In article , Michael 182 wrote:
Why? If you are in the air for two hours, and you only have three hours
fuel, get on the ground and refuel. What difference does continually
checking waypoints make?

Well, I'd hardly call checking your progress every 30 to 60 minutes
'continously checking your waypoints', but the difference is it keeps
you more situationally aware, and keeps you in practise in case the
electrical system some day DOES take a dump. It also means you notice a
lot more about the flight, such as ground features, and generally makes
the flight a lot more fun.

My VFR flight planning approach is to draw a line on the chart, mark it
up with mileage points, then keep track of my progress on the same chart
during the flight (by marking my position whenever I notice anything of
interest on the ground, in minutes past the hour). If I then get unsure
of my position, it's trivially easy to find out where you are - it takes
seconds. Once you've navigated this method for a while, it feels like
you have a GPS built into your mind. I've navigated accurately from
coast to coast in the US using this method. It's enormously satisfying.

My day job involves messing with computers. I have a hobby of messing
with computers in my spare time. Flying allows me to get away from all
of that - hence I typically like older planes with the minimum required
electronics (which for me means a transponder and 720 channel COM
radio).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"