GPS free flying
12-18-2009, 11:14 AM
#11
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2009
Position: PT Inbound
Posts: 219
As a former CFI, my biggest problem with some of my private students is that they pick checkpoints and those are the only things they look for and thus when they miss one, their minds immediately shift into, "Holy Crap I am LOST!!!!!" mode.
The easiest way to help yourself with basic VFR, unassisted, cross country flying is to be a pilot and use you head.
As you fly along, keep your mind open to the situation around your position. Just because you use the power lines 15 miles ahead as your one checkpoint for the next 40 miles, you can still use the giant river below you that runs DIRECTLY to your destination to keep yourself on course as well. You (and your way of thinking) are NOT limited to the checkpoints that you select while sitting on the ground because quite frankly, we are pilots and pilots are always continuously thinking of the next step down the line and just because your next step isn't for 25 miles, that doesn't mean that you should completely forget about the sectional chart until you get there.
Always keep your eyes open for even the most simple and subtle terrain feature that you can positively identify on the chart. A lake surrounded by other lakes might seem bad there is always something to use. The orientation of the lake cluster, the size and relative positions of each lake, the funny looking cove in the smallest lake that is dead ahead.
Use your head and you will never get lost!!
The easiest way to help yourself with basic VFR, unassisted, cross country flying is to be a pilot and use you head.
As you fly along, keep your mind open to the situation around your position. Just because you use the power lines 15 miles ahead as your one checkpoint for the next 40 miles, you can still use the giant river below you that runs DIRECTLY to your destination to keep yourself on course as well. You (and your way of thinking) are NOT limited to the checkpoints that you select while sitting on the ground because quite frankly, we are pilots and pilots are always continuously thinking of the next step down the line and just because your next step isn't for 25 miles, that doesn't mean that you should completely forget about the sectional chart until you get there.
Always keep your eyes open for even the most simple and subtle terrain feature that you can positively identify on the chart. A lake surrounded by other lakes might seem bad there is always something to use. The orientation of the lake cluster, the size and relative positions of each lake, the funny looking cove in the smallest lake that is dead ahead.
Use your head and you will never get lost!!
12-18-2009, 07:52 PM
#12
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2008
Position: USAF
Posts: 1,398
The easiest way to help yourself with basic VFR, unassisted, cross country flying is to be a pilot and use you head.
As you fly along, keep your mind open to the situation around your position. Just because you use the power lines 15 miles ahead as your one checkpoint for the next 40 miles, you can still use the giant river below you that runs DIRECTLY to your destination to keep yourself on course as well. You (and your way of thinking) are NOT limited to the checkpoints that you select while sitting on the ground because quite frankly, we are pilots and pilots are always continuously thinking of the next step down the line and just because your next step isn't for 25 miles, that doesn't mean that you should completely forget about the sectional chart until you get there.
Always keep your eyes open for even the most simple and subtle terrain feature that you can positively identify on the chart. A lake surrounded by other lakes might seem bad there is always something to use. The orientation of the lake cluster, the size and relative positions of each lake, the funny looking cove in the smallest lake that is dead ahead.
Use your head and you will never get lost!!
As you fly along, keep your mind open to the situation around your position. Just because you use the power lines 15 miles ahead as your one checkpoint for the next 40 miles, you can still use the giant river below you that runs DIRECTLY to your destination to keep yourself on course as well. You (and your way of thinking) are NOT limited to the checkpoints that you select while sitting on the ground because quite frankly, we are pilots and pilots are always continuously thinking of the next step down the line and just because your next step isn't for 25 miles, that doesn't mean that you should completely forget about the sectional chart until you get there.
Always keep your eyes open for even the most simple and subtle terrain feature that you can positively identify on the chart. A lake surrounded by other lakes might seem bad there is always something to use. The orientation of the lake cluster, the size and relative positions of each lake, the funny looking cove in the smallest lake that is dead ahead.
Use your head and you will never get lost!!
That is a good post and great advice.
Honestly flying without a GPS and not getting lost is not brain surgery. It's amazing how people can over-complicate this whole VFR cross country thing.... especially in something that moves 110 knots. It's also amazing eople on the east coast of Florida will get lost... when there's a whole ocean outside and inlets and airports on the map that they're flying over
Honestly you can do the whole trip without worrying about twisting VOR knobs, etc... just look at your heading and a map.
12-19-2009, 08:10 AM
#14
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2009
Posts: 317
Agreed minus this. How do you think the old boys did it with just a wet compass, before gyros? Set up on a heading then everything is outside and map. They had to learn how to really navigate, I gave a bunch of tips on that before (point to fly/visualize a line/handrails). Hope they were helpful to someone.
