Hopefully, almost everything appearing in the "Remarks" section of the
schedule is clear and easily understood. There are, however, a few items
worth mentioning even though you will ultimately figure them out.
- The "DC-3 Type Rating."
These flights are not a test. No video recordings will be requested,
there is no bar for you to hurdle. The type rating consists of five
flights to give you the range of experience that you will encounter when
flying the published routes. A sixth bonus flight is also included that
you will especially enjoy. Total flying time of these six flights is
just three and a half hours. Simply fly the flights and watch your
proficiency and understanding of the DC-3 increase. And as a result,
your flight-simming enjoyment will also grow. The flights are short; you
can easily fly all six in two to three sessions, or up to six if you
prefer.
- "Track to XYZ NDB," or "Track to XYZ VOR."
When you see this notation, you are to fly the aircraft towards the
referenced navigation station, but you will not actually reach the
station. Another navigation instruction will provide further flight
instructions before you arrive at "XYZ NDB," or "XYZ VOR."
- Finding the Navaids.
To provide interest and avoid too much repetition, not all routes are in
a straight path from departure city to arrival city. This occasionally
complicates finding the Navaids when flight-planning. There are two
solutions for this:
- When using FSNavigator, in the options menu (of FSNavigator), under
settings, temporarily switch off every Navaid entry in the left column
except for the Navaid that you are searching for. For example, if
looking for an NDB, turn off VOR, ILS, ATIS, Marker, and Airports
leaving only NDB checked. This will unclutter the screen enabling you to
quickly find the NDBs for flight-planning.
- Or, ignore the location of the Navaids in your flight-planning and
simply fly to them per the instructions in the Remarks section. If you
do this, however, you should at least locate the last Navaid relative to
the arrival airport to give you some idea of when to begin your descent
for landing. No sense in perfectly flying the route but arriving at the
airport 5000 ft. above the runway.
- "XYZ NDB, xxx;" or "XYZ VOR, xxx.x;"
In all cases, the KHz or MHz designator has been omitted from
frequencies. Once you see the letters "NDB," you will know that the
frequency is in KHz, and when you see the letters "VOR or ILS," you will
know that the frequency is in MHz.
- Distance between airports
You may be surprised to see distances between airports as low as 26 NM.
This is based on a solid foundation. My first DC-3 flight on a scheduled
airline, Eastern Airlines, was between Washington and Baltimore. That
distance is 26 NM.
- Routing
In many cases, the range limitation of VORs and NDBs prevented a nice
direct route between airports. Most VORs have a maximum range of 40 NM,
while NDBs can be received up to 88 NM from the aircraft.
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