Search results

Instrument Rating is not hard, instrument flying is even easier. Have a couple conversations with a few of us with one and you'll quickly realize you don't need to be a sharp pencil to do it. Just have to scratch your way around until someone shakes your hand and hands you paper. I did mine in...

I was going to say this. You buy anything else and it is going to eventually be A20 + whatever you bought before it.

I had weather dense up on me in the California foothills this morning and MVA for about a 10 mile stretch, until clear of the foothills, was at 6000'. As soon as I knew I was about to be in Visible moisture at -2C I started to ask for lower. Ended up picking up traces of rim ice. Just a couple...

Here in Northern California, there is a lot of ice. It likes to sit just above the MEA. I fly a couple commercial gigs and when somebody needs to go somewhere you either go vfr below it or don’t go. Trips to Reno, Portland, or Tahoe are common and those are cold, high, and Icy routes. In some...

I don’t know why GA people feel like they need to push the limits and fly through ANY moisture near freezing. I like to equate flying in ice to driving on ice. Except when you crash you die. A standard GA airplane that a lot of us fly in is basically a FWD, no chains, no traction control...

OP, there a couple different options for you. When I am going somewhere with only gps approaches with a non-gps airplane I am looking for options. First thing to figure out is what the weather situation is. Is the overcast layer below the MEA? Answer is no? you won't need an approach. yes? go to...

my home airport sits right next to a river. I take off "0-0" fairly often for my commute. If there were a problem I wouldn't be going back to the airport. Sure there is some risk in that, but there is also risk in driving down the freeway in those same conditions. People around here get pretty...

Cirrus is going to sell a lot of these, so to conversation is totally subjective. But if I needed something that could push my family around at 300 knots I would be looking at comparable performance used TBMs. I wouldn’t touch a meridian Meridians are way to cramp. TBMs have the large door...

Autothrottle is a pretty big addition And it’s only 40 knots slower than it’s single turboprop competitor...

you just finished dinner with your wife, you walk outside and the valet guy says "you have to write me a check for $1200 to get your car back because I cleaned the windshield" I never asked him to do that. I would write the check, and cancel the check the minute I drove off. That valet guy will...

Nobody would have a problem if the controller just gave vectors to final after saying vectors to final. Instead some controllers say “vectors to final” then give a “direct to fix”. So pilots have to have 530 hacks to make it work. It’s easy to say unable, and if you tangle yourself that’s...

You want to load the whole approach not just vectors to final. Sometimes they will say vectors to final then give you a waypoint that was deleted by the procedure. Annoying but it is what it is

That is the key and should be the #1 thing anybody cares about, especially if you rely on the computer for charts. Ideally, when you ask the person next to you to pull up a chart, they can touch their screen a few times and show it to you. If it does that reliably, the name of the EFB doesn't...

I’d rather exit the cloud before I get to the busy vfr traffic. Half moon bay is one airport where I have approached from the north there on the gps approach and have exited the clouds through 1000 feet looking straight at a plane on upwind. I kid you not, the person actually told me that...

When I’m on an approach going the opposite direction of local vfr traffic, I prefer to be out of the clouds, able to see and be seen, as far away from the airport as possible. When I’m opting to do a step down over a gs it’s usually mvfr at the airport, I just need to get under the layer.

You can’t think of any scenario where you would rather get below the clouds faster/further out, than ride the glide slope? Most approaches aren’t flown to minima, they end before that

There are real world reasons to want to fly the localizer only instead of the whole ILS. Nothing wrong with ignoring the glide-slope in favor of localizer only minima

I have a friend who swears by FlyQ. He is a VFR only pilot. Every time we start flying instruments he pulls out his Ipad, fiddles around, it freezes, and I revert back to Foreflight on my phone. Another VFR only guy pulled out Garmin Pilot on his Ipad two days ago, EXACT same experience. I told...

I would be looking to get a slaved HSI if a 2k repair was due on a non-slaved one. G5 is an easy option. I would consider an Aspen too if you have a few extra dollars to spend.

On another note. Some of the worst instrument panels I have seen were "picked out" by people wanting all the gadgets for their instrument rating. If you are about to upgrade your panel before your rating, find someone that flies a lot of IFR and ask them what they would put in. When someone...