It gave me two AWC files (the actual plan to follow, including all the waypoints which actually get overflown by our plane), YMML to YBBN.1AWC and 2AWC. The contents of these files can be seen on the left side.
On the right side, all waypoints are shown and also their type is described. As we can only update on some VORs (DMEs to be precise), all those "Intersection" waypoints aren't of any use here.
As you see, the VORs are already marked with "ADC" but two of them are unchecked by "In plan", so they don't appear in the left side view and therefore won't be overflown by us.
What's their use?
Note: You have to manually get them out of the plan (=uncheck "In plan"), otherwise the Civa will try to overfly them.
Look at the view in the flight planner, to catch their location.
See them, namely DU and LAV? Those are the "spikes" on our plan. We don't want to fly that spiky, do we?
As they don't get overflown, those will be some VORs with an offset to our route. They are only included in the ADC file, not in the AWC (left side view, which defines the actual flight plan).
Lets look into this ADC file now and see.
Quote:
| ; ADC card for: YMML to YBBN ; Departure: YMML ; Destination: YBBN 1 S 32*33.6 E 149*35.6 00 ; MDG 2 S 32*13.2 E 148*34.6 00 ; DU 3 S 31*04.0 E 150*49.8 00 ; TW 4 S 28*05.4 E 152*55.5 00 ; LAV ; ; End Of File ; |
Four VORs are named there and each of them has an ID now. This is the preset which can be used later.
So if you want to update on one of those four, make sure to load the ADC into the Civa (don't worry, it won't harm your flight plan there, it just writes into the preset memory) and later look up the corresponding ID of the "update station" to use. That's the point where CDU Keyboard Push DME ID Number enters the game.
As said, this setup requires some planning first and enables some comfortable way of updating later.
I must admit, I rarely use it, if ever. I just watch my charts, look up some DME, tune it and enter its coordinates by hand, so I get rid of this planning phase and just feed the Civa with my flight plan ADEU cards, not the ADC ones.
Your way of using the FSX map for planning is clever, Mark. Although not as comfortable and effective as some payware around, it comes for free and is already there.
So you are, once again, showing that you are a clever user of resources.