Getting the G1000 to work for you in the hold....

[Vone Rotate]

Hi all and happy new year!

Just after some advice on holds using the G1000 (Twinstar).

I'm starting my IR next week and just practicing my NDB procedures on flight sim.

I have splashed out on a mindstar aviation G1000 panel which appears to work just as the real thing, well the instruction manual I downloaded from Garmin seems to get me operating everything correctly anyway!

My question is this.... When I'm doing an NDB hold I'm working out roughly what my heading should be using max drift technique but I find my self just using the GPS track bearing displayed at the top. I.e once established outbound I'm steering accordingly to maintain my required outbound track on the GPS track display. Is this a lazy method which I should knock on the head straight away or is this method excepted in the real world of IFR flying?? To me it feels like I'm cheating for some sad reason:O.

Also I know I'll get taught all this when I start but is it set in concrete which entry type you use if you close to the 70 deg deciding line??

Any pointers appreciated.

[scooby79]

As long as you include the needle in your scan to make sure you are still on the right inbound track thats the way most would probably do it in the real world. Not sure if you are allowed to use the GPS track in a test, stupid if you couldn't but wouldn't surprise me.

[Sagey]

The drift figures can't be taken away from you but most examiners will take away the moving map, well zoom out of it anyway making it useless. The track is very useful as you have found out, as is the wind (this can be taken away apparently). To be honest the needles are rather good, although dip is quite large in the DA42 but there is so much information that you will soon get to grips with it. The most important thing with the Garmin and the IR is to ensure that you don't let all the info available break down your scan.

A lot of examiners will give you your GPS etc back once you have completed the first sector and the procedure to return to your next airport for the next procedure.

[showtime777]

as for sector entries, when HEADING is within +- 5 degrees of the boundaries, you may elect to use entries either side of the boundary.

[Nashers]

i dont think just holding the outbound track will help. on the inbound its fine as your using single drift inorder to maintain a track.

for the outbound leg of the hold, use the wind arrow to work out your drift angle and time outbound so by the time your over the beacon again its 3 minutes.

its very hard to say just hold the track as the wind you used on the ground may be different so you need to work it out in the air. your flying the heading you worked out as you have taken into consideration the wind in the turns of the hold as well.

not typed out very well but its 6am and im going to bed..night!

[OneIn60rule]

We were not told to use that function.

You are meant to be able to use the needlee. You should not require the wind arrow as a guideline.

Do it the BASIC way and once you can manage it on the basic method then you can "cheat" as a back up guide if you will.

1/60

[jb5000]

Personally I always had a cheeky look at the GPS track (on the top of the PFD - there is no way to remove this for a test) and made sure it was about half way between the heading and the reciprocal to the inbound.

It's a good gross error check to make sure you've got roughly enough drift on, and for making sure you haven't accidentally put the drift on the wrong side but not much use for anything else in the hold.

It's also good for cross checking your inbound heading on a non-precision approach, and for VFR navigation but I'll leave it there before the map and compass brigade storm in!

[akindofmagic]

Having done my IR and CPL on the DA42, I'd recommend making full use of the kit provided on the PFD. As already stated, the moving map will be no good to you on your test; however, the magenta track at the top of the PFD can never be removed (except in the event of both MFDs failing!).

The digital track readout is very accurate, and provided you use raw data as your primary reference (i.e. ADF needles), there's no reason that you shouldn't use it as an additional aid.

Why set out to make things harder for yourself?

[Vone Rotate]

Thanks people...

I get the idea, rely on the traditional techniques and anything there to help use:ok:

Thanks again for the pointers