Quote:
Originally Posted by David198502
hey guys!
i started a dogfight above the channel.after i shot down 6 hurries, i tried to make it to an airfield.but using the compass is really confusing.
my impression is that its not working properly.if i make a right turn, the degrees are decreasing, while it sould be the opposite.besides its really hard to hold course, or better said impossible.the smallest movement results in a heavy reaction on the compass.anybody can confirm this?is this a bug?or is it the way the instrument behaved in reality?if it is as it should be, how can one navigate?  |
This is how a real "whiskey" compass operates (that is, a compass that's suspended in liquid). It reacts to every single force of acceleration and takes time to stabilize. I saw it in a video on youtube and i really liked it, i like the attention to all instrument details in general.
But yes, it's definitely realistic. In order to be able to navigate with it you'll have to fly straight and level and let it settle down a bit first.
This is also the reason why many aircraft have a secondary gyroscopic compass (i think you can find one in the panel of the 110 and definitely in bombers like the He-111). That one is more accurate but it tends to "drift" over time. Similar systems exist on civilian aircraft today.
The way a real pilot would do it is take look at the whiskey compass before take-off, when the aircraft is stationary and everything is stable. So, if your whiskey compass says 60 degrees heading, you turn a small button on your gyro compass so that it also shows 60 degrees. Then you use the gyro compass for the rest of the flight, just make sure to re-align it with the whiskey compass from time to time whenever you are flying steady, straight and level to get rid of the gyroscopic "drift".
To get an idea of how this works in practice, try flying the 111 and see if there are any buttons you can manipulate with the clickable cockpit interface on the gyro compass (to switch the clickable interface on/off i think you have to press F10).
I hope this helps.
