More newbie Qs

Andrew Sarangan wrote

I would not recommend stick & rudder. John Denker's online book is much
better. Stick & rudder is very old, and a lot of things presented there
as 'revolutionary ideas' have been well known for many years. It gets
dry pretty fast.

I completely concur.

Bob Moore

in any case.... the reference is always to nautical.. in this day and age..

BT

"Ron Garret" wrote in message
...
In article SL5Bd.2351$232.844@fed1read05,
"BTIZ" wrote:

5. When pilots use miles in conversations, does it mean the miles we
normally use, or is it always nautical miles?

It's supposed to be always nautical, but distance estimates are often
wrong by more than 10%, which is the different between nautical and
statute miles, so it often doesn't really matter.

how can that be.. a distance is a distance.. who said anything about
"estimates"..
If I measure 10nm then it is 10nm.. if my DME says I'm x miles from
station
y, then that's where I am... there is no 10% error..

Read the question again: "When pilots use miles in conversations..."
When a pilot says, "Five miles from the field" the actual physical
distance is never exactly five miles.

Even when your DME says x miles from station y that is *not* where you
are. At best, it is the slant-line distance, and at worst it's a
completely arbitrary number because your DME could be kerfliggered.
Furthermore, a VORTAC is more or less a point, but an airport isn't. A
typical airport is many tenths of miles (of either flavor) long/wide.
You'd have to pick an arbitrary point on the field and measure your
distance to that. What do you pick? The tower? What if there is no
tower? The middle of the runway? What if there's more than one runway?
The end of the runway? Which end?

So you see, the actual physical distance from your airplane to an
airport is not even well defined. So when a pilot says "I'm five miles
from the field" what he really means is "I'm somewhere in the vicinity
of five miles" at which point it doesn't much matter what kind of miles
are meant.

rg

In article FviBd.3074$232.1342@fed1read05,
"BTIZ" wrote:

in any case.... the reference is always to nautical.. in this day and age..

Not quite. The correct answer is the one I originally gave:

It's supposed to be always nautical...

Whether the reference actually *is* to nautical or not (and, somewhat
orthogonally, whether this number actually has any relation to physical
reality) depends on whether the pilot knows what they're doing. But,
again, the vast majority of the time it doesn't matter.

rg

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
nk.net...
I have a question for you, after watching these endless series of
questions, and it's not meant to be hostile in any way; just curious.

The questions you ask on these groups are quite complex, and require
substantial effort to answer by the returning posters. I can't speak for
the rest of the group, but I for one have avoided you because the
questions you are asking are readily available in books and manuals that
you can purchase easily if you take the time and effort to do so.

Hi Dudley,

I think part of the problem is that if I read it correctly, Ramapriya
is in India...it's an Indian name and his sig used to say vsnl which
is an Indian ISP. It may not be quite so easy as to go along to his
local FBO or hang out at the local flying club, as this may be
hundreds of miles away.

Maybe someone could suggest some links on the net that he
could look up to do some reading on the subject of airliner flights
and how they compare to private flights and perhaps recommend
some ground study material for the various questions one is likely
to come across, either on the net or as books he can purchase
from Amazon or somewhere.

I could suggest that a lot of the questions would be covered by
the groundschool course for the FAA PPL?

Cheers,
Paul (UK)

"Paul Sengupta" wrote in
message ...
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
nk.net...
I have a question for you, after watching these endless series of
questions, and it's not meant to be hostile in any way; just curious.

The questions you ask on these groups are quite complex, and require
substantial effort to answer by the returning posters. I can't speak
for the rest of the group, but I for one have avoided you because the
questions you are asking are readily available in books and manuals
that you can purchase easily if you take the time and effort to do
so.

Hi Dudley,

I think part of the problem is that if I read it correctly, Ramapriya
is in India...it's an Indian name and his sig used to say vsnl which
is an Indian ISP. It may not be quite so easy as to go along to his
local FBO or hang out at the local flying club, as this may be
hundreds of miles away.

Maybe someone could suggest some links on the net that he
could look up to do some reading on the subject of airliner flights
and how they compare to private flights and perhaps recommend
some ground study material for the various questions one is likely
to come across, either on the net or as books he can purchase
from Amazon or somewhere.

