Slaved ADF

Bill

Bill

Touchdown! Greaser!
PoA Supporter
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Messages
15,344
Location
Southeast Tennessee
Display Name
Display name:
This page intentionally left blank
Our new bird has a King slaved ADF, where the ADF card is slaved to the DG, and rotates in sync to show your heading. I haven't shot an NDB with it yet (and with a 430, will I ever need to?), but I'd imagine it would provide the same kind of benefit and improvement on the approach one sees when using an HSI on an ILS.

Anyone here used slaved ADF on an NDB approach?
 
I have. It is an improvement, but not as much as an HSI versus a regular CDI for VOR/LOC intercept/tracking. And with a 430 aboard, you might as well dump the ADF completely and turn its weight into extra payload unless you really like listening to Rush Limbaugh on the AM radio and don't have an XM portable available.
 
Ron Levy said:
And with a 430 aboard, you might as well dump the ADF completely and turn its weight into extra payload unless you really like listening to Rush Limbaugh on the AM radio and don't have an XM portable available.
Click to expand...

Next panel upgrade, the ADF will go out the window, and maybe the KNS-80 and seperate com as well. The thing about the KNS-80 is, it has DME, and I like that.

On normal /G IFR flights, I of course track the 430 on the HSI, but I'm always tuning VOR's along the route on nav2, and tracking my radials as a backup in the event the GPS goes TU. Now, I can not only know radials, but also range. So maybe we'll keep the KNS-80 until IT goes TU.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Next panel upgrade, the ADF will go out the window, and maybe the KNS-80 and seperate com as well. The thing about the KNS-80 is, it has DME, and I like that.

On normal /G IFR flights, I of course track the 430 on the HSI, but I'm always tuning VOR's along the route on nav2, and tracking my radials as a backup in the event the GPS goes TU. Now, I can not only know radials, but also range. So maybe we'll keep the KNS-80 until IT goes TU.
Click to expand...

I tossed my ADF but kept the DME. For one thing, the DME when used with VOR/LOC makes a good backup for the GPS if it ever dies in-flight.

WRT your OP, with a slaved ADF it it easier to track an NDB course because you can always see the relationship between the pointer and the desired course (although you have to mentally visualize the desired course on the face of the ADF). Some mechanical and most electronic HSIs can display NDB bearing and I've found that to be a signifcant improvement over a slaved ADF indicator. For one thing, you don't have to include another instrument in your scan plus you can set the VOR course pointer to the NDB course providing a nice visual reference point for that. If I had reason to fly NDB approaches that's what I'd want.
 
All that said, in the cases when I've flown an NDB-only approach with a 430 or the like in the plane along with the ADF, I find that I pay very little attention to the ADF other than to see that it still agrees with what the GPS is telling me -- slaving don't make a hoot worth'o'difference in that situation.
 
ah the poor NDBs, the bastard child of navigation.

when i got my IR i could shoot a partial panel NDB to minimums like i had been doing it my entire life. with multi of course there was the single engine partial panel NDB approach. yes Ron I know that it could be considered cruel and unusual punishment by the DE, but you had to be on top of your game in situational awareness and instrument scan interpretation and aircraft control in order to pull it off well. It was fun for me, some of the other students just thought it was punishment.
 
Ron Levy said:
All that said, in the cases when I've flown an NDB-only approach with a 430 or the like in the plane along with the ADF, I find that I pay very little attention to the ADF other than to see that it still agrees with what the GPS is telling me -- slaving don't make a hoot worth'o'difference in that situation.
Click to expand...

Ditto (when I still had the ADF). Funny how when you stay on the magenta line, the ADF seems to get stuck in the right spot. In fact if you see that it's off, chances are your DG is off too.
 
lancefisher said:
WRT your OP, with a slaved ADF it it easier to track an NDB course because you can always see the relationship between the pointer and the desired course (although you have to mentally visualize the desired course on the face of the ADF). Some mechanical and most electronic HSIs can display NDB bearing and I've found that to be a signifcant improvement over a slaved ADF indicator. For one thing, you don't have to include another instrument in your scan plus you can set the VOR course pointer to the NDB course providing a nice visual reference point for that. If I had reason to fly NDB approaches that's what I'd want.
Click to expand...

Heck, even a plain old ADF in combination with an HSI makes things pretty easy - Just set the VOR course pointer on the HSI to the inbound as Lance describes, and make the two needles look the same. The first approach I ever flew in the Seneca was a plain old NDB done this way, and it beat the heck out of any other NDB I've flown.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Heck, even a plain old ADF in combination with an HSI makes things pretty easy - Just set the VOR course pointer on the HSI to the inbound as Lance describes, and make the two needles look the same. The first approach I ever flew in the Seneca was a plain old NDB done this way, and it beat the heck out of any other NDB I've flown.
Click to expand...

Yep, that the way I've always done NDB work. Even with just a DG you can mentally translate the ADF pointer to the DG face.
 
The primary use for the salved ADF is to have a cheat when the instructor covers the DG. "Man, your compass turns are awesome!"


Don't tell.
 
tonycondon said:
ah the poor NDBs, the bastard child of navigation.

when i got my IR i could shoot a partial panel NDB to minimums like i had been doing it my entire life. with multi of course there was the single engine partial panel NDB approach. yes Ron I know that it could be considered cruel and unusual punishment by the DE, but you had to be on top of your game in situational awareness and instrument scan interpretation and aircraft control in order to pull it off well. It was fun for me, some of the other students just thought it was punishment.
Click to expand...
Same here...did my instrument training at an airport with only NDB approaches. That law of incessant repetition works ;)

It got REALLY entertaining when I was based at STP and they closed the long runway for maintenance. Somehow it always ended up being the copilot's leg when we had to shoot the NDB 30 back into there. Even with the ADF needle in the HSI, I saw some of the wildest approaches ever. And none of the copilots ever figured out that I was scheduling entertainment at their expense!

Better ADF displays make life easier, but if you can't shoot an NDB approach, a better display isn't going to help ;)

Fly safe!

David
 
Man, I really loved doing NDB approaches. Guess it's the engineer brain in my skull, but I do have to say that doing an NDB approach with the GPS is a lot easier. :D

That said, when my plane goes into the avionics shop the ADF is staying in the shop when the plane leaves. As far as the DME goes however, I will keep that for a while longer. It's still just too usefull to let go at this point.
 
yes if i had a gps ifr certified i would probably chuck the adf too. there are a lot of airports in iowa that are completely off limits IFR unless you have an ADF or GPS. seems like every little towns airport has an NDB. to fly IFR non gps around here without an ADF cuts off a lot of options
 
tonycondon said:
seems like every little towns airport has an NDB. to fly IFR non gps around here without an ADF cuts off a lot of options
Click to expand...

Or even bigger towns. ILS20 here at CHA is ADF or RADAR required, as the only IAF is the NDB. Tower closes at 11:50pm local, and I've never inquired to see if Atlanta center can offer (both radar equipment and workload) vectors to the ILS. If we didn't have IFR GPS, the ADF would definately stay.
 
yep bill, ILS into Ames, and many others, require ADF. without a GPS i would probably rather have a nav/com and an adf instead of dual nav/com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top