Comet 4 Panel Manual

Panel Manual VC extras Checklists Flying Tips Main Centre Autopilot Fuel Overhead Electrics & Ignition

Main Panel

Covering the captain's side & also the extra gauges found on the co-pilot side in the VC.

Airspeed Indicator A very simple clock style indicator, that displays Indicated Airspeed (IAS) in Knots. There is no VMO / MMO indicator on this gauge.

Attitude Indicator  Visual representation of the aircraft's bank & pitch angles. The scale across the bottom shows marks for 0, 10, 20, 30 degrees of bank.  The outer mark is at 45 degrees. The scale on the inside shows a pitch scale up/down in degrees. The circles moving across these scales show the reading of the aircraft's bank & pitch. The lines that also move across these scales show the required bank & pitch from the flight director. The Flight Director can operate with or without the autopilot being engaged.

Altimeter Displays height above sea level in feet. Altimeters need to be adjusted according to local pressure readings.  These readings are given out by ATC & also by ground information radio channels at airports. The model gives this pressure setting in millibars, the picture shows a setting of 1013 millibars. The more common units used in FS are inches of mercury & this value will be shown in the tooltip text as you adjust the setting. You can click either side of the pressure setting value to increase or decrease it.

Compass Also known as HSI, Horizontal Situation Indicator. Visual representation of the aircraft's heading & the aircraft's position in relation to a beacon tuned in on the NAV receivers. This gauge also sets the Heading & Course values which are used in the 'HEADING' & 'BEAM' modes of the autopilot.  Click on the relevant dial (top left & bottom right) to adjust these values. The Heading pointer is a short line pointer.  The Course pointer is the longer line with a circle. The compass dial does not turn with the aircraft, like most HSIs do.  Only the course pointer moves along with the aircraft.  The compass dial rotates when you adjust the course setting knob. There is a localizer/Nav indicator in the centre section.  The localizer/Nav line moves sideways, with the five dots providing a scale with the outer dots being the maximum deflection of the instrument. The gauge pictured here is from an aircraft that is flying a bearing of 289 degrees & is about to turn left to settle onto a localizer beam (course 240).

VSI   (Vertical Speed Indicator) Shows the vertical speed in thousands of feet per minute, to a maximum of 4000 ft/min.

Machmeter Shows the Mach number for the current air speed & altitude. The machmeter shown in the picture is not going fast enough to register a Mach number, so the needle points down.  The maximum mach number (MMO) is shown by the marker as 0.8

ILS indicator Localizer & Glide slope indicators.  Each one returns to it's central position & shows a flag if there is no signal currently being received. The localizer line moves sideways relative to the Course.  The four dots on each side provide a scale with the outer dots being the maximum deflection of the instrument. The Glide slope line moves up & down, again with dots showing the maximum deflection top & bottom. The gauge pictured here is from an aircraft that is about to turn left to settle onto the localizer beam & which is flying below the glide slope. Note that this indicator only displays information from the opposite NAV radio to the one selected on the SFS Radio selector (centre panel).

VOR  (VHF Omnidirectional Range) If you tune your NAV1 or NAV2 receiver to the frequency of a VOR beacon, the VOR instrument will automatically display the direction to you. The single lined arrow shows the direction for NAV1 & the double lined arrow is for NAV2. A VOR beacon radiates separate beams for every degree of the compass.

ADF  (Automatic Direction Finder) If you tune your ADF receiver to the frequency of an ADF beacon, the ADF instrument will automatically display the direction to you. The single lined arrow shows the direction for ADF1 & the double lined arrow is for ADF2.

Speed Reference Chinagraph The crew had to work out the correct takeoff & landing speeds for their flight & would write them down on a little chinagraph. If you click this little pad it will calculate & write down the correct speeds for you. It works out the speeds according to the charts in the flight manual for the Comet's current weight. V1 - Max speed to abort takeoff  (The V1 given is only a guess, as it depends on runway length) Vr - Rotate speed (Takeoff) V2 - Safe flying speed (Takeoff) Vat - Landing speed (At runway threshold with full flap)

OMI  (Outer Middle Inner markers) These indicators light up in turn when the aircraft is over the relevant marker during the approach to an airport. Blue for Outer, Red for Middle, White for Inner. Not every airport will have all of these markers.

Standby AI A basic standby attitude indicator.

Turn Coordinator Standard turn & slip gauge. The most comfortable turn for passengers is with the slip indicator central.

Stopwatch Counts minutes & seconds. Click to start, click again to stop, click again to reset to zero. If you stop over it with the mouse, it gives the current time in FS.

SFS Course Bearing VC only. Select the course bearing for the Compass using the knob on the right. The switch on the left changes the bearing by 180 degrees. Can sometimes be useful during approach etc. The top section also displays whether you are flying To or From a selected NAV aid. Course bearing can also be selected using the Compass gauge so this gauge is not essential for the 2D panel.

Flap Position VC Co-pilot side only. It shows the position of the trailing edge flaps. The gauge can be used to move the flaps by clicking with the mouse.  Click on the left side to raise a notch, click on the right side to lower a notch. 20 degrees - Takeoff 30 degrees - Approach 40 degrees - Approach 60 degrees - Landing (outer flaps only) 80 degrees - Landing (centre flaps only)

OAT   (Outside Air Temperature) VC Co-pilot side only. Temperature outside in degrees centigrade.

Cabin Altitude VC Co-pilot side only. Displays the equivalent pressure altitude of the cabin in feet x 1000. Duplicate of the same gauge on the engineer's pressure panel.

Elevator Change Gear VC Co-pilot side only. The real aircraft had FINE & COARSE gearing for elevator controls, FINE for faster speeds & COARSE for slow speeds. This is purely decoration in FS & serves no purpose.

Yaw Damper VC Co-pilot side only. Yaw damper on/off switch. In FS both No. 1 & No. 2 are identical. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have yet to notice the yaw damper do anything at all in FS & so I've not bother trying to squeeze it into the 2D panel.

Relight Override VC Co-pilot side only. When On this sets all engines to automatically attempt a relight in the event of an engine stopping. Starter Master switch (ignition panel) must always be off for relight to occur.

Top