As an example, the FAA Jacksonville Sectional/Enroute L-24 charts have V157 on the 350 radial from Lakeland VORTAC. However if I refer to X-Plane’s Local Region / Low Enroute map, position the aircraft over the V157 airway (on the map) and click on the Lakeland VORTAC, X-Plane reports that I am on the 354 radial. The red compass rose that appears when you click on the VORTAC or any airport, aircraft ...etc, also shows the V157 from Lakeland at approx. 354 degrees (hard to get an exact reading). Initially I thought that the compass rose may have been aligned with True North, however applying MC = TC +W Variation (Lakeland is 4.1°W), would only produce further discrepancy to the FAA charts VOR radials.
Back to the cockpit... rotate the VOR receiver OBS, the CDI needle aligns centres on 350, fly the needle and I get to Ocala (COP Ocala 171 radial FAA charts). Interestingly, with no wind configured in the sim, I still have to maintain a magnetic heading of 355 to stay on the 350 radial in the C172 – a 5 degree yaw! (FYI – the HI was aligned with the compass). Ignoring this for the moment, I would have expected that X-Plane would display a VORTAC compass rose and reported radials aligned against the actual Lakeland VORTAC’s current configuration – ie. magnetic north when the VORTAC was last aligned (I’ve read that the FAA only re-align VORs when they get more than 6° out from magnetic north). Compass roses when selecting airports, aircraft ..etc, I would expect to be magnetic north, which seems to be the case. Alternatively, it would be useful if the X-Plane Low Enroute map, showed more information – ie. the to/from airway radials, intersection radials
Is my understanding of X-Plane’s display of VOR radials correct? –ie. they don’t match the FAA published charts
Is my expectation that X-Plane displays a VOR compass rose aligned against the actual VORTAC current configurations (ie. magnetic north when the VORTAC was last aligned) reasonable?
Other than using my paper FAA charts or www.skyvector.com, are there any x-plane plugs-in or better X-plane Low Enroute charts that can be installed which will allow me to better plan/report position during my x-plane flights?
I’m interested in whether anyone else comes up with same findings as myself – there’s a challenge for this afternoon
Cheers
Scott

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