FraserConcordeFan
... How exactly would you get the INS into memory mode so you could input the two digit code to activate the route section...
Concorde did have a facility to input a flight plan route segment into the INS and this facility was used on most flights. To explain this very briefly, let’s take a typical LHR-JFK flight as an example:
• Press the amber REMOTE button on each INS CDU
• Load the first waypoint (#1), usually Woodley, manually into an INS
• Key WAYPOINT CHANGE and enter and insert “0 to 1” on each CDU.
• Select DSTRK/STS and HOLD
• Key WAYPOINT CHANGE
• Key the DME catalogue number (from the flight log, usually 90 on a LHR-JFK sector) and insert
• Key WAYPOINT CHANGE
• Key the Route Segment number (from the flight log, usually 10 on a LHR-JFK sector) and insert
• Cancel HOLD
Then the usual checking routine of:
• Checking the lats and longs of the loaded waypoint lats with those given on the flight log
• Checking the INS distances between waypoints with those given on the flight log
• Checking the lats, longs and frequencies of the DMEs against the database guide
Return the displays back to WAYPOINT, cancel REMOTE, select AUTO and check the INS alignment.
Remember, with only nine waypoints available in the INS, this procedure would have to be repeated in flight, sometimes more than once. Takes much longer to write about than it did to do!
tomahawk pa38
... I'm just curious about what eastbound routings were into Heathrow...
The usual Eastbound routing on a JFK-LHR flight would be via track SN to 15°W then on SL3 to BARIX to MATIM to PITEM to NIGIT and then OCK.
... and where the decel point was....
Let me just check we are talking about the same thing! The Decel Point was the point at the end of the cruise/climb, where we first throttled back and started to decelerate from M2.00 and then descend from, say, around FL 560.
The decel point was calculated in order that we would be just under M1.00 at the designated Speed Control Point, and so the Decel Point was obviously further back than the Speed Control Point.
The usual route was up the Bristol Channel, a bit to the South of our outbound route, crossing the Devon coast just to the North of Barnstaple, routing to a waypoint called MATIM, which is around 51°N 004°W.
In winter, on a JFK-LHR flight via SL3, the Speed Control Point was 110nm before MATIM, and we were required to be subsonic at this point. Typically, we would be just under M1.00, and around FL410, when we crossed the speed control point, having started down from FL 560 around 105nm earlier.
The decel point was of no real relevance to those living on and around the coast of Devon and Somerset, but the Speed Control Point was. The position and time at which we decelerated through M1.00 and became subsonic were always recorded on the flight log, along with the altitude and spot wind, in case of any future claims of boom damage due to a misjudged decel.
Best Regards to all
Bellerophon
Dedicated to the memory of André Édouard Turcat (1921 -2016)