Navigation strategy on a short flight

From Phoenix to Casa Grande in a Cessna 152 in my sim:

The aircraft contains only a single VOR, without DME, and an ADF.

There are a couple of VORs nearby, including PXR at Sky Harbor, and Stanfield
about 8 miles southwest of Casa Grande (connected by V105/J92). There's also a
NDB at Chandler, about 19 miles north.

What is the most elegant way to navigate from KPHX to KCGZ?

I thought it would be good form to follow V105, so after a west departure from
Phoenix, I flew east to join the PXR 163 radial. It was hard to judge my
distance from the VOR, though, as the desert looks pretty monotonous, and
there are numerous small airfields in the area. After flying for a while, I
decided to tune the CHD NDB and try to figure out an intersection that would
place me over the field. Constant adjustment of the ADF card for this purpose
was awkward, though, and did not improve my confidence that I was going the
right way. The 152 is very pokey and I always have the impression that I've
gone further than I actually have.

Finally I got nervous and turned east to pick up the PXR148 radial. I had
flight following and Center knew my destination, and ATC asked me what I was
doing after I made the turn, since apparently I had been headed straight
towards the airport. I explained and when ATC told me where to look for the
airport, I turned that way, and after a minute or two I spotted hangars at
Casa Grande.

This does not seem very elegant to me. What is the best way to navigate this
route under these conditions?

Exclude pilotage, since this was an exercise in navigation by instruments
despite being VFR in VMC. (If I had been using pilotage, I would have simply
followed Interstate 10, which practically leads to the ramp, but I
deliberately avoided looking for the highway.)

I conducted the flight mostly at 3500 feet, although I suppose that's not very
important here.

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

Exclude pilotage

You should really put this at the top of your message next time, instead
of after 7 paragraphs of less relevant detail. Given that the two
airports are less than 32nm apart, that there are numerous landmarks
along the way, and that even dead reckoning will do a fine job of
depositing you close enough to your destination, I'm sure that everyone
wading through your seven previous paragraphs was repeatedly thinking,
"LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!" There can be merit in rejecting the obvious
solution, but if you're going to do it, you should do it right at the
start.

Some more concrete advice: pilotage really does work, very well. If you
want to practice other techniques, a stopwatch and a look at your
airspeed indicator will help you avoid that odd problem of always having
the impression that you've gone further than you actually have. Finally,
although there are indeed a lot of small airfields in the area, a quick
glance at the sectional reveals that virtually all of them have runways
pointed in different directions, so a quick way to figure out which one
you're looking at would be to read the gigantic numbers painted on the
threshold and compare with what's on the chart.

Oh, and one more thing: VFR-worthy GPS units are really cheap, and help
with this sort of problem immensely. An imaginary VFR-worthy GPS is
probably *really* cheap, and these days is probably more realistic than
going without one.

If any of this wasn't already blindingly obvious to you, then I suggest
your vast experience with aircraft simulation may have taught you less
about flying than you think it has.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Jun 27, 4:59*am, Mxsmanic wrote:
From Phoenix to Casa Grande in a Cessna 152 in my sim:

The aircraft contains only a single VOR, without DME, and an ADF.

There are a couple of VORs nearby, including PXR at Sky Harbor, and Stanfield
about 8 miles southwest of Casa Grande (connected by V105/J92). There's also a
NDB at Chandler, about 19 miles north.

What is the most elegant way to navigate from KPHX to KCGZ?

I thought it would be good form to follow V105, so after a west departure from
Phoenix, I flew east to join the PXR 163 radial. It was hard to judge my
distance from the VOR, though, as the desert looks pretty monotonous, and
there are numerous small airfields in the area. After flying for a while, I
decided to tune the CHD NDB and try to figure out an intersection that would
place me over the field. Constant adjustment of the ADF card for this purpose
was awkward, though, and did not improve my confidence that I was going the
right way. The 152 is very pokey and I always have the impression that I've
gone further than I actually have.

Finally I got nervous and turned east to pick up the PXR148 radial. I had
flight following and Center knew my destination, and ATC asked me what I was
doing after I made the turn, since apparently I had been headed straight
towards the airport. I explained and when ATC told me where to look for the
airport, I turned that way, and after a minute or two I spotted hangars at
Casa Grande.

This does not seem very elegant to me. What is the best way to navigate this
route under these conditions?


