Overview

You will continue your flight training by leaning how to perform a maneuver called a rectangular course (Figure 201-1)
A rectangular course is a combination of straight level flight and level turns while tracking points over the ground. There will be markers to assist you with points to fly over and points at which to turn.

This mission uses the pointer, as well as the Point of Interest (POI) compass to guide you. These are features within Prepar3D, so verify that you have set all the correct settings, or this mission may not display correctly. The compass and pointer are designed to assist you with the measuring the distance from each pylon and to help point you in the correct direction.

Briefing

This lesson is the first one in a series of ground reference maneuvers. These maneuvers require the aircraft to be flown based on a ground track, which is your position over the ground. To maintain a ground track when the wind is blowing, a wind correction is needed during straight legs and truns. For more information on flying a track, refer to the otes section at the end of this briefing.

Rectangular course are meant to simulate flying a traffic pattern. You will practice dividing your attention between outside references and the flight instruments, as well as applying wind corrections to fly a perfect rectangle over the ground.

This lesson consists of flying rectangle by flying parallel to roads at 1/3 to 1/2 NM distance from the roads. Each road should be approximately 1 NM long and the maneuver should be performed at 600′ to 1,000′ above the ground.

A large pylon will mark each road intersection. On the ground, there will be small pylons to assist you in maintaining the ground tract. After each lap, a few of the small pylons will be removed, forcing you to maintain your distance from the road without their assistance. On the third lap, all pylons will be removed.