Is Glideplan still relevant?

There is no single item in the cockpit that provides the level of area awareness than a printed map especially in contests. The area, turn point orientations and task details are mostly lost on a tiny screen. Glideplan makes it easy to just print out the sectional with the turnpoints and landing points overlaid, slap on the clear shelf paper and your good to go. So my 2 cents are that Glideplan is relevant for all the XC, training, flight planning, inflight nav and competition.

Stories? When you are trying to figure out which side of the turn area to go or how deep and need how those cu up ahead sit in relation to the edge of the cylinder a printed map is by far the best.

One day in a nationals we are coming back late into the wind and its going blue. A single cu forms and sticks about 20 degrees off course. The lead bunch head off towards the cu but in looking at my Glideplan map I divine the cu is just past the edge of restricted airspace and go straight - and make it. Very, very handy.

John Seaborn

On Wednesday, December 24, 2014 3:32:02 PM UTC-8, John Seaborn (A8) wrote:

Glideplan makes it easy to just print out the sectional with the turnpoints and landing points overlaid, slap on the clear shelf paper and your good to go.

As an alternative to shelf paper, I use one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/TECHKO-LM1915-...5%22+LAMINATOR

It takes 30 seconds to laminate a chart - no bubbles, rigid or flexible depending on the laminating pouch thickness and pre-cut to most standard printer paper sizes. I generally print on two sides of 28 lb legal paper. They mark up easily with a Sharpie that won't rub off easily in the cockpit. Cleanup with a little nail polish remover or 5 minutes of elbow grease.

9B