Hi everyone!

After some time away from flightsimming, I've made a fresh install of my FSX, with all sorts of sceneries. And after installing plane after plane, where I couldn't decide which one to actually fly with, I ended up with the 7oh7... Again... ::)

Anyway. Sadly for my wallet, I found some real 707 hardware which I might buy. First one is a real 707 autopilot, which pretty much corresponds to the one in the CS707, apart on one small detail:
The CS707 has one mode more than the real deal; "NAV". All real one's I've found just got "HDG", "MAN", "VOR LOC", "GS AUTO" and "GS MAN".

My question now is, did most of the 7oh7's have just 5 modes istead of the 6 like in the CS707? If yes, did the pilot's fly their 707 with Doppler/INS on "MAN" by manually turning the AP-knob, or manually turning the HDG-Bug on "HDG" mode, according to the outputs from Doppler or INS?

I'm asking because my plan is to get a real autopilot and to convert it for use with FSX. And because the real one only has 5 modes, i wouldn't be able to get all functions in FSX, which wouldn't be too bad if the real deal didn't have "NAV". So I would just leave it away.

Thanks for your help!
TheFinn  8-)

TheFinn,
according to the PanAm B707 Operations Manual of 1976,  their autopilot had a NAV mode, too, exactly as the  CS707 has. By selecting this mode the autopilot is guided by the Doppler system.
The AA Manual tells that they had an AUX NAV mode for airplanes equipped with INS.
In my humble opinion it would not make sense to install a navigation system on an airplane and not provide a means to feed its data to the autopilot. If tracking a VOR radial by autopilot was possible at the time so should be using data from a navigation system.
Perhaps the 707s without NAV mode had to rely on radio and celestial navigation flying by VOR or HDG mode.

Best regards
Alex

Aircraft not equipped with doppler nav or INS probably didn't have the NAV position on the AP mode selector. I have a TWA 720B manual and its AP is just like that.

One curiosity: on the Varig 707 simulator, which only has doppler, instead of NAV, the selector has a DOP position.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i206/harerton/Varig%20707%20sim/Varig707sim014Medium.jpg

Just curious !

Does anyone know when the airlines started to using
Doppler Radar ?

What year did the airlines change over to INS ?

I read on Airliners dot Net, that AAL used
1 INS  on domestic and Caribbean routes.
2 INS  Internationally ( or on Caribbean Routes)

I have an AA 707 manual from 1978 that already have the INS.

This manual also had a section on the new experimental ACARS system installed on some 707s!