Hi everyone, and welcome to this new episode
of the Feature Discovery Series
I am Damien Cuzaco, Lead Designer at Asobo
Studio
In this episode, I’m going to talk about
IFR features in the new Microsoft Flight Simulator
First, I‘ll begin by presenting the navigation
data present in FS2020
Then we will go over the flight planning features
Finally, we will look at the Instruments and
ATC that allow for an IFR flying experience.
We have partnered with a service company, dedicated to Flight Operations & Air Traffic
Management Solutions: Navblue to provide FS2020
with an A-RINC Four Two Four Navigation System
Database
It worth mentioning that, just like in the
real world, this data is updated following
the official AIRAC cycle of updates every
28 days
It includes: Waypoints, V O R’s,
Ndbs, Comm Frequencies, Localizers, Controlled/Restricted
Airspace, Approaches, and also SIDs & STARs
Procedures
In FS2020 you can start directly airborne
from anywhere on Earth, engines running and
ready for take-off on the active or a forced
runway, or cold & dark at a gate or a parking
spot
Once a Departure and a Destination are selected,
you can access flight planning functionality.
It will determine your routing based on the
type of flight you want to make, From direct
& V O R to V O R flights to IFR Low & High-Altitude
routes.
You can also manually edit the route to your
convenience by adding and removing waypoints
A cruising altitude is suggested for your
route, which you can edit if desired, and
estimated times between waypoints are provided,
you can find this information in the NavLog
Standard Instrument Departures and Standard terminal Arrival Routes (known as SIDs and STARs) along
with ILS, VOR, and RNAV Approaches are all
considered in the FS2020 flight planner, meaning
that you will be able to generate routes that
are true-to-life
Flight plans can be saved loaded and generated
from external tools
Flight planning information will transfer
from the Worldmap to aircraft instruments
You can also create/edit flight plans directly
in cockpits
A large panel of instruments is represented
on general aviation planes, from the Garmin
four thirty and five thirty to the Garmin
G three X, the G1000 G3000 and G5000
The three most common types of radio navigation
aid are available
To navigate the hard way, ADF (for Automatic
Direction Finding) that indicates relative
bearing to a radio beacon, called an NDB (Non-directional
Beacon).
VOR to be provided with the magnetic bearing
from the station to the aircraft and DME (Distance
Measuring Equipment) that indicates the distance
in nautical miles from the beacon to the aircraft.
VOR and DME beacons are often located at the
same position, with the same published frequency
Needless to say, you can rely on ILS (Instrument
Landing System) for precision runway approach
to be provided with both vertical and horizontal
guidance during an approach to land.
8.33kHz (eight point three three kilo hertz)
spacing is supported natively so that you
can tune your radios realistically to the
up-to-date frequencies
For airliners with a Flight Management System,
a CDU or MCDU is provided with core functionalities
to simulate preflight procedures, Data, Init,
flight planning, radios and performance
The ATC's system supports several functions.
ground control supervises aircraft taxiing to and from runways, considering
Live or AI traffic when giving you clearance
The tower handles traffic in the vicinity
of an airport, clearing them for takeoff or
landing
In addition to TO/GA, reduced thrust takeoff
can also be accomplished using less than full thrust
Once in the air you can rely on a flight management
system featuring autopilot managed modes for
navigation and auto-thrust (on Airbus) or
auto-throttle (on Boeing) for power management.
The ATC now also support SIDs & STARS and
provides vectors on published approaches
Waypoints are flown through auto-pilot panel (FCU) monitoring the navigation display to check the constraints
ATC communication can be delegated to the copilot AI if you want to focus on flying the aircraft while keeping ATC communication going.
The Weather Radar is available to analyse
live weather
In addition to live weather we can set precise
weather conditions, including ceilings and
runway visibility range for instrument practice
If you want to change your plans, you can
cancel and request IFR Clearance based on
the active flight plan in your instrumentation
We can now follow STAR procedures (supported
by the MCDU, the Navigation Display and ATC).
Cleared to the ILS, on a good intercept of final heading and levelled at the appropriate altitude
you are set to activate the approach mode to follow the glideslope until we reach the minimums.
You can hear Traffic on the radio. The ATC
gives vectors to other planes – you can
also hear ATC asking to report traffic in
sight if they’re close enough
We are asking for landing clearance. If you
choose to land without clearance you can cause
unexpected AI behavior such as preventing
traffic planes from taking off or landing
at certain runways.
Air traffic might abort
landing and do a go around, queued up planes
may wait for the user to land or go away
You can disengage the autopilot and hand fly
the final moments, or Autoland on planes equipped to do so.
FS2020 will host an authentic IFR flight experience
from gate to gate, allowing everyone to enjoy
the thrill of a real-life flight.
We hope you enjoyed this look into IFR features.
On behalf of the whole team thank you for
your support and thank you for watching.
See you soon!
