MV Challenges for FS2002

General Information

freeware by Michael Vone

 

General information

See also the MV Challenges home page

© Copyright 2001

Michael Vone

 


CONTENTS

 

 

    General description

    General recommendations

    Aeronautical maps, IALs, SIDs and STARs

    Notes about the flight plans and GPS

 

 

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GENERAL DESCRIPTION

 

The MV Challenges for FS2002 provide exciting flights under conditions that are moderately to very difficult.  The flights offer various combinations of the following challenges:

·    bad weather (low visibility, gusts, turbulence, cross winds, etc.)

·    difficult airports (for example in deep valleys)

·    missing or defective navaids

·    special aircraft (usually add-ons, also helicopters)

·    emergencies (decompressions, failures, diversions, missed approaches, etc.)

·    navigation (SIDs, STARs, navaids, dead reckoning, oceanic crossings, etc.)

·    route planning (departures, arrivals, flight plans, etc.)

·    endurance (long or multi-leg flights)

 

These are not "adventures" in the sense of FS2000 or earlier, with on-screen or spoken instructions:  the instructions are provided in the flight descriptions, which you should print out, and then read before or during the flight;  of course, ATC also provides instructions.

 

Some MV Challenges require add-ons, as indicated in their documentation.  Normally, only the default FS2000 scenery is used, and only default FS2002 (Standard or Pro) aircraft are employed.  You may substitute similar add-on sceneries and aircraft if you wish, but certain details in the challenge descriptions may then no longer apply.  Default settings of FS2002 are assumed.

 

FS2002 flight plans are provided to guide you, using the FS2002 GPS.  Also included are startup situations at airports (FS2002 "flights", saved as .FLT files) and preset weather (saved as .WX files).  Some in-flight startup situations are also provided as FS2002 flights:  these let you start right before a particularly interesting segment, typically an approach for landing, without having to go back to the very beginning of the flight.  Occasionally, FS2002 video files (saved as *.FSR files) are added to illustrate segments of the flights.  Some maps or other related information may be included as well.

 

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GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

 

 

·    Consult the FS2002 documentation for instructions on flying the different default aircraft, and for use of the navaids.  Some of the MV Challenges aim to gain experience in flying a particular aircraft:  I have then combined suggestions from various sources, as well as with my own experience applying these in "virtual practice".

 

·    If a flight is too difficult, make it easier, by reducing wind strength and/or turbulence, and removing or reducing cloud layers (save the easier FS2002 flight in a .FLT file for multiple use).  In some cases, you can add the capabilities of the EFIS to help with your navigation, especially in low-visibility approaches with an ILS.  In very busy segments, you can slow down the simulation by a factor of 2, 4 or more;  this may seem like cheating, but you can argue that without a copilot you have to perform the work of two pilots, so you need twice as much time;  if your plane in real life would also have a flight engineer and an alert observer, you can argue that you are doing the work of four people, justifying slowing reality fourfold! 

 

·    Make your own flight files (of type .FLT) at points of particular interest to you, perhaps with different weather conditions, so you can quickly restart flying from there. 

 

·    Use the flexible FS2002 Instant Replay option to quickly review your maneuvers, approaches and landings.  And use the FS2002 Flight Analysis options to get more technical information about your flying.  But if you want to store your flight, or portions of your flight, for later viewing, you must record a video instead.

 

·    Record a video of your flights to review your performance more leisurely, especially after a tricky landing.  You can keep a video for posterity and show it later to others.  Videos also allow you to observe your flight from a spot-plane or tower view (as does Instant Replay), and give you the time to enjoy the scenery under different conditions, for example after eliminating the clouds.  (If you want to show multiple simultaneous views during playback, open them before playback.)

 

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AERONAUTICAL MAPS, IALs, SIDs and STARs

 

The maps within FS2002, and those supplied with the MV Challenges, suffice for all these challenges:  print out the flight plans and their graphical map (from the FS2002 flight planner) and any additionally supplied maps for guidance during the flights.

