Become familiar with all available information concerning each flight

SkyHog said:
My preflight:

Call AFSS, give them the information and then find something interesting to do for about 5 minutes while they waste my time with "Strong storm activity over the Eastern Plains of Kansas...." while listening for "Hmm, well, lets see if there's any TFRs in your direction."

Then I go out and check the weather myself using http://www.aviationweather.gov

If I'm going further than 200nm, I'll also plan the flight using http://www.flightprep.com (was free when I signed up, I think there's a charge now) and I'll print out a navlog.

If its less that 200nm, I'll look at the sectional and say "I have all of my required information."

Then I grab my worst case and best case Weight and Balance sheets and my stuff and I head out to the airport.

The rest of the stuff is useless to a VFR pilot. Either its go, or its no go, and I figure as long as I can successfully argue to an inspector that I've taken proper precautions, I'm golden.
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Everything you need to know about the destination is on the sectional?
 
dmccormack said:
Everything you need to know about the destination is on the sectional?
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He's using the governmental security services definition of need to know. Not whether it's useful for you to know it, but do you really NEED to know it. Hmmm...:confused:
 
gprellwitz said:
He's using the governmental security services definition of need to know. Not whether it's useful for you to know it, but do you really NEED to know it. Hmmm...:confused:
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:confused:

If traveling light and VFR I log onto AOPA and grab the Airport kneeboard format.

That and a sectional get clipped to the kneeboard.
 
dmccormack said:
Everything you need to know about the destination is on the sectional?
Click to expand...

For the most part. It has runway lengths, pattern direction, frequencies, layout, elevation, weather source....

Runway numbers are all that are missing. If you can't remember the runway numbers at an airport you're flying to....well...either you fly too much or you fly too infrequently.
 
SkyHog said:
For the most part. It has runway lengths, pattern direction, frequencies, layout, elevation, weather source....

Runway numbers are all that are missing. If you can't remember the runway numbers at an airport you're flying to....well...either you fly too much or you fly too infrequently.
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I fly IFR too frequently, I suppose.

I want lighting info, VASI/PAPI, and other stuff....

I also like to have a map of the taxiways. It took me 15 minutes to roll around KCLT -- you don't want to do that without a map.

(And sure, you can ask for progressive taxi and add another 15 minutes of wait...)
 
dmccormack said:
I fly IFR too frequently, I suppose.

I want lighting info, VASI/PAPI, and other stuff....

I also like to have a map of the taxiways. It took me 15 minutes to roll around KCLT -- you don't want to do that without a map.

(And sure, you can ask for progressive taxi and add another 15 minutes of wait...)
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Well yeah, that's why I mentioned VFR in my post. The AFD entry for most New Mexican airports does not contain an airport diagram (except for KABQ and maybe KROW...maybe a few others, I don't have it in front of me), and lighting information is usually pointless for a night VFR flight, except for possibly those few airports where the light freq is different from CTAF. VASI/PAPI is easy enough - look at the runway. Do you see a VASI/PAPI next to the runway? Cool, it has them.

People make it too confusing and complex. Flying is easy, don't make it complicated.

Now for IFR flights....well, obviously you have to be more intense for just basic safety.
 
dmccormack said:
:confused:

If traveling light and VFR I log onto AOPA and grab the Airport kneeboard format.

That and a sectional get clipped to the kneeboard.
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You missed the social commentary. According to the TSA, pilots don't NEED to know about security restrictions in place at an airport and hence can't find out what they are ahead of time, despite the fact that they're directly affected.
 
SkyHog said:
VASI/PAPI is easy enough - look at the runway. Do you see a VASI/PAPI next to the runway? Cool, it has them.
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Which side and which type?

That matters if you want to land at the right airport -- especially in congested areas with several airports in close proximity.

Flying is easy -- if you've internalized most the the knowledge and skills required.

Getting an airport diagram is easy -- It takes all of 15 seconds to find the airport diagram for the destination (you can open a second tab in FireFox and do that while the FPT app is loading from ADDs).

I don't know why people make getting basic information such a Herculean task....
:rolleyes:
 
gprellwitz said:
You missed the social commentary. According to the TSA, pilots don't NEED to know about security restrictions in place at an airport and hence can't find out what they are ahead of time, despite the fact that they're directly affected.
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You're right -- I missed that.

Gimme a break -- it's Friday!:D
 
jesse said:
Your biocomputer is slow, inefficient, and prone to error. You could be replaced with 20 lines of bash, and that, my friend is not good :D
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Shoot, it takes me more than 20 lines of bash just to get a buzz on.....:smilewinkgrin:
 
dmccormack said:
Which side and which type?

That matters if you want to land at the right airport -- especially in congested areas with several airports in close proximity.

Flying is easy -- if you've internalized most the the knowledge and skills required.

Getting an airport diagram is easy -- It takes all of 15 seconds to find the airport diagram for the destination (you can open a second tab in FireFox and do that while the FPT app is loading from ADDs).

I don't know why people make getting basic information such a Herculean task....
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't always know I'm going to any specific airport before I take off. Often weather forces me to divert to an airport I had no concept I'd be landing at. I can get all the info I really need from the chart. Is there more that would be useful? You bet, but I've done it on a chart only many times before.
 
Henning said:
I don't always know I'm going to any specific airport before I take off. Often weather forces me to divert to an airport I had no concept I'd be landing at. I can get all the info I really need from the chart. Is there more that would be useful? You bet, but I've done it on a chart only many times before.
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Sure... but when you know where you are going, why limit yourself?

Unless a pilot needs to pump his personal stud-o-meter, I see few reasons not to look up the destination.
 
SkyHog said:
For the most part. [The sectional] has runway lengths, pattern direction, frequencies, layout, elevation, weather source....

Runway numbers are all that are missing. If you can't remember the runway numbers at an airport you're flying to....well...either you fly too much or you fly too infrequently.
Click to expand...
Things change at airports. We have an uncontrolled field here, and 14 years ago the circuit for one runway was switched from the standard RH to a LH to keep the traffic away from the hospital. We still get guys flying in and assuming it's just the standard LH and they can create mayhem in a busy circuit, joining as they do on the wrong side and coming face to face with another airplane on base. One of these days we'll have a midair.

The Canada Flight Supplement, our airport directory, costs about $25 and is only good for seven weeks or so. I wish it was available online so we could just update the few pages we need rather than buy the whole book and then toss it.

Still, to not have even an older one at hand is dumb.

Dan
 
How much information you need will depend on the level of enforcement when the FAA decides you've busted something. Sure, you can fly without obtaining a brief, without a current sectional, or even an airport diagram. Is it wise to do so? Only you can know for sure. A route you've flown 100 times to airports you've been in and out of, got the freq memorized, maybe. There was a change here during my November vacation I'm still trying to get over.
I pull a copy of the airports within 20 miles of my route, either from a JEPP guide or from AOPA. a current sectional, a list of frequencies I might need, and the latest weather from a briefer which includes notams and tfrs. And I have a garmin 496 in case I stray.
That said, will I pass a FAA enforcement action? I think I have all I need but only time will tell.
 
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