He's from the west coast, I think he knows he is in Alabama.
West coast? You mean like Tampa?
VFR XC Checkpoints
- Thread starter PilotMick83
- Start date
West coast? You mean like Tampa?
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
Matthew
Touchdown! Greaser!
3 things:
1) pick a landmark that will actually be there when you fly. My CFI did her XC in the winter. She picked a few lakes as landmarks...hard to miss. Overnight it snowed and the lakes, already iced over, were covered with snow and hard to pick out from the surroundings.
2) pick a landmark slightly off your course. If you are on course, the nose might hide the landmark well before you even see it. It's pretty painful to think you missed it when your timer says you should be right on top of it, and then circle or maneuver only to realize it's directly below you. A mile or so to one side will work. You'll be able to start and stop your timer as you pass it, and you'll also be able to know if you are too close or too far and adjust your heading for the next checkpoint accordingly.
3) verify the landmark. Once you see it, check for another one or two features around it. Just because you see that bend in the river doesn't mean it's the RIGHT bend in the river.
OK, 4 things:
4) have fun!
1) pick a landmark that will actually be there when you fly. My CFI did her XC in the winter. She picked a few lakes as landmarks...hard to miss. Overnight it snowed and the lakes, already iced over, were covered with snow and hard to pick out from the surroundings.
2) pick a landmark slightly off your course. If you are on course, the nose might hide the landmark well before you even see it. It's pretty painful to think you missed it when your timer says you should be right on top of it, and then circle or maneuver only to realize it's directly below you. A mile or so to one side will work. You'll be able to start and stop your timer as you pass it, and you'll also be able to know if you are too close or too far and adjust your heading for the next checkpoint accordingly.
3) verify the landmark. Once you see it, check for another one or two features around it. Just because you see that bend in the river doesn't mean it's the RIGHT bend in the river.
OK, 4 things:
4) have fun!
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Ari
And, if this year was any indication, thousands of pilots going to Airventure do not follow the railroad.
OP: Don’t use the radio masts marked on the chart. At altitude, they are nearly useless as waypoints. Ask me how I know.
Towns work well. Airports are hit or miss. I stink at spotting them. Rivers can be good, especially in treeless areas because the few trees in those areas will be along the river. Lakes are good. Divided highways are good because they are much easier to confirm than two-lane roads.
Even though most of my cross-country flying now is IFR by GPS direct, I still spend a lot of the time looking at the sectional and at the ground around me. Today, I flew a 44nm leg in a plane I had never flown before with a GPS that I had never used before. I had my iPad but just as a chart, without any GPS signal. The GPS was secondary to pilotage in keeping track of where I was, and I credit the second nature of that pilotage to my hours of trying to identify everything on the chart every time I have flown, even though doing so was beyond superfluous for the flights I was making at the time.
PS Tomorrow I hope to do the remaining 500nm of my trip. I only made it 44 miles today because of weather and then, when it finally cleared, I got 32 knots over the ground and gave up since I didn’t want my second landing in a new taildragger to be in the dark just after a major storm system passed. And that brings me to cross-country tip #2: If you are debating whether to fly, immediately drink a beer. Now your debate is moot and you can check the situation out again in 8+ hours.
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This is true. I still mess this up. Today I was looking for a tiny town near the end of a railroad track where it meets a small river. I saw the river. I saw the town. But I didn’t know it was the right town for sure because the railroad track was right underneath me. Also, when you look for your check point, it will likely appear to be much closer than you expected based on the distance. 10nm as viewed from 3000 AGL or so can seem really close.
Eric Gleason
Pre-takeoff checklist
I remember making my XC work super hard on myself, navigating by ded reckoning and using checkpoints that could only be seen if my navigation was perfect. Now alter my course to follow/parallel things that are easy to follow. Roads, railroads, power lines, rivers, etc. Makes it way easier.
chemgeek
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Lakes and waterways are usually large and uniquely shaped features and typically easy to recognize from a map. Interstate highways are also standout features if you can identify which one you are over. (In populated centers they can be thick) Smaller standout and readily identifiable features include quarries, racetracks, and airports. Small towns can look alike, but can be helpful in conjunction with other corroborating features to give you a good visual fix.
