HSI tutorial?

Matthew

Matthew

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Matthew
I'm about to get checked out in a new-to-me airplane. I also realize I've never used an HSI before, and this aircraft has one.

Last night I started looking online for quick and easy tutorials or examples. I guess I should also check the AFH, but I haven't got there yet.

Any favorite lessons or tutorials?
 

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Are you going to use the HSI to shoot instrument approaches? If so, there are a couple of special considerations you need to understand because HSIs behave differently than VORs when flying back course localizer approaches and the like... if that doesn't apply to you then some familiarization in a cheap online flight simulator would probably be adequate.
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
Are you going to use the HSI to shoot instrument approaches? If so, there are a couple of special considerations you need to understand because HSIs behave differently than VORs when flying back course localizer approaches and the like... if that doesn't apply to you then some familiarization in a cheap online flight simulator would probably be adequate.
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This will be VFR only. I've pretty much got a good abstract handle on it now, after looking a little more closely at the functions. But I've never used one in the wild and I'd rather do a little playing around with it on the ground instead of in the air.
 
Matthew said:
I'm about to get checked out in a new-to-me airplane. I also realize I've never used an HSI before, and this aircraft has one.

Last night I started looking online for quick and easy tutorials or examples. I guess I should also check the AFH, but I haven't got there yet.

Any favorite lessons or tutorials?
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Just jump in and do it. It’s intuitive. You’ll have it in a minute. Except for some buttonolgy if it’s a newer whiz bang electronical type one. But the comparison to a separate CDI and DG is a natural
 
luvflyin said:
Just jump in and do it. It’s intuitive. You’ll have it in a minute. Except for some buttonolgy if it’s a newer whiz bang electronical type one. But the comparison to a separate CDI and DG is a natural
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That’s what I’m starting to see. Like a lot of things on the panel, once you figure it out it’s simple. Now if I can just remember all the functions on that JPI meter that I only use once a year...
 
You’ll get it quick. It’s really nice to mix the rotation of the whole thing and a VOR needle.

Just shows you the intercept angle perfectly.

I’d say even after a while with one, the way it presents the info to you is often what you end up doing in your head with a standard one.

And yeah as someone said, back courses and ILSes are a tad different. You gotta learn a few rules for those and on some models there’s buttonology.

The purely mechanical ones are a tad more intuitive when learning them just because you see it’s just two instruments shoved together. My opinion anyway.

But the pretty electronic ones are fine. Ha.
 
If you have a King 55 HSI, just about any instrument study guide covers it because that's the only one the FAA thinks exists as far as the written is concerned. It's pretty straight forward. The course arrow (yellow) is not only your OBS but rotates the indicator over the heading indicator. The heading bug (orange) doesn't have anything really to do with the operation of the HSI but may cue things like your autopilot as to where you want to go.

Over to the side somewhere is a little slaving panel that determines if it is connected to the flux gate (magnetic) compass or not. You can leave it slaved or put it in free and use the toggle switch to spin the DG as you would with the knob on a conventional one.
 
jimhorner said:
I found some pretty good tips on using my King KSc55A HSI in the manual: http://condoraero.com/documents/Aircraft/King KCS-55A HSI.pdf Lots of tips for using one inreal world situations. But, as others have said, it’s pretty intuitive once you start flying with it.
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heh - the fun things about King and Garmin manuals is that all their examples are right here in my back yard.

After looking at some info and examples last night, yeah, it's pretty straightforward. I've just never used one for real, though, and didn't want to spend too much time fumbling around with it.
 
Matthew said:
heh - the fun things about King and Garmin manuals is that all their examples are right here in my back yard.

After looking at some info and examples last night, yeah, it's pretty straightforward. I've just never used one for real, though, and didn't want to spend too much time fumbling around with it.
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Just go up on some really nice VFR day and do some practicing with it. It won’t take you long to get used to it, and you’ll love it. No more resetting the DG to match the compass every few minutes, and a much better situational awareness. Curious, is it paired with something like a 430w or just a VOR source?

My HSI is a King 55A and is paired with a 430. My plane was down for months for an engine change, and, when I got it back, the OBS seemed to be significantly off. 20°-30° difference with the 2nd VOR when tested on the ground, always getting a message from the 430 to set the course to some heading when it was already there, 1 to 2 dots left when flying a coupled GPS approach, etc. I took it to an avionics shop expecting to pay big bucks for a repair to a very old out of production HSI with hard to get parts or an upgrade to a G5 or GI275. Turns out there’s a calibration constant stored in the 430 which is maintained by a rechargeable battery in the 430, not an EEPROM. My mechanic makes it a point to disconnect the ground wire of the airplane battery when the plane is going to sit for a long period of time. The battery in the 430 slowly discharged, and the calibration constants were lost. Turns out that the thing was off by 40°. Just a heads up that this should be looked at. There’s actually a simple procedure to recalibrate. Much cheaper fix than I was anticipating. I had no idea about this calibration. Now I do.
 
ja_user said:


http://krepelka.com/fsweb/learningcenter/navigation/usinghsi.htm


The only thing to keep in mind on the newer aircraft, is the HSI Course needle can be hooked to GPS or VOR1 (normally), just like an OBS could be GPS or VLOC
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This video is pretty good for what I was wanting to get. I've also seen some other info that's all helped put it together. Pretty simple once you see it in action.

Question:

Is there any significance to the size and shape of the symbolic aircraft?
 
I used to know of an incredible Flash based HSI simulator, but can’t remember the name of the site.

Probably for the best - I bet launching Flash these days will cause any computer to spontaneously explode.
 
Is there any significance to the size and shape of the symbolic aircraft?
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No. It just sits there motionless, the rest of the display turns and otherwise moves under it. It's meaningless.
 
Matthew said:
Is there any significance to the size and shape of the symbolic aircraft?
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It starts flashing when the airplane has determined you’re the World’s Greatest Pilot.

Until then, it’s a measurement of pilot ego. If it starts to cover the numbers and the needles, it’s a warning that your official FAA Hazardous Attitudes are getting too high. Usually happens at thunderstorm penetration.

LOL. Kidding of course. Nah. It doesn’t mean anything. :)

Doesn’t even really need to be there. :) :) :)

It’s just two instruments that someone mechanically inclined smashed together... for the win! They needed something to stick in the blank spot in the middle.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Takes about 15 seconds to fall in love with it. Pretty easy to figure out.
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Agreed. I find it much more intuitive to interpret than separate DG and CDI instruments. And if it's slaved, gone are the days of adjusting the DG to the magnetic compass every ten minutes or so. I couldn't imagine going back to those days!

- Martin
 
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