Some comments in the recent Sandel thread have reminded me of a question or two, which I have repressed into the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind. The Sandel is my first full time HSI and given the wealth of data it can present, but is also available elsewhere, often in a much more legible fashion;
How do you set up the Sandel for the various phases of flight? Obviously, the two most important are cruise and on an IAP.
What is the benefit to using the Arc View?
Marty (Still mechanically inept, but now also an electronic basket case)
Marty,
How you set it up depends on your preferences. Personally I almost always use the ARC view because I’m really not interested in what’s behind me. The ARC view shows more of what’s ahead. The downside is that you don’t see the entire compass but I guess I can visualize that without much problem.
For enroute I leave it on about 30 (or is it 35) mile range, arc view with only my flightplan waypoints and airports in view. I leave the Stormscope on cell mode (I use the ARNAV for strike mode). On those rare occasions that I’m VFR I display class B, Class C, and Class D airspace as well as restricted/military areas. If I’m IFR those are of academic interest only and I get rid of them to declutter the display.
On the approach I leave it in ARC and decrease the range to 5 miles or less. I am comfortable with the CDI on the bottom and the GS CDI on the side but many others prefer to set up an ILS with the full view and complete pointers (i.e. they make it look like a standard HSI).
The key is to experiment.
Jerry
I use the arc view in map mode for the cruise. In view mode the map is almost big enough to see. When landing I use the HSI mode, much easier to see the CDI. In my opinion the most useful features of the Sandel are the RMI (VOR1 and VOR2) and the digital display of direction data (VOR, course, OBS, and heading bug). I just figured out that the flashing MSG light on the Sandel is telling me the GPS has a message (probably switch tanks).
Art, you prove the point that how one sets it up and what’s important is very personal. I really don’t use the bearing pointers at all (except for my VOR check). I can see the near VORs on the ARNAV and guestimate my position in relation to them. Virtually all my flying is now on direct GPS clearances and I don’t really care about the VORs.
The exception is on an approach where stepdown fixes are defined by VOR radials and are not in the GPS database (the LOC/BC at RFD comes to mind). There having a constant readout of a VOR radial is very helpful.
With the Sandel, as with most everything else in life, it’s whatever turns you on.
Jerry