It's been just about a year since I had gotten my IFR ticket, and have over 250 hours since, about 25 hours in actual. But, my personal minimums have been 1000 ft and 3 miles. Today (Knoxville, TN) we had perfect conditions to safely fly in the soup. (NO ICE) I got my instructor on board and we...

This weekend, I'm flying almost due south 340 nm from Ottawa to Philadelphia, as I mentioned in a separate posting. Inevitably, the legs of my planned flight zigzag around a track of 180 deg M, some slightly on the east side, and some slightly on the west. Consider this part of the trip, all on...

I'm curious about two types of transmissions from aircrafts: 1. squawk transponder Mode-C Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) or whatever 2. ACARS I know ACARS is around 131 Mkz usually, but what frequency is the SSR stuff? What would they sound like on a scanner? Does ACARS sound indeed like a...

One of our local pilots misunderstood a common Notam, as shown below. He thought the "ADD: From Shelby to RW 17: 3.52 degrees" meant add 3.52 degrees to the final approach course. How reasonable do you think his interpretation? (BTW, the notam just adds a descent gradient to a NP approach.) FDC...

On an IFR proficiency flight with my partner the other day, we got into a little debate about the best way to use the Garmin 430 for ATC position reporting. He uses the cursor on the map page to point at an airport or NAVAID, then reads out the distance and (reciprocal) bearing. I go to NRST, and...

Just stopped by my friendly local chart agent and they told me that Jeppesen isn't offering dealer pricing anymore, so the only way I can get Jepp plates is through a subscription. AFAICT from their site, my only option (I'm based at BED near BOS) is to buy a subscription that covers the Eastern...

Just a question for y'all out there. In-between lessons I've been practicing approaches using my OnTop IFR program. It seems to work, very well, in terms of getting me to recall the procedures and frequencies by sheer repetition when it comes to my actual lesson day. My question though: Is such...

I plan to buy my first airplane and "trade-up" in about 3-4 years. I expect my initial investment will be around $75K. At that price, it does not seem to be worth putting in brand new avionics to the tune of $12-$15K (thinking specifically about a Garmin 430/MX-20 combo, or a GX-50/MX-20 combo). ...

I've been told that it is possible to load successive approaches in the flight plan page but have been un able to either figure out how to do it or find any info in the manual about it. For instance if I wanted to create a flight plan to take off at one airport, fly to a second airport then...

I'm looking for challenging instrument approaches in the United States that I can have my students fly on the simulator. I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions. Any type of IAP is welcome as long as it makes the pilot work a little bit. Tia Richard Kowalski

In an article at http://avionicswest.com/archive/shootout.htm#2003 about Garmin 530 vs CNX-80, many of the pilots said that they would want a combination of a Garmin 530 AND an MX20. I do not understand. Isn't the Garmin 530 also an MFD capable of displaying multiple inputs, like weather and...

As we did last year, AeroFile is celebrating the Holiday Season (and my Birthday) with a sale of sorts. From December 1 to December 24, 2003, when you order copy of "Military Aircraft Designations and Systems" we will pay your shipping. What a great Holiday gift. We still have some...

With a waypoint on my 430 and pressing the OBS button my 430 draws a "radial". The radial that is on the obs indicator. What i don't understand is why the radial showing on the display is white and not magenta? The reciprical of the radial is magenta. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Thanks

I thought I'd share how I've been displaying the tracks of my flights. I found this very useful in helping me assess and analyze my errors. It's also been interesting on long flights into crowded airspace to see what the tracons actually do with us. I'm also hoping it will spark a discussion...

Any good online sources for the most likely routing you will get from ATC? All of the online flight planning sources I've found seem to only use the most direct via airways when selected vs the Preferred or TEC routing you almost always wind up getting.

Has anyone alse tried to use GPS in this area? Mine showed current location pretty accurate (within 1/4 mile) but indicated track wallowed +/- 20 degrees from actual. What sort of degradation tests are being run that wil affect GPS this way? No outages encountered, just misleading track...

When I quit flying some years back, RMI's were expensive and found generally only found in the "heavy metal". Now they seems quite common? What particular advantages do they offer? I can't find any good articles (other than marketing) on them. I was wondering if I should add one to a bird I plan...

It looks like the new CNX-80 is the way of the future. Has anyone used one?

Last month, Dave Butler wrote about a problem caused by the relocation of the SAV VOR. He has a Garmin GPSMAP 196, but this problem is probably present in many of their GPSs. I have a GPSMAP 295 and suspected it might have the same problem. I noticed today that Garmin has added version 2.40 to...

I have a Garmin 530 and a KAP 140 autopilot in my 182. I was practicing VOR approaches with the CDI on the 530 set to GPS. I noticed that the autopilot would warn that it was about to disengage when I reached the FAF. It does this consistently. If I put the CDI in VLOC, the autopilot would not try...