Instrument procedural trainer for home PC?

[bgdfly]

Hi All,

I have been away from IFR for a while and need to start getting my head back into it. I used to use a simple but brilliant little program called IFT Pro. (it was easily copied onto a 3.5" disc, for those of us who remember what they were...)

May I please have some ideas on what is a good, cost-effective, program to load onto my laptop to fly approaches etc. I'm not really interested in all the flash graphics of modern Flight Sim packages, just want to drill thru the various profiles of NDB's VOR's etc and be able to plug in various winds etc to get back on top of the game.

Thanks in advance...

B

[Ascend Charlie]

Wait a little while, the NDB and VOR aids will be decommissioned and all you need is GPS....

[LEVC]

On Top, (previously marketed by ASA pilot supplies) is, at least until version 8, a very useful software for what you want, it will run in any PC, does not need fancy equipment, only requirement is a joystick or yoke.
It has got nice features for analyzing your performance (plan view of your routing, also vertical plan and graphs in a way similar to the old Frasca FNPT).
You can set up weather, position , altitude etc etc, all very intuitive.
I believe version 8 allows for you to have, if you wish, a second screen where you can have the graphs/plan view etc, I belive they call it the instructors screen, where while you fly, you/the instructor can change stuff as you go.

Not a fancy software in terms of visual (bare blue and brown visual "out the window") but very effective as an IFR procedures trainer, in my opinion good dynamic behaviour with the obvious limitations of a home PC set up.


Not sure if they sell it anymore, and if they do, I do not know if the following versions fit my description although by just googling it I found this screenshots, it looks they did not change much in newer versions.
(last version I used was 8).
:ok:

[hueyracer]

Or play around with something online-free of charge, no need to install or download anything...

luizmonteiro - Online Simulators - VOR Simulator (http://www.luizmonteiro.com/learning_vor_sim.aspx)

[dingo9]

I used RANT, think it might be called RANT XL now? Found it to be a very good procedural trainer.

[GoodGrief]

Elite worked for me.
ELITE (http://www.flyelite.ch/)

[belly tank]

Ive got Microsoft FSX which I've had for 6-7 years now however my next upgrade will be Lockheed Martins P3D Lockheed Martin - Prepar3D (http://www.prepar3d.com) which is has been recently released, I've had home sims for PC for 20 years and are fantastic, helped me a great deal.

[bgdfly]

Many thanks All,

I will get busy looking at those suggestions.

Now if I can just kick the old grey-matter into gear...

Cheers,

B

[haihio]

I used Rant it's very good.

[Bravo73]

I used RANT, think it might be called RANT XL now? Found it to be a very good procedural trainer.

^^^^This^^^^

[vaibronco]

It is true PBN is the future and all radio aids will die, but at the moment all of us are still expected to fly SIDs routes, STAR and approaches with the conventional means.
I used to keep the old jeppesen charts and fly them with Flight Simulator.
Almost all procedures were there with the correct frequencies. I believe I had version 9.
I could choose glass cockpit or old analog cockpit, and in both cases, with autopilot engaged, I found it useful. Manual flying was a problem, maybe because of the poor quality of my joystick. Difficult to trim and with an unnatural sensitivity, flying an ILS manually was more challenging than in reality. So, not helpful for the manual skills, but somehow it was for chart briefing, cockpit set-up, holding entries etc. (you can check vertical and lateral profile after the flight).