Hi,
As a long-time user of FSX and FSX2Skydemon I have a question that you may be able to answer. I am an experienced Pilot and Instructor.
I am jsust about to set off for the States to fly a Censsna 182 nack to the UK and thought I would check out some of the legs using FSX and your program.
When "flying" in the UK the Skydemon display on my tablet works fine and as per the manual.
When "flying" in the western USA or even worse in Greenland there is the magnetic deviation to be taken into account for all legs. I begin my journey in Redmond Oregon (Variation 14.3 degrees East) and eventually cross Greenland from Kangerlussuaq (Variation 26.9 degrees West) to Kulusuk (Variation 20.6 degrees West).
I have to assume you are an experienced Skydemon user therefore:
On the standard Skydemon display there is a "heading" dial shown at the bottom together with the magenta required "track" bug.
In the UK the magnetic variation is neglible and the "heading" appears to align with the FSX aircraft DI accurately.
For anywhere that there is a magnetic variation the above does not work correctly.
I am aware that the actual runway heading for Kangerlussuaq is now 09 and FSX have not updated that but this is insignificant for the problem
I note that if I am ready for takeoff in Kangerlussuaq on FSX Runway 10 with the aircraft DI accurately set to 094 from the aircraft magnetic compass, the Skdemon "heading" (and virtual HSI) is displaying 121 degrees. This is 27 degrees above the real aircraft heading which happens to strangely coincides with the magnetic variation at this location!
I was wondering if, when your program picks up the base data from Skydemon is it pulling the "true" heading rather that than magnetic heading to display as the Skydemon heading?
I have had lengthy conversations with Hannah at Skydemon on this and we cannot see a problem at their end. If you use their own simulator for the same flight the headings wrok out fine.
It is just very strange when "flying" to see my aircraft tracking along my route correctly but with a big offset on its apparent heading rather that correct offset that the FSX aircraft DI is displaying.
You can try this at any airport that has a magnetic variation larger than zero.
If you try this at Redmond with 14 degrees East you will see that the aircraft DI and the Skydemon "heading" are 14 degrees "out"
Any thoughts appreciated!
Rgds,
Chris Thompson
LAA National Coach 227977/L
(M) 07710 093155 (not on when flying!)
