I see the latest batch of government approach plates are printed on nice white paper, rather like the stuff Jepp uses. Much better! The nasty old paper they used to use was very hard to read in low light conditions as the contrast was rather lacking. They are always one step behind Jepp, but at...

Just curious as to opinions about flying in IMC without an autopilot? Does an autopilot make flying in the clouds safer or is it just a crutch for the lazy? For myself being new to IFR flying I feel safer knowing that if needed I could turn the autopilot on. Maybe it is a false sense of...

A while back, I was with an experienced pilot, IMC, descending to land at my home airport. The airport is not in an environment where ATC will give vectors to final. As we approached, ATC asked which approach we wanted. He said that he was "going for the visual." The ceilings were right at the...

I KNOW this is a big can of worms, but I have a specific question relating to sub-paragraphs b.1 and b.2 of this regulation regarinding operating in icing conditions. It says "...no pilot may fly-- (1) Under IFR into konwn or forecast moderate icing conditions; or (2) Under VFR into known light or...

Yesterday I tried to plan a flight from Big Bear City (California) to Santa Monica, in a Bonanza. The routing I worked out was L35..DAWNA.V8.PDZ.V186 TIFNI.ELMOO.DARTS..KSMO. DAWNA is on a portion of the airway that shows a MEA of 10500 on the chart. Since I was westbound, I figured to climb to...

Departing cross country out of the Minneapolis area in severe clear, I will usually ask for either flight following or will file. I depart from KMIC, which is under the 4000 foot shelf of the MSP bravo airspace. For example, Friday I am going from KMIC to KGPZ, which is a couple hundred miles to...

Has anyone received a route clearance that included an intersection that was only on an approach chart and not in an Enroute Chart? Flew IFR from FRG to GON with the following clearance: Farmingdale Three, radar vectors BDR, direct MAD, MAD 126 radial to MONDI, direct. For the life of me I couldn't...

With all these questions about how to integrate GPS into our everyday operations, I'm tempted to believe we have allowed the advent of this wonderful new technology to send our thinking back to the dark ages! We want GPS to simply replace everything else - then all that "legacy" stuff just...

I have started another thread to get a consensus of opinion about what navigation equipment I will be allowed to use on my instrument check ride. Recently I installed in the Archer a complete new Garmin left stack including the GNS530. I kept one of the old KX170B's and its glideslope indicator...

Please excuse the hijacking of this religious/political forum to raise a question about flying. My partners and I are faced with a decision. What would you do? We plan to update our outdated panel with a GNS480. The CDIs currently installed are not compatible with the GNS480, so one of them will...

For those of you who have your instrument ticket, how many hours of actual IMC did you have when you got your ticket. At approx 40 hours of instrument time I have a 'whopping' .9 hours of ACTUAL IMC... I sincerely hope I'm going to get to see a lot more before I get my instrument ticket - which...

Being from Texas, and flying mostly in the Midwest and South, I have never asked for nor had any need for a contact approach. If I see the runway I tell the controller, and he gives me a visual. In fact, I can't remember ever hearing a contact approach requested around here. Then, I whenever I...

I was taught that, if I needed to file an IFR flight plan in the middle of a trip, I should contact FSS first to file and get clearance, then contact ATC. On the other hand, I hear frequent references in rec.aviation to pilots who just contact ATC directly. Does this depend on how busy ATC is -...

More gibberish and sensless unfounded babble. On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 21:22:38 -0700, "Tarver Engineering" wrote: "Richard Kaplan" wrote in message news:669da89399b1403eaf276544232ee932@TeraNews...

To Whom It May Concern: The FAA has told us that the lone controller at Lexington tower turned his back on Comair 191 and was busy with "administrative duties, traffic count" after he cleared Comair191 for takeoff while it was on the wrong runway. Initially, he admitted seeing Comair on the...

I recently filed IFR and received a clearance from Ground. As part of the clearance, I was told, "... after departure turn left heading 300 ..." I taxied to the active, did my run-up, called Tower and said I was ready for departure. I was soon cleared for takeoff. At about 1000 AGL, I began the...

Flying to Burnet, Texas (BMQ) the other day: "Houston Center, 7nz request vectors-to-final Burnet GPS-01, or else request direct JIBAJ for the GPS-19" "7nz, you're number three, cleared direct Burnet, expect further clearance 2125" .... I didn't understand what he was telling me to do once I got...

Last night I flew from SJC to VNY. To my astonishment I was cleared vectors to SNS, then direct VNY (despite having filed a more standard routing) at 9000 feet. I knew perfectly well that the routing was going to change because I've done that route a zillion times, and indeed, near...

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...

In the "good old" VOR days, it must have been pretty difficult to fly down the centerline of an airway (or of any direct track). So an eastbound VFR/IFR aircraft descending from 7500/7000 to his destination, was more than likely to avoid traffic... on the reciprocal track passing him by at 6500 or...