This chapter of the Back to Basics series focuses on the INS, the acronym for Inertial Navigation System. Often misunderstood or taken for granted, understanding the limitations, features, and potential issues of the INS is fundamental, along with knowing the alternative means the crew can use for navigation.
Part IV concludes this brief overview of the AN/ASN-92 Inertial Navigation System.
This part covers the means of fixing its most common issues, and discusses some of them with two former F-14 Radar Intercept Officers.
There are several means to update the INS Fix, such as via TACAN, LINK4 or Visual.
This article discusses the only method I have not covered so far: the Radar Update.
An aircraft carrier is a massive chunk of metal, it can drastically affect parts of the avionics.
Part III of this series practically determines the (sometimes dramatic) impact that operating from a Carrier has on the computed Magnetic Variation.
Part II of this brief series continues to introduce the basics of the INS. In particular, more details are added about the Navigation Modes, the Compass Controller panel located in the front seat, and the MagVar sources used by the avionics.
The Inertial Navigation System, usually simply called “INS”. Everyone knows what it is, but usually at very high-level, a usually self-sufficient black-box.
This series introduces the basic components of the INS, and tackles some of the issues affecting this fundamental part of the avionics.
