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#21
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
Dan,
I like the tip about using OBS #2 to hold altitude assignments! We've got one of those extra pointer thingies Sporty's sell put on the altimeter, with movable markers. Perfect - but not for renters. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#22
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
tscottme wrote:
wrote in message oups.com... Not me, at least not reliably. I hope that I get smarter and can devote more brain cell cycles to short term memory once I get better at flying the plane by reference to instruments! In the mean time it's safer for me to write everything down. These responses are giving me hope that this won't always be the case! The more you fly the more you will come to anticipate what to expect. That makes remembering things far easier than when you are a student. This change is akin to learning a new language. As a native English speaker I don't have to decode every utterance of someone and match it up with the one right word in an English dictionary. Once you engage in conversation you will take special note of the important words with meaning. If you were to try to have the same conversation in another language you would have to devote vast mental energy to every syllable and try to rapidly assemble the collection of syllables into words as you scrambled to remember the English meaning of those sounds. That would be a lot of hard work for anyone doing the same thing. Most of the problem you are is having to rapidly recognize and decode unusual items with almost no ability to anticipate what is coming next. Exactly. The hardest part of instrument training for me thus far has been the clearances. But the last two times out, especially last night, I finally got it. I even sounded (to my ears) smooth. It is really difficult to fly the plane and listen while in the back of your mind you're thinking about all the stuff the clearance is telling you, altitude turn the plane, set the radios etc. As for organization, I have the analog clock in the Cherokee Challenger (my favorite part of the plane) and a digital kitchen timer that is stuck on a blanking plate on the radio stack, ie: out of the way. I use a kneeboard with enroute chart on top, then scratch paper and then then checklist underneath that. don't forget your checklist. I have my checkride this Friday. The PTS mentions the "proper use of checklists" so I made up my own that incorporates the plane checklist with the IFR checklists I had. Now I have 1 nice one to refer to. I'll share it if you want. It has all the emergency stuff on there too. I wear a baseball hat with a pen stuck into the band near my head. We also have a wad of velcro on the dash with an extra pen stuck on that. Plus the plane logbook has extra pens. That goes in between the back seats. I also keep my loose plates in the binder back there. It is all within easy reach. Plates go on a yoke clip. All the plates I may need including the plates for the departure airport. Plates are in order of use. I think that is all of it. Oh yeah, flashlights. Each side pocket has a flashlight and my flight bag (on the back seat if passengers) otherwise on the front seat has a flashlight. I try to keep as many things as I can triple redundant. Good luck with the training. It is very intense. KC |
#23
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 19, 12:32 am, wrote:
On Feb 18, 9:54 pm, Roy Smith wrote: "Andrew Sarangan" wrote: Don't forget the flashlight. I have yet to find a good way to keep it from getting lost. It is too bulky to attach it to a string but it is too small to keep from rolling off into a crevice. Flashlights come in two styles. Style 1 has a wrist lanyard attached to it. These get hung over a horn of the yoke. Style 2 has no laynard. These get lost under the seat. How about flashlights attached to your head? Or your headset? I tried one of the LED "headlights", but it gave me a headache after awhile. It was sure was convenient though! Does anyone use the neck lights, seatbelt lights, ballcap lights, and even tongue switch lights they advertise in Sportys and Spruce? I once considered the headset mounting arrangement but wasn't too crazy about it. Every time I had to illuminate something I had to turn my head towards it instead of turning my eyeballs. I found that I was reaching for the flashlight and turning it by hand. Since excessive head movements are not the best thing in IMC, I abandoned this practice. I now carry an LED flashlight. Sometimes I do lose it. I have to try Roy's suggestion of attaching it to a lanyard. |
#24
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 19, 3:28 am, "tscottme" wrote:
wrote in message oups.com... Not me, at least not reliably. I hope that I get smarter and can devote more brain cell cycles to short term memory once I get better at flying the plane by reference to instruments! In the mean time it's safer for me to write everything down. These responses are giving me hope that this won't always be the case! The more you fly the more you will come to anticipate what to expect. That makes remembering things far easier than when you are a student. This change is akin to learning a new language. As a native English speaker I don't have to decode every utterance of someone and match it up with the one right word in an English dictionary. Once you engage in conversation you will take special note of the important words with meaning. If you were to try to have the same conversation in another language you would have to devote vast mental energy to every syllable and try to rapidly assemble the collection of syllables into words as you scrambled to remember the English meaning of those sounds. That would be a lot of hard work for anyone doing the same thing. Most of the problem you are is having to rapidly recognize and decode unusual items with almost no ability to anticipate what is coming next. -- Scott I know this is at least partially true. I learned to fly at an uncontrolled field, so at first I had limited exposure to the ATC lingo and was frequently tongue tied. I am now based at a Class D airport, so I've gotten much better at VFR verbiage. I know my IFR language skills are still dismal (what did he just say?). The combination of so much thought going into actually flying the airplane, adjusting the radios, reading the approach, and having ATC say something I wasn't expecting can put me in brain overload sometimes! Practice, practice, practice!!! |
#25
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
I fly with two of these.
