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                              Navigation for FS5
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This flightcomputer is supposed to help you in navigating the friendly skies
of Flightsimulator v. 5.0. Just as FS5, the program accepts "real world"
coordinates. In addition, also airport names, VOR/NDB locations and their
intersections can be used.

Airports and beacons should be available in separate files called AptFs5.dat
and NavFs5.dat, respectively. Examples are provided in the ZIP file for the
California area. The data that are present in these files were extracted from
the file World4.bgl that comes with Fs5, using the nice utilities Runway.exe
and Listvor.exe (both v. 1.0) written by Dan Samuel.  Unfortunately, at this
moment Runway.exe only seems to access the locations that have ATIS
information available. To overcome this slight limitation, the database,
being a plain ASCII file, can be edited easily, as long as the correct field
separators are used. Also, airport coordinates can be entered directly.
AptFs5.dat can be searched within the program for (parts of) airport names:
e.g. entering SAN (or san, or sAn) will list the records that contain this
string. If nothing is entered, the whole database will be shown.  VOR's/NDB's
will need their proper letter code. If the code is unknown, just press
<Enter> and you can search the database for (part of) the name. If you are at
the beacon, just pass the questions for Radial an distance by pressing
<Enter>. Only the question "True/Magnetic" cannot be avoided and should be
answered. The difference between these two is called (Magnetic) Variation and
is provided on most maps. For the California area this value is approximately
East(!) 14, so that a value of -14 should be entered for this area.
Locations of intersections can be found by entering the data of two VOR's
with their two Radials (always magnetic) that cross at that intersection. The
distance from the intersection to the VOR is not needed. This value can be
calculated by assuming a departure at a VOR (arrival at the intersection).

Needless to say that you can create your own databases with the utilities
mentioned above. For this program you will need to give them their appropriate
*.dat names (see above).

The optimal application of this program will be when used on a notebook or
similar second computer next to the one on which Fs5 is running. Whenever you
can receive a VOR/DME signal, you can fly straight to wherever you want to
go. Just enter as departure the beacon, the radial and distance.  Then your
compass heading will be calculated from these data to your destination, if
necessary compensated for wind. An Estimated time Enroute and Ground Speed will
be provided from Indicated or True Air Speed.

In my experience you probably better avoid the "Enter key", when "Press a 
key to continue" is displayed. Any other key (e.g. spacebar) will do better.

Please note that the program should have access to the (hard)disk for creating
a temp file.

Acknowledgements 
In this program, I used the formula of John Kaszuba for calculating the True
Air Speed from the Indicated Air Speed. Also the information in the navigation
program of Jacques Ruigrok was quite helpful. 

Disclaimer/Legal stuff
This program can only be used at own risk. I will not accept any claims for 
damage. It can be distributed freely but nobody is allowed to sell it or to 
include it in a set of files that will be sold. For use at Interstate races,
or any other competitive exercises, my explicit written permission is needed.

Suggestions, remarks and/or bug reports are welcome. I can be reached at 
FsFan BBS and Fractal Board BBS in the Netherlands.

My address/point numbers are: 

Fred Hoorn                                   FsFanNet: 81:100/251.2 
De Stichtse Rand 42                          FidoNet: 2:283/203.23 
3911 JV Rhenen                               FlyNet: 196:8020/10.2
The Netherlands

                                    

                              December 22, 1993

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