I could suggest that a lot of the questions would be covered by
the groundschool course for the FAA PPL?

Cheers,
Paul (UK)

If this is true, that would be a perfectly reasonable explanation and a
workable scenario for a newsgroup "quiz quest" I'll have to admit. It
would really have helped his approach, assuming something like this is
the case, had he mentioned this up front.
Actually, since all of what he wants to know has already been printed,
and much of it is available on the net, my option would still be to
point him to the correct links rather than sit down and type out all
these complicated answers; not to mention the usual Usenet confusion
between the answers being offered by various posters :-)
Because this poster has been so respectful to everyone, I tried my best
not to seem hostile when I posted to him. I'm fairly sure his intent
hasn't been to put anyone out.
These kinds of posts have always posed a problem for me. On one hand,
you want to try and help people. Actually, that's why most of us post
here to begin with.
I know over on the student group I always shy away from answering posts
from students asking questions their instructors should be answering for
them like, " I'm having trouble with my flare. What am I doing wrong?"
Over here on "piloting", it's the "laundry list" post that I try and
avoid for basically the same reason. There are available sources already
in place that can deal directly with the issues being asked about.
Rather than answer something like "how does a VOR work?", I've always
felt it better to give a link to a competent source of that information
for the poster rather than sit down at the keyboard and type out a
meaningful and accurate explanation on how a VOR functions. It's just me
I guess, but to me it makes sense that way.
If, on the other hand, a poster asks a specific question that can be
answered directly and without a lot of unnecessary typing, I'll post on
it.
I think in retrospect, that you might be right about this poster's
location.
Perhaps if he changes that "laundry list" approach a bit and addresses
things one at a time, he'll have a much improved and more enthusiastic
response on the groups.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
for private email; make necessary changes between ( )
dhenriques(at)(delete all this)earthlink(dot)net

"Dudley Henriques" wrote

I think in retrospect, that you might be right about this poster's
location.
Perhaps if he changes that "laundry list" approach a bit and addresses
things one at a time, he'll have a much improved and more enthusiastic
response on the groups.
Dudley Henriques

He has posted this information before, about where he lives, but I forgot.
He travels out of his country for work quite a bit, and basically, is all
alone at night with his computer for company.

Interest, and free time to post, and... g

I agree, about the laundry list. One question to respond to is doable. 2,
ok. 6 or 8, no way that many are going to take the time.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote

I think in retrospect, that you might be right about this poster's
location.
Perhaps if he changes that "laundry list" approach a bit and
addresses
things one at a time, he'll have a much improved and more
enthusiastic
response on the groups.
Dudley Henriques

He has posted this information before, about where he lives, but I
forgot.
He travels out of his country for work quite a bit, and basically, is
all
alone at night with his computer for company.

Interest, and free time to post, and... g

I agree, about the laundry list. One question to respond to is
doable. 2,
ok. 6 or 8, no way that many are going to take the time.
--
Jim in NC

I think if in the future he simply tackles them one at a time, he'll
have much better general response as we're saying.
He was lucky he ran into a couple of the regulars this time out who felt
like dealing with the "list", but for a general rule, the simple, non
complicated approach is better for him I think.
Have a great new year,
Dudley

Dudley Henriques wrote:

If this is true, that would be a perfectly reasonable explanation and a
workable scenario for a newsgroup "quiz quest" I'll have to admit. It
would really have helped his approach, assuming something like this is
the case, had he mentioned this up front.

He did. Long ago.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Dudley Henriques wrote:

If this is true, that would be a perfectly reasonable explanation and
a
workable scenario for a newsgroup "quiz quest" I'll have to admit. It
would really have helped his approach, assuming something like this
is
the case, had he mentioned this up front.

He did. Long ago.

That's fine, but with "laundry list" posts, it might be advisable that
people posting them mention these things more than "long ago" so that
those who might have missed that "long ago" post are aware of it.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
for private email; make necessary changes between ( )
dhenriques(at)(delete all this)earthlink(dot)net