I write down every frequency change. It's not a big deal and on the return flight it's nice to have all the frequencies written down so you know what to expect. I don't fly ifr that much. I always consider those radios (vor's and an ndb) as primary navigation. It's a simple matter to to glance at the gps (396) to verify. If you are a student, I would suggest a 396 and spend a bit of time learning it. You can quickly load the approaches and graphically see what atc is doing. Otherwise, during training, I found that I was just blindly following vectors without really visualizing. After doing the approaches for a while, you will start to anticipate atc. I now fly practice approaches without the gps. I like my old panel. 2 vor's, 1 ils, adf, vaccum and electric attitude, and 396 with weather. As long as you really understand how to use a vor, the rest is just repetative procedures that will become second nature. wrote in message oups.com... snip Unfortunately, not with KX-170B's. :-( snip |
#26
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 19, 6:00 am, Thomas Borchert
wrote: How many folks use a kneeboard? I do. Zuluworks Zuluboard with binder rings, so that approach plates go in there, too. I take them out to the yoke clip when I know which one I need. I put STARs, Approaches and SIDs in one plastic pocket each. The Zulupad form is nicely tailored too IFR flying, too. I haven't tried using a kneeboard yet, but the Zuluworks one you describe sure sounds handy! I'll check out their website. What kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? The ASA stopwatch. I know, it's expensive and kitchen timers do the trick. But I use the ASA timer for holds, approaches, fuel tank switching and getting "the time" both in Zulu and local. All that in one gimmick - that's worth the money to me. It goes on the velcro top of the ASA yoke clip I use. It does cover part of the panel, but one can easily work around it. I've been leaning toward an analog stopwatch, just for the simplicity. Maybe after I have my rating, I can graduate to a full blown ASA with all the bells and whistles! Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? Kneeboard and the side pocket in our plane, right by the knee. That's where the laminated checklists go, too. I clip them to the yoke until take-off, because that's when there is much to read. Good idea! How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? Full clearances, yes. Headings, altitudes, transponder codes and freqs, no, unless they are part of a clearance I'm writing down anyway (CRAFT is a nice acronym for that: Clearance limit, Route, Altitude, Freq, Transponder). But we have a transponder with buttons. I'm not there yet, since my short term memory seems to be impaired while wearing the IQ reducer (foggles). In the mean time, I have to (or should) write everything down. How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? The Zuluboards have these nice big pen holder pockets. Really neat, they work well in turbulence. For dropping protection, I have several pens in those pockets. One thing I haven't figured out yet is where to put the handheld backup GPS (we have a Garmin 430 in the plane). I would NEVER fly without at least a handheld GPS in IMC (if there is none in the panel - if there is, I still like the backup). The cost of that safety device has become trivial, with the Lowrance Airmap 500 or 600c. One can put it on the yoke, and I would if it were my primary GPS, to have it in the scan. But in my set-up, it then gets obscured by anything on the yoke clip. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) I've been thinking about handheld GPS placement also (after the checkride). I've been using the yoke so far (VFR flying), but I think having the approach plates directly in your scan may be more important. I've thought about using the industrial strength suction cup attached to the side window Lowrance includes (for cars). Thanks! |
#27
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 19, 6:41 am, Kevin Clarke wrote:
tscottme wrote: wrote in message roups.com... Not me, at least not reliably. I hope that I get smarter and can devote more brain cell cycles to short term memory once I get better at flying the plane by reference to instruments! In the mean time it's safer for me to write everything down. These responses are giving me hope that this won't always be the case! The more you fly the more you will come to anticipate what to expect. That makes remembering things far easier than when you are a student. This change is akin to learning a new language. As a native English speaker I don't have to decode every utterance of someone and match it up with the one right word in an English dictionary. Once you engage in conversation you will take special note of the important words with meaning. If you were to try to have the same conversation in another language you would have to devote vast mental energy to every syllable and try to rapidly assemble the collection of syllables into words as you scrambled to remember the English meaning of those sounds. That would be a lot of hard work for anyone doing the