Do you flight plan?

Always always have a flight plan! You leave the house and tell someone
where you are going and approximately how long it should take, give
others the same courtesy when you are in the air, or just at the
airport flying hangers or Pearl Harbor Day.

GPS is quite accurate, however it is not the be all, end all of
avionics. Use your checkpoints and check them with your clock, fuel
burns can vary quite a bit during the winter in a piston aircraft.

Have a great one!

Bush

" You've got a map, a clock, a compass and a a pencil, you ought to
be able to keep your course"!

"Ceiling Zero" Starring Pat O'Brian, 1935


On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 23:42:27 GMT, "Nasir"
wrote:

Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I have found myself getting lazy and I dont do all that I did when planning
x-countries when I was training. I tend to draw my line and mark
checkpoints, make sure I have plenty of fuel to get to my destination (plus
an hour more) based on 6gal/hr average. But I dont calculate
time/distance/fuel to each leg. I also have a GPS so that makes getting lazy
easier!

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

Nasir

Blanche writes:

Roy Smith wrote:

Along those lines, I think the most important thing to take on any trip
in a small plane is a fully-charged credit card. It can buy you fuel,
emergency repairs, dinner (or a hotel room) while you wait out weather,
a rental car, or an airline ticket.

Cash. Always accepted. Never refused.

Cash won't work at automated airport fueling stations without an
attendant (e.g. after-hours) in the US.

I like to cruise between 6,000 and 10,000 - there's NOBODY up there.

I go for the mid-latitudes, between 4500 and 6500. Well above the patterns
(in the MidWest), and well below the big boys.

My O-540 loves that altitude range as well.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote:

Nasir wrote:

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

If I haven't made the trip before, I crank up the computer and use the fuel
finder web site to get me a selection of fuel stops. Then I plug in a few of
these into my flight planning program and pick a route I like. I usually plan
for 2 to 3.5 hour legs. I'll usually plan two scenarios, one of which is a 25
knot headwind. I'll then transfer the route to sectionals. Since this area has
lots of controlled airspace, I will usually have to select waypoints that will
allow me to avoid problem areas, but those are the only waypoints I use or
chart. For example, a flight from New Jersey to Tennessee will start at 3N6. My
first waypoint is N67 (north of Philadelphia).

Better update that flight planner. N67 became KLOM a year or two ago.

Anyone know if there is any significance to the letters LOM or are they random? The
airport is in Whitpain Township, uses Blue Bell as its post office, and is near
Norristown. .

On 08 Dec 2003 18:22:18 -0800, Bob Fry wrote:

Blanche writes:

Roy Smith wrote:

Along those lines, I think the most important thing to take on any trip
in a small plane is a fully-charged credit card. It can buy you fuel,
emergency repairs, dinner (or a hotel room) while you wait out weather,
a rental car, or an airline ticket.

Cash. Always accepted. Never refused.

Cash won't work at automated airport fueling stations without an
attendant (e.g. after-hours) in the US.

Ours is automated and CC only. Unattended, period.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair?)
www.rogerhalstead.com
Return address modified due to dumb virus checkers

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:26:00 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

"Trent Moorehead" wrote:
Here's the important step: I checked over the Navigation log to make sure
that it somewhat matched my crude manual numbers.

Excellent idea. The problem with computers is not that they make
errors, but that they don't notice or care if you feed them bad data.
Garbage in, garbage out. Type in the name of a GPS waypoint wrong and
the computer is perfectly happy to send you to Nebraska instead of New
Jersey.

I once sat in the cockpit of an airline flight during the pre-flight
preparations for a flight to Bermuda. Between the plane's computers and
the airline's dispatch department, the flight was planned about as
carefully and accurately as possible. But the pilot still pulled out a
chart and a plotter (looked just like the one you got in your student
pilot kit, except that it had the airline's name printed on it and
looked like it had accumulated a lifetime's worth of dings and
scratches), drew some lines, and went over it leg by leg verifying that
the headings and distances the computer spat out looked reasonable.

This is one of the biggest problems with computers and machines. A
couple of studies about 10 years (or so) back showed that adults are
unlikely to question the output from a computer.