If you get a bit confused, you can always do a quick radial check from a nearby VOR to place yourself on a radial, or two radials if you want a 2d fix. One radial crossing your direction of flight is usually enough to get re-oriented.
It's easier than it sounds. Just look at the map for big, unique features and have at it. Verify your location with corroborating smaller map features. In no time you'll get good at it. Skip the "pre fly on Google maps" crutch. Someday you might have to navigate on your own in an unknown area without time to practice first. Best to start training for that now. First on short XC flights, then longer ones. We all managed to figure this out before GPS and Google Earth. You will, too.
If you get a bit confused, you can always do a quick radial check from a nearby VOR to place yourself on a radial, or two radials if you want a 2d fix. One radial crossing your direction of flight is usually enough to get re-oriented.
It's easier than it sounds. Just look at the map for big, unique features and have at it. Verify your location with corroborating smaller map features. In no time you'll get good at it. Skip the "pre fly on Google maps" crutch. Someday you might have to navigate on your own in an unknown area without time to practice first. Best to start training for that now. First on short XC flights, then longer ones. We all managed to figure this out before GPS and Google Earth. You will, too.
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Ari
Today’s tip: If you are low, things are harder to identify, especially airports. That’s why you’ll hear the lost procedure including the step to climb higher. I had to fly low today, and even though I knew I had the right town in sight and knew where the airport was relative to the town, I couldn’t find the airport. I was parallel to the runway and below pattern altitude a couple miles away.
But I did get to use an old technique to confirm my position a few times along the way.
But I did get to use an old technique to confirm my position a few times along the way.
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Ari
Not yet. Shopping for paint and a really good ladder now.
Low enough to read the water towers should be fine.
I did that on an early XC type flight (we forgot to land somewhere 51 nm away), with lowish clouds. The CFI asked if I knew where we were and I turned the plane to read a water tower to verify. He said "you won't normally be that low". I replied, "But we are right now."
All available resources.
Where power lines cross other power lines or roads/railroad tracks are really nice as a point for timing.
Start with macro for general guidance and work down to micro for fine guidance and timing. Macro will depend upon where you are and what your flight is. Look for some really big, lake/bay/sea/ocean, mountain/hill, town, etc. If it's supposed to be on the right on your course, make sure it's on your right. That means you are going generally in the right direction. It will be really hard to find that power line if you aren't heading in the right general direction. Then go to your micro item power line/highway/etc for fine tuning your course and getting timing.
If you can find a big item on your left and right, then you will be in great shape. Just stay between them. Fine tune from there.
DaleB
Final Approach
Heard from the right seat during a combination of flight review, ferry flight, and new model training when the weather was not quite as nice as we'd hoped for:Low enough to read the water towers should be fine.
I did that on an early XC type flight (we forgot to land somewhere 51 nm away), with lowish clouds. The CFI asked if I knew where we were and I turned the plane to read a water tower to verify. He said "you won't normally be that low". I replied, "But we are right now."
"Those trees sure are pretty.... pretty close."
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Ari
Incidentally, water towers aren’t the only labeled things in a town. I identified one place by the grain elevator, which had a much bigger font and newer paint than the tiny water tower.Low enough to read the water towers should be fine.
I did that on an early XC type flight (we forgot to land somewhere 51 nm away), with lowish clouds. The CFI asked if I knew where we were and I turned the plane to read a water tower to verify. He said "you won't normally be that low". I replied, "But we are right now."
Van Johnston
Pattern Altitude
High school football fields too (at least in the oil patch where even the littlest towns have put in new Astroturf fields and painted the end zones and 50 y.l.)
Oblivion
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Just be careful how low you get if they're full - stadiums full of do-gooders seem to like to bust pilots.
James331
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Just be careful how low you get if they're full - stadiums full of do-gooders seem to like to bust pilots.
And always remember it’s 500 or 1000 AGL NOT MSL
Oblivion
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And probably shouldn't go inverted for a better look.