12-20-2009, 10:25 AM
#16
A Second Past V1
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: Assumed
Posts: 743
Note your time, get close to your heading, ask ATC if you think youve got your airport in sight (if youre not sure), double check the airport layout/runway numbering with the way you are approaching the airport (as to not land at a wrong airport (and this saved me once...))
Flew across CA/AZ with no GPS or VORs in a 172. Its not too bad as long as you go into it with confidence. And a nicely setup nav log.
Flew across CA/AZ with no GPS or VORs in a 172. Its not too bad as long as you go into it with confidence. And a nicely setup nav log.
12-20-2009, 12:39 PM
#17
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Posts: 348
A bit of comfort:
1 degree equals one mile at 60 nautical miles. This means if you are even as much as 10 degrees off of your planned course, and you go 60nm, you are 10nm off course. Are you able to see a checkpoint 10nm away? If you're high enough, absolutely.
Odds are you will only be about 5 degrees off of your planned course, so of your checkpoints are 20 miles apart, odds are you are only going to be a few miles off at most. Even if you missed 2 checkpoints, by the time you go 60nm on only ded reckoning, you're only 5 miles off. A few miles is nothing in an airplane. Again, though, altitude is your friend here.
Trust your headings, the winds will be close enough to the forecast to keep you in the ballpark. Every time I or a student felt like we were lost on VFR cross countries, the truth turned out to be that we were exactly where we thought we should be, we were just having trouble matching what was on the sectional to what we saw out the window.
Another common error: using airports as checkpoints. They all look the same, and are some of the hardest things to find if you don't know exactly where to look. Use geographic features, lakes, mountains, rivers, oceans, etc. if at all possible. If you have no geographic features, roads, cities, towns, etc. are my next favorite. Farmland can be a featureless desert, so more ded reckoning is required there, and usually you have to use the small towns, as otherwise all you have are square fields as far as the eye can see. Roads are a big help, here, too.
Good luck, and have fun!
1 degree equals one mile at 60 nautical miles. This means if you are even as much as 10 degrees off of your planned course, and you go 60nm, you are 10nm off course. Are you able to see a checkpoint 10nm away? If you're high enough, absolutely.
Odds are you will only be about 5 degrees off of your planned course, so of your checkpoints are 20 miles apart, odds are you are only going to be a few miles off at most. Even if you missed 2 checkpoints, by the time you go 60nm on only ded reckoning, you're only 5 miles off. A few miles is nothing in an airplane. Again, though, altitude is your friend here.
Trust your headings, the winds will be close enough to the forecast to keep you in the ballpark. Every time I or a student felt like we were lost on VFR cross countries, the truth turned out to be that we were exactly where we thought we should be, we were just having trouble matching what was on the sectional to what we saw out the window.
Another common error: using airports as checkpoints. They all look the same, and are some of the hardest things to find if you don't know exactly where to look. Use geographic features, lakes, mountains, rivers, oceans, etc. if at all possible. If you have no geographic features, roads, cities, towns, etc. are my next favorite. Farmland can be a featureless desert, so more ded reckoning is required there, and usually you have to use the small towns, as otherwise all you have are square fields as far as the eye can see. Roads are a big help, here, too.
Good luck, and have fun!
12-21-2009, 03:46 AM
#18
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2007
Position: A320 CA
Posts: 1,531
12-21-2009, 07:39 AM
#19
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2008
Posts: 103
For those who don't know what fix to fix is (i was never officially taught it so google came to my rescue), here is a link:
Fix to Fix
I think this is very clever and curious why it is not taught as part of civilian instrument, it's really not that complex!
Fix to Fix
I think this is very clever and curious why it is not taught as part of civilian instrument, it's really not that complex!
12-21-2009, 08:11 AM
#20
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2007
Position: Sr. VP of button pushing
Posts: 2,733
I'm trying to think when you'd use it in the civilian world. The only times I can recall going fix to fix on the same nav aid not just tracking a radial were DME arcs where you wouldn't want to go direct.
Going X-C to YIP, I don't know how many times we fill up with gas, head 040 for 5 hours, dial up the FWA VOR to see where we were and take a cut into the wind for the last hour. We always got there.
Going X-C to YIP, I don't know how many times we fill up with gas, head 040 for 5 hours, dial up the FWA VOR to see where we were and take a cut into the wind for the last hour. We always got there.
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