Runway Finder GPS navigation instrument for X-Plane

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Detlef
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:43 am
Location: Bavaria

Runway Finder GPS navigation instrument for X-Plane

#1 Post by Detlef »

Hi,

this is for everyone who likes to experiment a little. I use the instrument to fly arround without using any additional maps. (So put real aviation procedures at rest here.)

Airmanager has some very capable functions to read data from the navigation database. I made this instrument to make use of the data in an instrument I call Runway Finder for lack of a better name.
Generic - Runway Finder - GPS Navigation.siff
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You can select airports and its runways. When pressing S (Search) the instrument searches the surroundings of the aircraft position. In the air you have the option to search ahead of the aircraft (assuming you want to find the next airport in your flight direction, that you can reach naturally on a 3 degree descent).

The needle points to the threshold of the selected runway. Separate lights show whether the instrument found ATIS, ILS, VOR or NDB there. The ATIS frequency is automatically set in the com radio (like turning the tuning knob in your car). The white text frequency outputs on the instrument are for debugging only. I will remove them later.
If you press R (Radio) ILS with OBS course is also set in the NAV 1 radio.

If you use the Runway Finder in the air, you can use the right and bottom bars to see the deviation from runway path and glide angle. (Not perfect)

Be aware that the instrument does some guesswork especially with ILS stations. It cannot always tell which station belongs to a runway. It just takes the closest one.
And unfortunately ATIS frequencies in the XPlane (and also Navigraph) database often seem not to be correct. I guess, this is why e.g. Littlenavmap uses its own data for ATIS. - I do not understand this fully, especially with Navigraph, taking money for the data. In addition Airmanager has no three decimal digits, which limits the use some.

Comment from the logic.lua:

RunwayFinder GPS navigation instrument
Detlef von Reusner
June 30 2021

This is a GPS instrument for easy manoevering on the ground and easy landings. It combines some real aircraft instruments but is otherwise phantasy.

It explores Airmanager navigation database functions.

Functions included: Find airports close or on glidepath. Find runways. Find ATIS, ILS, VOR, NDBs. Set Radios. Show lineup deviation, show glidepath deviation. Glidepath angle adjustable.
Don't forget to set minimum runway length in user properties.

Buttons:
S:
- push searches airports
- outer dial selectes airport
- inner dial selects runway.

R:
- push sets Com, VOR and NDB radios
- outer dial selects (close or far search range. Far means it looks ahead on your 3 degree descent path
- inner dial sets glide path angle for the HSI VSI markers

User properties:
Minimum runway length required for your aircraft
Maximum count of airports to search

Thanks,
Detlef
preview.png

Detlef
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:43 am
Location: Bavaria

Re: Runway Finder GPS navigation instrument for X-Plane

#2 Post by Detlef »

Hi again,

I have flown a lot in between with the Runway Finder instrument, including many landings. I enjoy being able to land also on small airports with no ILS. This instrument substitutes an ILS pretty close. The difference is you need to hand fly or use basic autopilot functions (not approach mode) for the landings.

Here is my version 2 with debug texts removed and also some filtering on ATIS frequencies. ATIS remains an issue though, because the frequencies extracted from the database do not always match those active in X-Plane. This is nothing I can change right now.
Generic - Runway Finder - GPS Navigation.siff
(670.22 KiB) Downloaded 231 times

Detlef
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:43 am
Location: Bavaria

Re: Runway Finder GPS navigation instrument for X-Plane

#3 Post by Detlef »

Hi,

after doing some flying in Greenland and Northern Canada I saw that the compass and airport needles did not point correctly. Here is a V1.2 with magnetic variation corrected.
Let me know if you find something.
Generic - Runway Finder - GPS Navigation_1_2.siff
(695.26 KiB) Downloaded 240 times
Thank you,
Detlef

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