How to get the most from VFR XC's for IFR requirements?

Peter MacPherson wrote:

Also an excellent pilot shop(Airways) on the field at LNS.


wrote in message
...
On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 01:14:47 GMT, gregg wrote:

Now, my view is that the ohio trip comes first - them's my priorities.
;^) Course I'll have to gas up in Penn, most likely, on my way to Ohio.


Lancaster PA has an excellent restaurant on the field, and the people
are friendly.


Peter and CFEYEYE..lancaster, PA eh? You make it sound nice......

Gregg

Daniel L. Lieberman wrote:

Gregg,

What gives you the idea the croscountries must be VFR?

Well I don't have the idea that they have to be VFR. But I'll be doing many
of the next hours of XC VFR as I'l be adding challenges on each trip.


Fly them under the
hood and log them as both crosscountry and simulated instrument time. That
is what I did and my DPE was happy with it.

After a while I'll probably do that.

thanks

Gregg


Daniel

"gregg" wrote in message
news:m_0yd.303337$R05.271951@attbi_s53...
Hi all,

I've begun my IFR taining and at the same time, racking up the cross
country hours required for the ticket.

I'm wondering what things I could do in these strictly VFR XC's that
would
help me learn/gain insight or facility with the IFR world. So far I
have:

1) My CFII suggested I plan routes that VOR hop

2) Another CFII suggested I take along IFR enroute charts and look them
over
while enroute

3) it occured to me to select alternates and plan fuel reserves as if
this was IMC.

Are there any other things that could be done during a strictly VFR XC
that
would help?

thanks

Gregg

In respect to the airport, LNS(Lancaster, PA) is a nice airport. Good
restaurant on the field and very nice(and big) pilot shop. Be aware though
that the restaurant and the pilot shop are a hike from each other. I parked
in front of the restaurant and then taxied down to the pilot shop
afterwards.
The pilot shop does have a shuttle though that will pick you up at the
restaurant. I've never ventured outside the airport.



"gregg" wrote in message
news:M1oyd.619877$D%.374423@attbi_s51...
Peter MacPherson wrote:

Also an excellent pilot shop(Airways) on the field at LNS.


wrote in message
...
On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 01:14:47 GMT, gregg wrote:

Now, my view is that the ohio trip comes first - them's my priorities.
;^) Course I'll have to gas up in Penn, most likely, on my way to Ohio.


Lancaster PA has an excellent restaurant on the field, and the people
are friendly.


Peter and CFEYEYE..lancaster, PA eh? You make it sound nice......

Gregg

There is not requirement that they be VFR cross countries, it only
specifies cross country hours. Some of my X-C hours were dual in actual
IMC.

zatatime wrote:
On 21 Dec 2004 17:42:36 -0500, (Roy Smith) wrote:


So, find a safety pilot
(a fellow instrument student would be a perfect choice) and bring them
along so you can get some hood time.



I didn't look up the reg, but would think even if it doesn't violate
the letter of the law, doing your VFR cross countries under the hood
would violate the intent of the law.

What VFR skills are honed under the hood?

z

gregg wrote:

Practice holding heading and altitude exactly. See if you can go 10
minutes without deviating 5 degrees in heading or 50 feet in altitude.
Practice rolling out of turns exactly on your target heading, and
stopping climbs and descents exactly on your target altitude.
Practice making turns at exactly standard rate.

Good ideas but I think I might prefer to do this locally and not while on
an XC.

That's fine. Your safety pilot can play ATC and give you heading and
altitude changes.

[...]
If you are not comfortable talking to ATC, get as much ATC exposure as
you can. Plan all your trips to towered airports. Get flight
following. Talk to FSS to get weather updates and give them pireps.

Comfy with ATC and FSS. I fly out of a Class D near Boston - under part
of
the Boston Class B layer.

That's good. I know people trained in a similar situation under the Newark
class B that are not too comfortable with ATC.

- Andrew

Roy Smith wrote:

gregg wrote:
After that comes Dayton Ohio to meet a good buddy/pilot of mine.

Then Pennsylvania....

Hmmm. If you're in New England and you're still thinking that
Pennsylvania comes after Ohio, I think you might want to bone up on map
reading :-)

I used to live in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania would be at the bottom of my
list too.

BTW, Gregg, BVY, eh? I was just there a few weekends ago. The tower told
me to call an FBO that was closed, but it was on the wrong frequency
anyway. I had to taxi to the other side of the field for fuel, but they'd
no tie-downs there. Of course, there weren't transient tie-downs on the
side to which I was directed, either.

A little non-FBO called something like New England Aviator was very kind to
me, letting me borrow someone's tie down for a couple of days. Alas,
they're not permitted to fuel transients.

Rather weird place.

- Andrew

Peter MacPherson wrote:

In respect to the airport, LNS(Lancaster, PA) is a nice airport. Good
restaurant on the field and very nice(and big) pilot shop. Be aware though
that the restaurant and the pilot shop are a hike from each other. I
parked in front of the restaurant and then taxied down to the pilot shop
afterwards.
The pilot shop does have a shuttle though that will pick you up at the
restaurant. I've never ventured outside the airport.

I've never even been to the restaurant, but I can highly recommend Airways.
They've toys for pilots and aviation-interested-kids. One of my son's
favorite books is one I picked up there.

[I worry about him. The book walks him through a kind of preflight, but he
keeps wanting to open the door before flight. Not a skydiver, I hope.
Perhaps a CFI?]

A fellow club member (and USENETer) has weekended in that neighborhood (off
the field, oddly enough {8^) recently, and he speaks highly of it and the
local Amish.

- Andrew

Andrew Gideon wrote:
That's good. I know people trained in a similar situation under the Newark
class B that are not too comfortable with ATC.

There is no "Newark Class B". It's the "New York Class B", and don't
you forget it :-)

Roy Smith wrote:

Andrew Gideon wrote:
That's good. I know people trained in a similar situation under the
Newark class B that are not too comfortable with ATC.

There is no "Newark Class B". It's the "New York Class B", and don't
you forget it :-)

I expect your confusion stems from that funny accent used on the other side
of the Hudson.

Laugh

- Andrew