YS Tutorial: Heading bug

[Martin-Dutchie]

Hello guys!, this is my first tutorial, explaining the use of the new feature included in the test version, update 30/01/11. The heading bug is an excellent feature, which is used to give the autopilot a direction to fly to. This can be very handy, for example if you want to fly past multiple airports using the autopilot, without having to turn the autopilot off, and on again when the heading is changed. It is also handy to use for places without VOR/ILS/NDB, but of which you do know the heading.

On to the tutorial:

The heading bug is basically an arrow that points in a particular direction on the compass, which can be followed by the autopilot.
The heading bug looks like this:



To use the features of the heading bug, you first need to be able to adjust the heading of it. This is done by presing the "Select VOR" button (L) multiple times, until you read in yellow "HEADING BUG":



To adjust the heading, use the "Rotate the VOR to the left/right" buttons (7,8 on keyboard). To fly to the desired heading, open the Autopilot menu (Backspace), and select option number 5: "Fly heading bug":



Now that we are on our way, we want to change direction a little bit. This can be done easily. Select the "HEADING BUG" function again, and now start rotating the bug by using the "Rotate the VOR to the left/right" buttons. You will see that the autopilot will immediately start adjusting the heading towards the direction of the bug:



I hope you now have a better understanding of the new heading bug function. If you have any comments or questions about the Heading bug and the tutorial, post them below!

* All the keys displayed in () are the default buttons. These may vary depending on your configuration. To find yours, look for the names of the keys (between the "") in the "Joystick/key assignments" menu.

[Iceman]

Stickied. Great work.

[Phoenix]

Thanks, this will certainly help!

[Ri Ra]

pretty cool trick, ima try it out now.

Edit: just realized i dont have the test version yet on this computer. Will keep this in mind though for when i get around to dl it.

[Grigor]

But can this be pre-programmed into a mission file??? That would be handy.

[Shutter]

But can this be pre-programmed into a mission file??? That would be handy.

You can give an aircraft a command in scenery editor or notepad, or you can copy over a flight path from a .yfs but I don't think you can tell the plane to use the heading bug.

[MidNight]

Very Good Brother!

You tutorial is good.. very explained!! CJ

[red baron]

Great tutorial, i honestly never knew what the heading bug was before reading this, thanks!

[Phoenix]

Its a great help for VA's Red baron.

[David]

Thanks for the tutorial Martin, finally understand how to work the thing.

[Nath]

I still didn't get whilst flight training, but now you've made it clear! Great Job

[TheJuli]

Thank you martin. Really useful post ... Maybe one of the most important points of ys is the heading and you did it!