Nope, VOR is electronics, dead as a door nail. Tons of airports within 30 minutes, what is the most definite way to find one in time, especially on a nice hot summer day with hazy-poor vis?
Checkride - Brainfart and Full Rundown
- Thread starter brooklyn26point2
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Nope, VOR is electronics, dead as a door nail. Tons of airports within 30 minutes, what is the most definite way to find one in time, especially on a nice hot summer day with hazy-poor vis?
brooklyn26point2
Pre-Flight
I'm missing something, clearly, although I'm working on a paper and therefore not putting a ton of thought into it. Care to offer a hint?
Dial in 7600 on the transponder first, if it still works it'll give ATC a heads up that you aren't going to be talking or listening. Put the COMPASS (not DG yet) on East (Now set the DG
) when you hit the beach, look to your left, if you see an airport, land at it. If not, turn right and land at the next airport you see. If you see the Delaware and still haven't landed, look to the right side of the point, Cape May airport will be there.This method also gives you a safety margin of a beach landing if your power goes south as well.
Now lets throw 'fuel critical' into the mix as well. Trim the plane to best glide sped and set the power to fly level or allow a shallow descent if you have significant altitude. This will stretch you fuel as far as possible.
brooklyn26point2
Pre-Flight
thanks for that. It's easy to forget how small jersey is and just how many airports there are. WWD is easily reachable from central jersey within 30 minutes, even if it almost doesn't feel like it should be. and those last points are all great; just saving fuel (because you don't know when you'll go from not fuel-critical to fuel-critical). thanks for taking the time to write that out.
The same techniques work regardless of where you are. Back in the days flying pipeline I would never keep track of where I was in relation to airports and such, I'd fly along at 100' or less and watch the ground out the window. Winds in TX can be strong or light and from whatever direction, so I gauged my fuel only by time. Since I was flying a 1946 PA-12 operated by the cheapest person ever, I had no functioning anything except a Comm and a company radio. What I would do when my fuel timer went off is pop up, fly to the nearest main road, take that to the nearest town and read their water tower, now I could place myself on a chart.
kenjr
Line Up and Wait
On my diversion I reached for the GPS just to see...he immediately said, "That doesn't work...". So, I doubt very seriously anyone is going to let you use your GPS on the ride.
denverpilot
Tied Down
He said NO electronic devices.
Here's some other thoughts on that...
You may be lost, but you're only lost from the last place you KNEW you were. You know your heading (compass) or at least a close proximity of a heading if it's bouncing around. You also know how to do a quick guess (or if you're feeling overloaded, just use your airspeed)... of your distance traveled in that amount of time. This means you're ONLY that far away from your LAST KNOWN POSITION. So you're not really LOST. If you haven't been changing heading, and you can get it out of your MENTAL STATE that you're "lost" and instead put things back on track that you're "Within an X nautical mile distance generally east/west/north/south of Y" ... now you have switched from being a passenger to a pilot.
LOOK at your chart. LANDMARKS... what are the big ones within that distance of your LAST KNOWN POSITION? Big fancy shaped lakes or other big things are best... look for them. Where are they in relation to the airplane? If the chart says the airspace over the landmark you just matched up is a good place to be and you're still feeling weird about it, go over there. Now look for OTHER landmarks. Highways, etc... stuff you can find on the chart to confirm that's REALLY where you are.
Generally it's harder on most people emotionally to think they're "lost" than to be working the problem. Learn to put your brain back on track, and you'll benefit from it greatly. Reverse time back to what you last KNEW and then apply what you know after that point in time, is one technique to alleviate "lostness".
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kenjr
Line Up and Wait
...interesting stuff. To pass the time I'm always keeping track of where I am. If I can't figure out what a city or town is up ahead or to the side I'll check it out in Foreflight...mentally noting airports in the vicinity in case I need them. I've never really thought about what would happen if I lose everything...we have a 430W, a Stratus and I carry 2 iPads and my phone picks up GPS in the air. I also carry a backup hand held radio. If all that goes to ****, then I guess it's my time.
denverpilot
Tied Down
No. You have a compass and a clock. Work the problem.
I've never been lost, I've been temporarily misplaced and occasionally stashed away a few times, but never lost...
That's really the elemental thing about flying, you never stop thinking until the plane stops moving.
That's really the elemental thing about flying, you never stop thinking until the plane stops moving.
MAKG1
Touchdown! Greaser!
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It's a good thing Texas is more than 400 miles from China Lake. Or Teterboro.
5 devices is NOT redundant if they have commonalities that can fail.
None of that crap is necessary to fly, not one piece. This isn't a game, it's not baseball where you get three strikes and go sit down. You never quit swinging at the problems until the plane comes to a final stop. When you're out in aviation, you're out for good. If I'm going to die in an airplane it'll be getting Mile High Club wings with the Aerobatic Circus Acrobat rocker, not because I couldn't get some gadgets to work.
No matter what goes wrong and what you've tried, there is always one more thing you can do.
ChrisK
En-Route
I have flown almost no aircraft with DME.
In the days before GPS, it was the cats meow.
kenjr
Line Up and Wait
I hear you iHenning...I'm in the same boat. I know you don't need that stuff...but might as well stick em' in the bag if you have them. I love flying out the window...I always know where I am so if something cataclysmic happened and I lost everything before I knew what was going on I think I'd be able to get my bearing pretty quickly. I keep my paper map in the side pocket of my bag right over my shoulder.
I do have a VOR and a DME and tune it in for fun even when I'm GPS direct. In the early 90's when I started training for the first time it was all we had.
I do have a VOR and a DME and tune it in for fun even when I'm GPS direct. In the early 90's when I started training for the first time it was all we had.
skynewbie
Pre-takeoff checklist
The Pipers that I fly have DME and from reading instrument books will be useful for instrument training since there are some approaches that use DME and VOR besides GPS approaches.
denverpilot
Tied Down
DME... Someone said, "Hey. Just put the transponder on the ground instead of on the airplane!"
Cheap. Simple. Works. Elegant engineering. $
GPS: Could only be built by a military contract. We all pay big $$$$$$$$. Various defense contractor's shareholders thank you. Big benefits to all. Oh you want to use that exact same chipset in flight? $$$$$$$$$
ADS-B : Could only be built by a bunch of bored engineers with very little to do. More $$$$$$$$$. FAA benefits far more than users. Oh don't forget, we also mandated you have OUT by X date. $$$$$$$$$
Cheap. Simple. Works. Elegant engineering. $
GPS: Could only be built by a military contract. We all pay big $$$$$$$$. Various defense contractor's shareholders thank you. Big benefits to all. Oh you want to use that exact same chipset in flight? $$$$$$$$$
ADS-B : Could only be built by a bunch of bored engineers with very little to do. More $$$$$$$$$. FAA benefits far more than users. Oh don't forget, we also mandated you have OUT by X date. $$$$$$$$$
denverpilot
Tied Down
Actually I left out the costs of building VOR so it wasn't totally fair.