IFR flight using IPAD as primary

ahmad

ahmad

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Midwest Aviator
I'm not super smart but this guy makes me feel like a genius.

 
I need anti anxiety medication after listening to that
 
ahmad said:
I'm not super smart but this guy makes me feel like a genius.

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FWIW, the registered owner the airplane does not have an instrument rating.
 
I'm wondering if he had a panel mount navigator but didn't know how to properly set up the RNAV approach.
 
Ah yes, the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport (nobody calls it that). Sort of like the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.
 
So,basically ipad died so he had no plate?
 
Bill said:
So,basically ipad died so he had no plate?
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No plate, and either he couldn’t program GPS or didn’t have one. I think he wanted to follow his inbound course on his iPad to pop through a broken 1600-1900’ layer for a visual. He didn’t fess up until after realizing he wasn’t going to get ground contact at 4000’. Even then he was a dunce.
 
I have a 430W, it will of course navigate you to the RNAV fixes of rhe approach, but without the plate he won’t know step down altitudes etc.
 
Sadly people fly with that guy in conditions he obviously should not be in or even think about.
 
cowman said:
I'm wondering if he had a panel mount navigator but didn't know how to properly set up the RNAV approach.
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I think you may be right.

I've been in discussions on this flight for the better part of a week. The LiveATC audio was originally posted in a FB group by a pilot who was flying in the area and heard it unfold.

The aircraft has a Garmin 430 and I suspect the pilot may have been referring to a loss of charts rather than iPad as primary. That should have been a non-event (one of the better discussions has been on this point.)

The other interesting piece is that if the aircraft owner shown in the Registry was the pilot, he might not be instrument rated. An instrument rating does not appear in the FAA website but that could mean it's still wet. The inability to even follow vectors for a dead simple straight in approach tends to support this.

Hopefully, this was reported upstream,
 
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I really don’t think he programmed the approach. He was not even able to proceed direct to the IAF or intercept the inbound course. He wasn’t asking the proper questions like fix altitudes and minimums. That sounded like an untrained/un-proficient Pilot to me.
 
Wow. Sometimes you might need a time out to reset. Sometimes you might need an ipc. It really feels like this guy had a little training, a new to him plane with an autopilot and a gps he didn’t know how to run. And a whole lot of stupid. It is legal to just have charts on the iPad, not smart to rely solely on that though. iPads do dump on you at inopportune moments. The ils was the solution for this guy. A frequency, then vectors to final along with knowing the mins is enough to get a proficient pilot on the ground.
 
Bill said:
I have a 430W, it will of course navigate you to the RNAV fixes of rhe approach, but without the plate he won’t know step down altitudes etc.
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He was having trouble navigating to the IAF. Anyone with a basic understanding of how to operate a 430W (or any panel-mounted GPS) should know how to use it to navigate to a waypoint. And anyone with a IR should know how to use their panel-mounted GPS.

One of his statements was (paraphrasing), "I have a panel GPS. The iPad tells me where the waypoint is, then the GPS tells me when I'm there." Um, no. Just punch up the RNAV 8 approach at MRB, then select "Direct JOSRU". (Or select the approach using the JOSRU IAF and "Activate Approach". Or whatever the equivalent is for the panel GPS in question.)

If he'd gotten that far, then we could be talking about problems he might have with altitudes.

But then again, he couldn't even fly the vectors that ATC gave him, so he had way bigger problems than a failed iPad or unfamiliarity with his panel GPS. If you can't turn to a heading and hold it, why are you in the air behind the yoke of a plane?
 
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