MV
Challenges for FS2002
General
Information
freeware by Michael Vone
General informationSee also the MV Challenges home page |
© Copyright 2001 Michael Vone |
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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.
· 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.)
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.
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.