What is it?

QuDieM NAVIGATOR offers the typical PPL pilot and student a practical and easy to use navigation aid, suitable for pre-flight and in-flight VFR and Radio Navigation planning and plotting without the need for any additional rulers, protractors etc. This package of features, convenience and simplicity is unique.

There is no requirement for measurements or markings.

QuDieM NAVIGATOR is tailored to airspeeds of 100kts �10%, a range covering the cruising speed of the majority of single engine light aircraft. Careful design has ensured that the indicated wind compensation accuracy over this speed range is well within practical limits.

With no need for supplementary plotting or computing tools, QuDieM NAVIGATOR is a uniquely versatile and convenient aid that is equally suited to pre-flight and in-flight planning.

The capability to easily plan a diversion without reliance on the mental application of traditional "rules of thumb" under exam conditions makes it particularly relevant to student pilots undertaking their navigation skill test.

Compatibility with VOR and NDB tracking and position locating ensures that whatever the navigation challenge, QuDieM NAVIGATOR is the aid you will want at hand.

Basing the instrument on the speed range of the typical light aircraft enables simplicity of operation, much greater clarity of information and presents no practical limitation for the majority of PPL pilots.

Most light aircraft operate over a relatively narrow range of airspeed, altitude and wind conditions.

Previous wind computing aids have been designed to provide mathematical precision over a wide range of aircraft operating and wind conditions. They originate from a time when dead reckoning was the norm and flight crews included a dedicated navigator. As a result they are complex to use, inflexible and rely on supplementary plotting instruments making them inconvenient, impractical for use in-flight by a solo pilot and expensive.

In the real world absolute precision in the arithmetic computation of planned heading and sector time is rendered academic by:

The near certainty that wind conditions encountered en-route will be different from the forecast on which the computation was based.
Differences between calculated and actual TAS due to actual atmospheric conditions.
Combined inaccuracies of standard flying instruments, in particular Direction Indicator and Magnetic Compass and their mutual alignment.
Inaccuracies inherent in the conventional methods, i.e. marking up of charts, measurement of track bearing and distance, marking and interpretation of wind computers.

QuDieM NAVIGATOR has been designed from the standpoint of the light aviation pilot whose need is for a single versatile instrument that is easy to use on the ground and in-flight, inexpensive and practical over a limited range of aircraft operating and wind conditions.

Principle of Operation
QuDieM NAVIGATOR operates by establishing the relationship between true and magnetic compass, track (course) and wind direction and using this to display still-air magnetic heading and sector time (ETA) at 100kts, together with their associated compensation factors. Pre-selection of wind speed provides that only the related compensation factors are displayed.

Having pre-set magnetic variation and wind parameters, the planned track heading and distance are set into the instrument by aligning the centre of the instrument over the departure point on a 1:500,00 chart and adjusting the Bearing Arm to position the Target Aperture over the next waypoint.

Accuracy
Wind Correction is calculated at sixteen points of relative wind direction/track around the compass. Compared to those obtained using a conventional wind computer:

Wind Corrected Heading is within

2� for wind speeds up to 20kts, a deviation of just two miles in sixty.
4� for wind speeds up to 40kts.

Wind Corrected Sector Time (ETA) at 100kts is within

4% for wind speeds up to 20kts, less than 2.5mins in an hour's flight.
8% for wind speeds up to 40kts.
Different IAS's have a substantially constant impact on sector time and are easily accounted for, e.g. flying at 90kts will increase the Sector Time by 10%.