|
Review by James Allan of PILOT
For many students of Instrument Flying, one of the most frustrating and flying-time-consuming parts of the training is learning the ADF. In the air, the gymnastics of mental arithmetic involved can sometimes seem pretty daunting. Visualising how to intercept a track towards or away from an NDB, how to effect a procedure join to a holding pattern or how to assess and compensate for drift when flying a hold aren't the easiest or quickest things in the flying world to come to terms with. This new PC program, written by an ATPL qualified pilot, is inexpensive, easy to load and use on any VGA PC system. In nine sections it takes the student instrument pilot by the hand and leads him or her through the basics of using the ADF. The instrumentation on the screen comprises an RBI, a compass and an artificial horizon. You can control airspeed, time and wind velocity, but as the exercises are two-dimensional your height looks after itself. Each section has its own on-screen self-explanatory text and each builds on the skills learned in the preceding section. You learn to interpret ADF and compass readings, intercept tracks, join and fly a hold, the effect of wind and finally practice a Flying Simulation complete with a scalable map that can be brought on screen in place of the AH and which shows the track "flown" and highlights any errors you have made. It is a well-written program, really quite fun to operate. Without any shadow of doubt, a few inexpensive hours spent working on a PC loaded with Maple Leaf Software's ADF Tutor program will enable any candidate for an instrument rating to save several expensive hours in the air." James Allan Contributing Editor Pilot Magazine February 1994
|