same thing. Most of the problem you are is having to rapidly recognize and decode unusual items with almost no ability to anticipate what is coming next. Exactly. The hardest part of instrument training for me thus far has been the clearances. But the last two times out, especially last night, I finally got it. I even sounded (to my ears) smooth. It is really difficult to fly the plane and listen while in the back of your mind you're thinking about all the stuff the clearance is telling you, altitude turn the plane, set the radios etc. As for organization, I have the analog clock in the Cherokee Challenger (my favorite part of the plane) and a digital kitchen timer that is stuck on a blanking plate on the radio stack, ie: out of the way. I use a kneeboard with enroute chart on top, then scratch paper and then then checklist underneath that. don't forget your checklist. I have my checkride this Friday. Good Luck! Please let us know how it went down! The PTS mentions the "proper use of checklists" so I made up my own that incorporates the plane checklist with the IFR checklists I had. Now I have 1 nice one to refer to. I'll share it if you want. It has all the emergency stuff on there too. Please do share it! I wear a baseball hat with a pen stuck into the band near my head. We also have a wad of velcro on the dash with an extra pen stuck on that. Plus the plane logbook has extra pens. That goes in between the back seats. I also keep my loose plates in the binder back there. It is all within easy reach. Plates go on a yoke clip. All the plates I may need including the plates for the departure airport. Plates are in order of use. I think that is all of it. Oh yeah, flashlights. Each side pocket has a flashlight and my flight bag (on the back seat if passengers) otherwise on the front seat has a flashlight. I try to keep as many things as I can triple redundant. Good luck with the training. It is very intense. KC Thanks for all the tips KC! Don't forget to let us know about the checkride! |
#28
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
Lots of good advice.
For timers, I use: http://www.lcflight.com/timers.html "4 Channel Alarm /Clock Timer" #1 is the 'active' timer (expected times, times approaches, etc.), #3 and #4 are fuel tanks. #2 is the countdown for beverage and meal service, ie I dont' use it. ;-) My CFII said it was too complicated but I had used it when I worked in a laboratory and it is very simple to use. A few weeks later after he told me this, I saw a picture of the cockpit of SpaceShipOne and it had one mounted in it. Gerald |
#29
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
I've been using the yoke so far (VFR flying), but I think
having the approach plates directly in your scan may be more important. Well, actually, my CFII insisted that after a proper approach briefing you shouldn't really need to look at the plate much anymore. Certainly not enough to warrant a need to have it in your scan. The minimum altitudes should be memorized, as well as the first part of the missed. I've thought about using the industrial strength suction cup attached to the side window Lowrance includes (for cars). Yep, the RAM mount suction cups will certainly work. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#30
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 19, 10:18 am, "dlevy" wrote:
I fly with two of these. I write down every frequency change. It's not a big deal and on the return flight it's nice to have all the frequencies written down so you know what to expect. I don't fly ifr that much. I always consider those radios (vor's and an ndb) as primary navigation. It's a simple matter to to glance at the gps (396) to verify. If you are a student, I would suggest a 396 and spend a bit of time learning it. You can quickly load the approaches and graphically see what atc is doing. Otherwise, during training, I found that I was just blindly following vectors without really visualizing. After doing the approaches for a while, you will start to anticipate atc. I now fly practice approaches without the gps. I have a Lowrance 2000C, but you can't load the approaches directly. However the waypoints are depicted, and it's valuable to see where you are (while being vectored) in relation to the FAF. I've only done this so far while acting as a safety pilot, and found that ATC continued to vector us inside the FAF on one occasion. OK for practice, but not so good if we were in real IMC! Visualization is sure tough (for me) without the GPS. The Garmin 396 (or 496) with weather is on my wish list! I like my old panel. 2 vor's, 1 ils, adf, vaccum and electric attitude, and 396 with weather. As long as you really understand how to use a vor, the rest is just repetative procedures that will become second nature. I've read an interesting article about an alternative way to interpret the VOR. Has anyone read Joe Campbell's IFR diary, or this article: http://www.campbells.org/Airplanes/VOR/vor.html ? If so, what did you think? wrote in message oups.com... snip Unfortunately, not with KX-170B's. :-( snip |
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