Housekeeping chores

house keeping chores inflight?
I dont really do any thing, flip on the auto pilot and relax, follow along on
my map, cross check VOR's, 30 minutes out get anything ready I need to land,
if its going to me an instrument approach get everything out and review it,
pull up the proper frequencies, setup for the approach.


Wizard of Draws wrote:

Enroute and in between approaches, they say if you aren't doing something,
you've forgotten something.
I've come across a few checklists on the web that include a few items to
check enroute, and I'd like to get a feel for what you folks here feel are
your best enroute "housekeeping chores".
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
www.wizardofdraws.com
www.cartoonclipart.com

In article ,
Wizard of Draws wrote:
Absolutely. That's one of the primary reasons I love to fly: the view. But
right now I'm winding up my IFR training and so far, there hasn't been a lot
of 'enroute' time to think about housekeeping.

I intentionally planned a few of our approach flights to include some
complicated enroute parts on the way. Even so I think enroute was the
weakest part of my training -- after reading IFR diaries from people in
the Bay Area my ATC experience seems pretty bland by comparison. I never
got any reroutes other than radar vectors.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt

Jon Kraus wrote:
IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)

Good thing I didn't know that or I'd not have been able to fly my
Skylane for six years in IFR! The Skylane also apparently didn't know
that it needed an autopilot as it flew in the clouds just fine without
it. :-)

There were a few times when an AP would have been nice, such as when
getting a full route reroute and having to reprogram the GPS, but even
that could be done in stages. Just get the first waypoint in and then
you could add the others one or two at a time.

Does tend to keep your flying skills pretty sharp ... and I never had to
worry about my AP failing at a critical time.


Matt

Kidding aside, the autopilot takes the monotony and boredom out of IFR. To
me, there is nothing challenging about maintaining altitude and track for
hours at a time in the clouds. It is just boring as hell. The autopilot is
not a substitute for hand-flying skills. One must always be sharp enough to
go without. I usually hand fly approaches, because I enjoy it. If I am
really tired for some reason, or the ceilings are really low, it is actually
safer to use the autopilot which can fly the approach better than I can.

My initial and instrument flight instructor back in the early '90s went on
to flying ATR turboprops for American Eagle. One time he called me up out
of the blue to see if I wanted to go fly some practice approaches in my
plane. I was amazed to find out that the commuter planes then were not
equipped with autopilots. He said with two pilots on board, and short, fast
hops between stops, it was never really an issue.

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt

Why? I've only recently put an autopilot in my plane, and it is jsut a
single axis one at that. Before installing it, I've never flown IFR WITH and
autopilot equipped plane (I have ~1100 hrs in 'the system'). Autopilot is
nice for flipping maps, taking clearances etc, but I don't consider it
mandatory. Even now, I hand fly most of the time. The autopilot mostly gets
used only when attending to other chores. For flying in the Northeast, I
think having a strikefinder or equiv spherics detector is a much higher
priority than having an autopilot.

Jon Kraus wrote:

IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Dan Thompson wrote:

Are you kidding? The autopilot is a go/no-go item.

"Hankal" wrote in message
...

Study my Garmin 530 manual and learn three more things it does. Or
do a


VOR

cross check. Or total up the columns in my log book. Or trim


fingernails,

finish the crossword puzzle. If it is a real cross country you have


plenty

of dead time.


You are either a super pilot or have a autopilot.





What's an autopilot? :-)

Matt


--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Ray Andraka wrote:
Why? I've only recently put an autopilot in my plane, and it is jsut a
single axis one at that. Before installing it, I've never flown IFR WITH and
autopilot equipped plane (I have ~1100 hrs in 'the system'). Autopilot is
nice for flipping maps, taking clearances etc, but I don't consider it
mandatory. Even now, I hand fly most of the time. The autopilot mostly gets
used only when attending to other chores. For flying in the Northeast, I
think having a strikefinder or equiv spherics detector is a much higher
priority than having an autopilot.

I agree. My Skylane had a Strikefinder, but no AP. I seldom even
wished for an AP. I'd have much rather had a moving map GPS.

Matt

I never said you couldn't fly IFR without an autopilot. For myself being
new to IFR flying I wouldn't chance IMC without the autopilot working.
Since my club only has newer planes, they all have two axis autopilots,
that way if something happens (spacial disorientation) I'm covered. I
think I'll bring up this topic in a new thread and see what kind of
responses I get. Thanks for the enlightenment.

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Matthew S. Whiting wrote:

Jon Kraus wrote:

IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)


Good thing I didn't know that or I'd not have been able to fly my
Skylane for six years in IFR! The Skylane also apparently didn't know
that it needed an autopilot as it flew in the clouds just fine without
it. :-)

There were a few times when an AP would have been nice, such as when
getting a full route reroute and having to reprogram the GPS, but even
that could be done in stages. Just get the first waypoint in and then
you could add the others one or two at a time.

Does tend to keep your flying skills pretty sharp ... and I never had
to worry about my AP failing at a critical time.


Matt

On 4/3/04 9:05 AM, in article , "Dan
Truesdell" wrote:

Good luck on the long XC. Hope for clouds. Half of mine was in and out
of the clouds, which required the hood. 1/4 was above the deck (great
view of a US Air Dash-8 breaking through the undercast, then holding at
5000' while we passed over). 1/4 of the trip was in solid IFR. Great
experience and easier IMHO than using the hood.

No XC today, too much breeze. Trying to get this thing done is like
scheduling a checkride. This is try #3.
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
www.wizardofdraws.com
www.cartoonclipart.com

"Ray Andraka" wrote in message
...
Why? I've only recently put an autopilot in my plane, and it is jsut a
single axis one at that. Before installing it, I've never flown IFR WITH
and
autopilot equipped plane (I have ~1100 hrs in 'the system'). Autopilot is
nice for flipping maps, taking clearances etc, but I don't consider it
mandatory. Even now, I hand fly most of the time. The autopilot mostly
gets
used only when attending to other chores. For flying in the Northeast, I
think having a strikefinder or equiv spherics detector is a much higher
priority than having an autopilot.

Jon Kraus wrote:

IMHO an autopilot is a must have if you are flying IFR. :-)



Under a situation of limited funds, one must weigh alternatives. This
article (from a autopilot manufacturer, so take what they say with a grain
of salt) does make some damn good, well reasoned points (in the form of a
decision tree at the end of the article).

www.s-tec.com/pdf/AutoPilotBook.pdf