Use your compass / DI and allow for the drift expected from winds at
your altitude.

Cheers

In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:
From Phoenix to Casa Grande in a Cessna 152 in my sim:

The aircraft contains only a single VOR, without DME, and an ADF.

There are a couple of VORs nearby, including PXR at Sky Harbor, and Stanfield
about 8 miles southwest of Casa Grande (connected by V105/J92). There's also a
NDB at Chandler, about 19 miles north.

What is the most elegant way to navigate from KPHX to KCGZ?

I thought it would be good form to follow V105, so after a west departure from
Phoenix, I flew east to join the PXR 163 radial. It was hard to judge my
distance from the VOR, though, as the desert looks pretty monotonous, and
there are numerous small airfields in the area. After flying for a while, I
decided to tune the CHD NDB and try to figure out an intersection that would
place me over the field. Constant adjustment of the ADF card for this purpose
was awkward, though, and did not improve my confidence that I was going the
right way. The 152 is very pokey and I always have the impression that I've
gone further than I actually have.

Finally I got nervous and turned east to pick up the PXR148 radial. I had
flight following and Center knew my destination, and ATC asked me what I was
doing after I made the turn, since apparently I had been headed straight
towards the airport. I explained and when ATC told me where to look for the
airport, I turned that way, and after a minute or two I spotted hangars at
Casa Grande.

This does not seem very elegant to me. What is the best way to navigate this
route under these conditions?

Exclude pilotage, since this was an exercise in navigation by instruments
despite being VFR in VMC. (If I had been using pilotage, I would have simply
followed Interstate 10, which practically leads to the ramp, but I
deliberately avoided looking for the highway.)

I conducted the flight mostly at 3500 feet, although I suppose that's not very
important here.

A thorough pilot would fill out a flight planning form, fly a magnetic
heading of 145 degrees corrected for the forcast winds aloft, note the
time of passage and deviation from Gila River Memorial to correct for actual
winds, and do that again at the 1734' hill about 6 miles north of KCGZ.

The pilot then would know at all times where he was and how long to get
to the next waypoint as long as his compass and clock were working and
wouldn't be wandering around looking for radials.

The magnetic compass and the clock are valid navigational instruments.

The most elegent way would be GPS direct.

--
Jim Pennino

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On Jun 26, 11:59*am, Mxsmanic wrote:

Finally I got nervous and turned east to pick up the PXR148 radial. I had

YOU GOT NERVOUS????????????

WHY?????????? You are simulating a flight in MSFS!!!!!!!!!

This does not seem very elegant to me. What is the best way to navigate this
route under these conditions?

YOU ARE VFR. YOU ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION.

LOOK OUT THE SIMULATED WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exclude pilotage, since this was an exercise in navigation by instruments
despite being VFR in VMC

DOESN'T matter what the exercise was, YOU WERE SIMULATING A VFR FLIGHT
in MSFS. LOOK OUT YOUR SIMULATED WINDOW

Mxsmanic wrote:

What is the best way to navigate this route under these conditions?


If no GPS, no pilotage, and no dead reckoning, I would capture the 148
radial from PXR and fly it outbound until I saw the field.

Mike Adams writes:

If no GPS, no pilotage, and no dead reckoning, I would capture the 148
radial from PXR and fly it outbound until I saw the field.

OK, thanks. I guess I might have been complicating the navigation more than
necessary. Too many IFR flights, perhaps.

In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:
Mike Adams writes:

If no GPS, no pilotage, and no dead reckoning, I would capture the 148
radial from PXR and fly it outbound until I saw the field.

OK, thanks. I guess I might have been complicating the navigation more than
necessary. Too many IFR flights, perhaps.

More like too much time playing the Microsoft Flight Simulator game and
zero time doing any actual flying.


--
Jim Pennino

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writes:

More like too much time playing the Microsoft Flight Simulator game and
zero time doing any actual flying.

There's no distinction between simulation and real flight in this context. The
navigation methods are the same.

Mxsmanic wrote:
writes:

More like too much time playing the Microsoft Flight Simulator game and
zero time doing any actual flying.

There's no distinction between simulation and real flight in this context. The
navigation methods are the same.

Yep, as long as you keep pushing that button to give you a view out the
side windows.

However the point was that if you had ever done any actual flying you would
know how trivial the problem is.


--
Jim Pennino

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