My approach plate briefing, especially while flying, could use some improvement. I received my instrument rating last March and have about 75 hours of actual IMC time since then, but I honestly feel my briefing of the chart is not as thorough as it must be for optimum situational awareness. I am...

I actually received this comment today from an FSS (US Flight service) specialist when I called for an IFR flight briefing for a flight from Boston back to Syracuse, NY, early this afternoon. The Bridgeport FSS specialist was not joking either. He went on to say that too often pilots express...

Last Friday I flew with another pilot to Starke County, Indiana (KOXI) to pick up my stranded Bonanza. The airport is only served by one instrument approach, a VOR/GPS approach, linked he http://www.myairplane.com/databases/approach/pdfs/06847VG18.PDF Until this approach, I had not...

As an owner of a Garmin GNS430 who will most likely upgrade to the WAAS capability, I downloaded and installed the Garmin GNSxxx WAAS simulator last night, then "flew" a couple of RNAV/GPS approaches with LPV minimums. http://www.garmin.com/products/gns430/ (simulator download link on right of...

Due to a business meeting, I will be flying from NY to Miami, Florida in a few weeks. In looking over the en route charts, I see a lot of MOAs, restricted, and prohibited airspaces throughout Florida. Also, my destination is Kendall-Tamiami (KTMB), which is just southwest of Miami International...

Sam and others, I have about 1,100 hours now with about 700 of those flown after getting my instrument rating in the US back in 2003. Since then I have flown IFR almost twice per week. On a web-based aviation forum there is a general disagreement of the terms DA (decision altitude) versus DH...

One of my two non-WAAS Garmin GNS430 database cards has somehow died and remembering to pull the only one from my unit to bring home and burn has become risky, so I am looking for another spare card. There are a couple on eBay but I thought I would at least see if any of you here have spare, old...

Just picked up my aircraft with the GNS430W upgrade and was reading the manual to see what new features are now included. In there I discovered the feature that allows the pilot to purposely fly a parallel offset course anywhere from 1 to 99 miles. The only tedious characteristic of this...

Just spotted this on AOPA's site: _Garmin releases WAAS software upgrade for 400W/500W models_ http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2007/071206garmin.html ----------------- start of article ---------------------------------------------- Owners of Garmin's GNS400W and 500W models can now get a...

wrote: But is the compact flash card written with the Sandisk writer similarly GPS unit specific? I cannot see how it could be. Is there any way to write out a backup flash card for example (I have a spare flash card from BK). Yes, if I understand your question...

Looks like Jeppesen is finally dropping their prices on JeppView and no longer penalizing for convenience. Thus, over the next week I am going to switch from the paper Airway Manual and that time-consuming, every two-week amendment filing service to JeppView. I remember reading that there are...

This morning I flew into Erie (KERI), a class D airport in northwest Pennsylvania along Lake Erie. Weather was low IFR with 500 foot ceilings, 4 mile visibility, and winds out of the southwest. An ILS to runway 24 was in...

Thanks to Rod Machado's article in May's _AOPA Pilot_, which was a recap of another aviation safety enthusiast's lecture, I just learned that there may be a big discrepancy in a storm's intensity when comparing its base reflectivity (what is actually falling out of the cloud) to its composite...

Tom Fleischman wrote: If you want to read something really disturbing, this is it. Is there something specific that is disturbing, or are you referring to the entire report? I read through it and, while it is always disturbing when an accident...

For several weeks now I have been flying to the Dunkirk airport (KDKK, NY State, US) for business. Most weeks, the weather was VFR for my departure. However, the last two weeks the weather was IFR and adherence to this airport's obstacle departure procedure was required. The procedure is very...

Today I dropped an Angel Flight patient off at Massena, NY (KMSS), an uncontrolled airport in the very north portion of NY state. The weather was 50 feet above minimums and the ILS was the only way in. Once the patient was safely in the warm terminal, I preflighting and started up, only to...

Today I was practicing a GPS approach and had been cleared for the approach with the normal, "Cessna XXX, cross ELESE at 3,000, cleared GPS 15 approach." A minute or so later the controllers switched positions and another one took over that slice of airspace. The new one came on frequency and...

This is my second year using the Jepp paper approach plates and performing the tedious year-end checklist for my Northeast US subscription. The first year I needed exactly 40 sheets sent (their limit for my region), do mostly to my filing mistakes throughout the year. As a goal, I vowed to do...

We have put up on you tube a Video of an actual Four course Radio Range Station that we built and placed on the air. . The four course radio range system was the backbone navigation system used world wide from 1928 to 1970 until replaced by the VOR. We have actual flying with Audio of what the...

In 1837, Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor's New Clothes. It may be the very first example of the power of political correctness. It is the story of the Ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance (FAA MANAGEMENT)...