Criteria for the Revisions of the New Zealand to Alaska Route

The original flight plans for these routes have been completely redone to allow incorporation of the current flight plan criteria for DC-3 Airways (DCA) and to create flight plan descriptions in accord with the current criteria developed by our V.P. of Charters, Norm Hancock.  Following are a list of some of the more obvious of these criteria and some notes on how these have impacted the plans and descriptions for this route.  To many of you, this will be very basic; but to those who are not real life pilots, I hope it will help.

1 The original 44 flight plans are still intact and all of the individual flight plans depart and arrive at the same airports that were used in the original package.
2 In some cases, the departing and arriving runway assignments have been modified to agree with the standard DCA criteria of using the MSFS2002 default runways.  These are determined by opening a flight using the runway assigned by MSFS2002 as the "Active Runway" in a clear sky, no-wind weather condition.  It is understood that many of our pilots will not choose to operate under these conditions and it is perfectly proper to use either pilot controlled weather or real-life weather conditions for your individual flights.  Understand that if you are using weather other than that used to create these flight plans, your departing and arriving runways may be different from those shown on the flight plan and the accompanying description.  In that case, the pilot must make the necessary adjustments to the courses to be flown.  The distance and time may then be different from those shown on the descriptions and the actual flight time is the time to be entered on your DCA pilot report.
3 All of the flight plans have been created using FS Navigator ver 4.51 running in MSFS2002. The descriptions have been created using a version of MS WORD97 in such a way that it is not necessary to have FS Navigator to complete any of the flight plans.  It is quite likely that, if you do use FS Navigator as a guide for these flights, there will be some minor variations between the written description and the FS Navigator created flight plan.  These variations will, in fact, be minor and will not have a significant impact on the flight.
4 All of the 44 routes that make up this package have been flown at least three times during these modifications and it is believed that all obstacles, including Norm Hancock's favorite - the "granite cloud" -- have been eliminated.  That does not mean that all of the flights are without potential hazards.  There are still some difficult departures and arrivals and some dangerous conditions, such as flying low through a mountain pass where the terrain rises to dangerous altitudes on both sides of your course.  It is our hope that all of these dangers have been identified in the descriptions and the means of avoiding them indicated.  If you find some where this is not the case, please notify me at once and I will check on the conditions.
5 Departures are specified at 120 knots and 500 FPM climb rate.  Cruise speed is specified at 140 knots.  Descents are specified at 120 knots, -500 FPM descent rate.  All final approaches (within 5.0 nm of touchdown) are to be flown at 85 knots.  Unless local conditions dictate otherwise, departures are to be flown straight out for at least 5.0 nm before a turn and final approaches are started at least 6.0 nm from the runway touchdown zone.
6 It was found during the modifications of these flight plans that adding scenery to the "FS2002\scenery" folder can affect your compass heading as they relate to FS Navigator, particularly on long flight segments.  If you are using FS Navigator and you find discrepancies between your heading and the FS Navigator headings, you may want to check out this possibility.  It seems these discrepancies are constant and may be overcome by a constant magnetic heading adjustment (see, also, Note 4).
7 In several instances, both NAV1 and NAV2 VORs have been specified for use simultaneously.  Usually, but not always, NAV2 is being used for DME tracking only and radial input is not required.
8 On all ILS approaches, the ILS runway heading has been specified for the radial setting.  This NAV1 input is not required for an ILS approach but it was considered a good reference and, inputting this data may serve to better set the actual runway heading in your mind which may come in handy during the busy final approach minutes.
9 All flights have been created as VFR flights.  The specified altitudes are based on those altitude criteria in effect in the United States.  All specified altitudes are "Mean Sea Level" (MSL).  Therefore, eastbound flights are specified at odd 1,000 foot levels + 500 feet and westbound flights are specified at even 1,000 foot levels + 500 feet.  No flight levels exceed 10,500 feet MSL.  If these criteria are not accurate for any geographic locations within the flight paths specified, please let me know and I will modify them to agree with local conditions.
10 As we all know, all radials from VORs and VORTACs radiate outward from the station.  Therefore, if one is flying toward a VOR from the west on course 090, they are flying inbound (IB) on R-270.  If flying outbound (OB) away from the VOR on course 090, they are flying outbound (OB) on R-090.  DCA convention, as is common in air navigation, says if you are flying IB to a VOR on course 270 your NAV radio is set to R-090 because that matches your heading.  Conversely, if you are flying west toward the VOR on course 270, your NAV radio is set to R-270 because that matches your heading.
11 Throughout the flight plan descriptions, I have used the term "VASI"  (Old habits ARE hard to break!) to describe what is, in reality, a "Visual Approach Descent Indicator" (VADI) system of lights placed to the left side of the runway close to the threshold.  VADIs consist of two primary systems, the "Visual Approach Slope Indicator" (VASI) and the Precision Approach Path Indicator" (PAPI).  The PAPI system is the newer international (ICAO) and U.S. (FAA) standard.  You will find both systems represented throughout these flight plans.  The VASI system comes in many configurations but the most common consist of two or three light bars consisting of rows of either two or three lights each.  The rows are oriented perpendicular to the runway with one row behind the other when viewed from an approaching aircraft.  They are located, and aimed, in such a way that maintaining the correct descent path "should" result in touchdown in the Touchdown Zone (TDZ) of the Runway.  The object is to keep one row all white lights (the row closest to the threshold) and the other row (back row of the set) all red lights.  If both rows are white, you will probably have a go-around, if all lights are red, you will probably have a pile of twisted aluminum with you inside.  The PAPI consists of only one row of four lights.  The object here is to keep the two lights closest to the runway edge red and the two lights farthest from the runway edge white.  Combinations of colors of three and one indicate a path slightly above or slightly below the glide path.  Situations of all white or all red lights 
indicate the same probabilities as with the VASI systems.  Please excuse the fact that I call them all VASI but, with this explanation, I hope you will be able to make maximum use of these systems.
12 For those who may not have access to MS Word97, there is a free MS Word reader available from the MicroSoft website.
13 For those who would like a bit more information on the various navigation procedures used throughout this set of flights, the following sites are recommended for additional information:
http://www.stoenworks.com/tutorials/
http://.flyawaysimulation.com/
http://www.dc3airways.com/entry.html and click on the "TechEd's Page" button.  I'm sure there are many more sites that can help.
14 The following definitions have been taken from various sources to clarify some of the terms used in the flight plan descriptions created for this set of flights.  I hope they are clear and meet with your approval:
Bearing: The horizontal direction to or from a point, usually measured clockwise from true north, magnetic north, or some other reference point through 360 degrees.2

Course:
a. The intended direction of flight in the horizontal plane measured in degrees from north
b. The ILS localizer signal pattern usually specified as the front course or the back course.
c. The intended track along a straight, curved or segmented MSL path.2

Track:	The actual flight path of an aircraft over the surface of the earth.2

Track, ICAO:	The projection on the earth's surface of the path of an aircraft, the direction of which path at any point is usually expressed in degrees from North (True, Magnetic or Grid).2

True Course:	Direction of intended flight.1

True Heading:	The "True Course" plus or minus any necessary wind correction.1

Magnetic Heading:	"True Heading" corrected for magnetic variation.1
(In fact, all "heading" definitions that I have found incorporate some form of "correction".)
References:
1. van Sickle's Modern Airmanship, Eighth Edition
2. Aeronautical Information Manual, 2002
3. Federal Aviation Regulations (USA), 2002
4. Understanding Aeronautical Charts, Second Edition

Roger Knott
rrknott@earthlink.net
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