Most adults in the 50 and over group fall into two camps. Those that
can't, or won't use computers, and those who believe them to be
unfailing (Windows aside). Of course there is a small fraction who
believe them to be a creation of the Devil...

Young people are more likely to challenge the output of the computer
unless they are used to variable results as when using GPS, or
devices like computer games.

In between the reaction to faulty output is divided and no real
percentages exist as to how many behave in what way.

The problem is there is a very good chance of people, such as pilots,
accepting faulty output with little or no questioning. Hence it pays
to not only have completely independent navigation systems, but the
ability to fall back on pilotage where possible. Far too many accept
the current systems as their only need due to their reliability and
both let their pilotage skills atrophy and do not use independent
backup systems.

One thing to remember, that like pilotage the back up system does not
need to be as precise as the GPS, only "good enough for who its for".
IE Adequate. OTOH, those who don't trust computers are likely to
ignore inputs that they distrust. (The National Geographic episode
"Flying on Empty" is a prime example) This was the one where the
pilot received the award for the longest glider flight or something
similar.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair?)
www.rogerhalstead.com
Return address modified due to dumb virus checkers

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

There's really only two important questions for the vast majority of
flights most private pilots take:

1) Am I going to run into any weather I can't handle?

2) Am I going to have enough fuel to get there? Corellary: can I buy
fuel there, or do I need to plan on enough to get back too?

I agree, but I think there are two sorts of relevant question, of which
those represent one. They address the overall "should I even take off on
this flight?" issue. And that's necessary, but not the end of flight
planning. The other aspect is "can I do things now to minimize my workload
at difficult times?"

For example, one of the most important of these is the minimum altitude that
I can descend to for each leg, and how that might vary if I'm forced off
track by weather.

You have to consider that in context. I have the chart, and if all is quiet
in the cockpit I can just look at it and work out the minimum altitude.
It's if things get busy that the pre-planning might help. Same applies to
previewing IAPs, planning frequencies, and working out tracks for each leg.
Is it worth doing every single time? Maybe not, but there are times I've
been very grateful for some pre-work!

Julian Scarfe

"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
"John Smith" wrote in message
. ..

Correct, of course, but if you're not using pilotage, it'll be too rusty
to
use when you need it. Something you perhaps should schedule in a few
times a
year (a pilotage-only route)?

A few times a year? You must fly IFR a lot. As a VFR guy, I
always have the chart out and follow along, no matter what method of
navigation I'm using. If the nav radio or GPS bites the dust, I'm
already using pilotage.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Actually I fly VFR only, no GPS, and very seldom VOR/NDB, thus always
pilotage. I was only making the point that (to me) it seems a lot of people
rely heavily on GPS and are probably out of touch with dead reckoning. All I
was suggesting is that we all practise the basics as often as we can.

I knew someone would flame me... I wasn't looking for it, really.

Recently, Nasir posted:

Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries,
I was wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare
before the trip?

(snipped for brevity)

The idea behind the training for the PPL is to give you the tools needed
for most, if not all, situations. How much planning is needed depends on
many factors.

* Do you know where you are, and where you are going? For example, if you
live and fly in an area that you are intimately familiar with, then you'll
recognize landmarks along the way and know if you are going off course. If
you are unfamiliar with the territory, then you can't have too many
checkpoints.

* Is the wind favorable to land at your destination? During my student
days, my instructor gladly let me "plan" and go on a long xc, only to find
that there was no way to put the bird down at the destination because the
x-wind factor was beyond my personal maximums.

* The GPS is a great tool, but it isn't a substitute for planning. The
longer your x-c, the more planning you'll need to do.

* Do you *really* have enough fuel? I'm not sure what you're flying, but
nothing I fly will consume only 6 gph, except during "engine out"
practice! 8-)

Neil

Lynn Melrose wrote:

Better update that flight planner. N67 became KLOM a year or two ago.

Has to be more recent than that. It's N67 on a November, 2002 sectional.

George Patterson
Some people think they hear a call to the priesthood when what they really
hear is a tiny voice whispering "It's indoor work with no heavy lifting".