 

Due to difficult weather conditions, and for greater realism, the MV Challenges often use instrument departures and approaches.  These may rely on:  Instrument Approach and Landing Charts (IAL), also called Instrument Approach Procedures (IAP);  Standard Instrument Departures (SID), also called Departure Procedures (DP);  and Standard Terminal Approach Routes (STAR).  These procedures are usually built in to the flight plans and/or provided in the accompanying flight descriptions, so that there is no need to consult the official instructions. 

 

Nonetheless, it is interesting to obtain the official publications.  Good free or low-cost sources on the web (often somewhat outdated, but perfectly adequate for simulation) include: 

 

·    Echo Flight:  this site includes all IALs/IAPs, STARs, DPs/SIDs for the USA;

 

·    Clearance Unlimited:  this site focuses on North America and has an extensive set of SIDs and STARs for the USA and some parts of the rest of America;  here you can also find suggested routes, again with emphasis on the USA;

 

·    FSS (with SAS Flight Sim Support):  this commercial site offers excellent IALs, SIDs and STARs for many important airports of the world, with more complete coverage of the Scandinavian Countries;  a number of regional airway maps are also offered.

 

For free detailed information on US airports and navaids, see Airnav.com.  This site also provides useful aerial photographs of many airports.

 

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NOTES ABOUT THE FLIGHT PLANS AND GPS

 

The flight plans mostly use the default waypoints of FS2002.  Occasionally, "user waypoints" are added to help in guiding a flight through areas with few navaids or intersections (especially over oceans).  These added waypoints unfortunately are not labeled on the GPS map.

 

If a flight plan is present in the flight planner (for instance after loading it), then clicking the flight planner's green check mark will immediately reposition the plane to the startup position on the departure runway, no matter where the plane was before.  Thus, if you want to skip the taxiing from ramp to runway, you can, while located at the ramp, quickly move yourself to the runway, and immediately position yourself for departure, by "activating" the flight plan (you may still have to turn on the engines, avionics, lights, etc.). 

 

The GPS can be temporarily disconnected from the autopilot, allowing you to deviate from the flight plan and then resume GPS control to continue the flight.  This allows you to land at intermediate points, disconnecting the GPS from the autopilot for landing and takeoff, and to resume the flight plan afterwards. 

 

FS2002 normally requires that you fly the flight plan from its beginning, if you want the GPS to control the autopilot from waypoint to waypoint.  There is a way, however, to start a flight away from the departure airport and still have the GPS control it:  if you save a situation (as an FS2002 flight) in-flight under GPS control, then you can reload that FS2002 flight later and resume flying under GPS control from that point (this even works if you slew instead of fly).  We often use this capability in FS2002 flights that start in-flight (such as for an approach) or that start at an intermediate airport.

 

The FS2002 GPS often makes aircraft overshoot turns:  only 1nm before a waypoint will the GPS instruct the autopilot to turn to the next waypoint, so that the plane usually goes too far beyond the next flight segment rather than smoothly joining it, and thus has to turn back to it.  The 1 nm is fine for a slow plane like the Cessna, but definitely not for a jet airplane (especially the Concorde, which makes extremely wide turns at Mach 2).  We just have to live with this behavior:  it means that we must disconnect the GPS during tight maneuvers on approach, or else risk missing the alignment with the runway. 

 

In any case, even in a straight-in approach, disconnect the GPS before the final approach (from an altitude of about 2000 ft above the runway) and also before engaging the APR mode, whichever comes first.

 

You of course don't have to use GPS control of the autopilot in the MV Challenges:  you may instead manage the autopilot entirely yourself;  or you may ignore the autopilot altogether, flying manually all the way and increasing the challenge even further.  However, you will in any case find the GPS map to be convenient for guiding you visually.  Without the GPS map, it becomes more difficult to estimate distances, especially in regions that have very few navaids.

 

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