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Recently, I picked up the CLS DC-10 collection. About half of the aircraft in the package come with this mysterious box called an Inertial Navigation System or INS. The INS seems very foreign, very difficult, and to be honest I was pretty sure it functioned via witchcraft until I did some digging through the 217 page manual that came with the DC-10.
Though the HUGE manual that CLS provides with the DC-10 does provide quite a bit of information on how it’s supposed to work, it doesn’t really do a good job of explaining how it actually works. It contains a flight plan meant to be used with the INS but past that it appears they’ve just assumed that everyone buying this add-on is a former Pan-Am pilot or something. I don’t like it when companies make assumptions, and I also really like learning new stuff, so I became determined to figure it out.
Since I was a bit frustrated that the manual didn’t seem to make much sense of the INS, I set out to find some videos explaining how it all works. I’ve attached the links below. All credit for the videos goes to their respective authors. INS might seem like it runs on FM (kudos to those that know that acronym), but it doesn’t. As a matter of fact it’s really not all that complicated. The basic idea is that if you know where you are when you start, and know where you want to be at the end, punch the two values (coords) into the INS and let it do the work. There is the issue of apparent gyro drift but that is touched on in the videos below.
It’s like anything else, if you want to use it you have to learn how to. When dealing with Inertial Nav Systems just remember “It’s Not Scary.” I hope that those of you looking to learn something learn something from this, and wind up using it. As for those of you that would rather rely on something fragile like satellites in orbit and GPS, well to each his own.
Watch each of the videos as many times as you need to get the hang of the INS. I suggest you watch them in order, the first two are meant to explain what’s going on behind the faceplate of the instrument you see in the cockpit. If you understand how it works, you will better understand what it does. Also, when you get to the tutorial nav videos keep your sim open in a side window so you can walk through each step in the video and thereby better retain the information.
This one demonstrates how gyros work in gimbal mounts courtesy of a professor’s lecture.
This is a U.S. Navy training film circa 1960 that explains how gyroscopic instruments in an aircraft work to provide information to the pilot via his instrument panel.
The videos below are tutorials on the INS system found in some payware birds.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Thanks for reading this and I hope it's helped those of you that, like me, were initially baffled by the INS.
Sincerely,
-Gimpy
Though the HUGE manual that CLS provides with the DC-10 does provide quite a bit of information on how it’s supposed to work, it doesn’t really do a good job of explaining how it actually works. It contains a flight plan meant to be used with the INS but past that it appears they’ve just assumed that everyone buying this add-on is a former Pan-Am pilot or something. I don’t like it when companies make assumptions, and I also really like learning new stuff, so I became determined to figure it out.
Since I was a bit frustrated that the manual didn’t seem to make much sense of the INS, I set out to find some videos explaining how it all works. I’ve attached the links below. All credit for the videos goes to their respective authors. INS might seem like it runs on FM (kudos to those that know that acronym), but it doesn’t. As a matter of fact it’s really not all that complicated. The basic idea is that if you know where you are when you start, and know where you want to be at the end, punch the two values (coords) into the INS and let it do the work. There is the issue of apparent gyro drift but that is touched on in the videos below.
It’s like anything else, if you want to use it you have to learn how to. When dealing with Inertial Nav Systems just remember “It’s Not Scary.” I hope that those of you looking to learn something learn something from this, and wind up using it. As for those of you that would rather rely on something fragile like satellites in orbit and GPS, well to each his own.
Watch each of the videos as many times as you need to get the hang of the INS. I suggest you watch them in order, the first two are meant to explain what’s going on behind the faceplate of the instrument you see in the cockpit. If you understand how it works, you will better understand what it does. Also, when you get to the tutorial nav videos keep your sim open in a side window so you can walk through each step in the video and thereby better retain the information.
This one demonstrates how gyros work in gimbal mounts courtesy of a professor’s lecture.
This is a U.S. Navy training film circa 1960 that explains how gyroscopic instruments in an aircraft work to provide information to the pilot via his instrument panel.
The videos below are tutorials on the INS system found in some payware birds.
Thanks for reading this and I hope it's helped those of you that, like me, were initially baffled by the INS.
Sincerely,
-Gimpy
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