PearlPilot

I am planning on using the FBOs GPS free bird for a short XC hop this weekend. It is amazing how much it keeps you on your toes just to fly a correct compass heading, track a VOR, and use some pure pilotage and DR. I am looking forward to it. Any tips are appreciated and of course it is time for me to start planning because of the extra work involved. Anybody else here fly without GPS?

p.s. This will be my first XC flight after the checkride

Senior Skipper

Pretty much all the planes I fly have GPS, but I still plan my flights along the airways and tune my VOR's etc. I pretty much only use the GPS for GS and ete.

Congratulations on your (private?) checkride!

PearlPilot

yes private thanks! Gotta rack up those solo XC time for the IR! 7 down and 43 to go!

tlove482

Follow those VORs. That's going to be your best way to back up your landmarks.

NoseUpAttitude

I've got about 2 hours in planes with GPS. I don't have GPS in my 152 and have relied solely on VOR/pilotage/dead reckoning. I have gotten lost, but only temporarily.

GPS is a nice thing to have though.

Planespotta

Flew from KLAF to I69 the other week in a 152 without GPS. I love flying without a GPS - it forces you to look outside and think. My main tips:

1) Draw the line on your sectional. With a highlighter (so you don't cover up crucial landmarks). Circle your checkpoints. Finger-fly your route the day before the flight and make sure you are familiar with each of your checkpoints. Be aware that that grass strip you marked on the sectional as your first checkpoint will be much harder to make out from the cockpit. Google Earth is extremely helpful for verifying what strange checkpoints or your destination airport will look like from above (you can even set the camera altitude to your cruise altitude).

2) Pick checkpoints within a maximum of 15 nm of each other (this may not be possible in some areas). Always rely on at least one feature to identify a point. For example, "the intersection of the 010 radial from ABC VOR and the reservoir next to the highway running E-W" is a much more identifiable and lost-proof checkpoint than simply the "reservoir." Lakes, reservoirs, and ponds all begin to look awfully alike when you're lost and groping for your next checkpoint.

3) How to tell that you're lost: you're looking outside for landmarks and then matching them with your sectional instead of looking on your sectional and then pointing to your checkpoints outside the airplane. You will force yourself to make things match up when they really don't.

4) With no-GPS flying, it is critical to constantly monitor your groundspeed to both stay on course and verify that your fuel burn calculations are accurate. I assume that you were instructed on how to do this in your PPL training, but if you are ever in doubt, ask ATC for a groundspeed check. Try to do a groundspeed check within 5 minutes of taking off, and after you pass each of your checkpoints as the flight progresses. Remember that to get an accurate GS calculation, you need to plug TAS into the equation, so be sure you know how to calculate that.

5) Check your mag compass against your DG every minute. Precession can kill you when you don't have a GPS to see how far you're being led off course by a bad gyro. Spend 90% of your time looking outside to ensure you're on course, avoiding traffic, etc., and 10% inside checking your instruments, map, and planning for what's coming up next.

6) Know how faster or slower groundspeeds will affect your heading and fuel burn. GS 20 knots lower than you calculated before the flight? Run the numbers and see if you'll need a fuel stop. Your sectional, flight plan (you did fill one out, right?), a piece of paper, a pencil, and your E6B should be in your lap the entire flight.

7) Cruise as low as you can without compromising safety (gliding distance, navaid reception, etc.). It will be easier to make out your checkpoints.

8) Since this is your first X-C since you earned your PPL (congrats!), weather should not be an issue. Pick a perfect day with calm winds.

9) Weather planning should start days in advance. Check the weather channel for the general forecast. Call and request an outlook briefing before the flight; follow it up with a standard briefing; and finally, if you have any additional questions, an abbreviated briefing. Get your wx information from AWC - Aviation Weather Center, and print out an additional briefing from FltPlan.com Flight Planning & Flight Tracking for General Aviation. (QICP weather on the left side). Remember to check for NOTAMs and TFRs! On my first night X-C during my PPL training, I forgot to check the NOTAMs, and my CFI luckily walked out to the airplane with the printed NOTAMs. The control tower frequency of the destination airport had been changed!

10) About VORs. You don't have to fly over VORs, but it helps and is a guaranteed way to stay on course. Be sure to tune the OBS correctly. Using VORs is another great way to find out your time and distance to the VOR (if you know the formulas). Don't be afraid of NDBs - they can be a good navigational aid or checkpoint-verifier, too.

Hope this helps. No-GPS flying is a lot of work, but flying right over your checkpoints on-time and emerging over your destination airport feels great! Knowing you didn't "cheat" with a GPS makes it that much better Have fun, and let us know how it goes.

Senior Skipper

I tend to disagree with flying low. The higher up you go, the more the view outside resembles the sectional, and the easier it will be to identify landmarks. Of course this assumes that your landmarks aren't very small and difficult to see. I like to pick the biggest landmarks around, and don't usually have a problem identifying landmarks cruising between 6,000 and 10,000.

shdw

Spent the last 15 months researching and doing this as it is the primary focus of my curriculum. PS it launches in January woot!!! Here are a few tips:

STOP LOOKING INSIDE!!! I cannot stress this enough, get your eyes, and your mind, outside of the airplane. Here are a few ideas:

Point to Fly Heading: Having a wind correction is great, but not really necessary and is only a forecast anyways. Get yourself that CH just for sanity sake I guess. For a course to fly, take the course heading and remove (add or subtract) the wind correction you put in there. That is the point you will fly to.

Visualize a line: Consider where you look when you taxi, over your right knee (left seat) or left knee (right seat) and out into the distance. Well, turn to your point to fly, look out in the distance as far as you can see and pick a point. Now pick 1 or 2 more points between that point and the nose of your aircraft. Use these points to visualize a line. Now you can take a crowbar to that DG and toss it out the window. Follow that line and as long as your initial heading was right you will never go astray. Continue to update the distant point as you fly and keep at least 2 points at all times on this line.

Handrails: On either side of the line pick out 2 or 3 points to make two more parallel lines. Consider it like a lane you drive a car in, it has two parallel lines on either side to keep you in line right? Well do that in the air, now you have a centerline and 2 "handrails" to guide you where you are going. No way your getting lost now, who needs a DG? You will find that by doing this you can actually see the wind correction needed to fly. Have fun, it is a real eye opener for every single student/instructor I have shown it to so far.



Sectional Copies: After you draw a faint line with a pencil on your sectional, photo copy it. It will be 2 to 3 sheets of paper you can staple together. On those pieces of paper use a nice big black marker to draw the course line. You have your real sectional with you to read important things, this is to navigate.



Checkpoints: Every 10 to 20 miles, depending on speed, for checkpoints. Keep in mind, a checkpoint shouldn't be more then 10 minutes away and toss out what you know about checkpoints, its a joke. What comes next came from oxford aviation training ground book on navigation. THey write the books for european JAA/EASA PPL courses.

At each checkpoint pick out:

Large Points: These are distant cities, easily identifiable landmarks, or anything else you can clearly see 10 to 20 miles away. The purpose is for orientation. You arrive at xy point on your map and xxx city will be about 10 miles 3 o'clock and yyy city will be at 7 o'clock. Now when you get close to your checkpoint you can verify your macro orientation quickly. Circle these with a blue marker on your sectional copies.

Small Points: Points used for micro orientation, pick a bunch, 3-5 or so. They can be towers, airports, small hills, towns, roads, rivers, etc. Circle them in red. Remember how they tell you not to fixate? Well what do you think your doing if you look for one point? You are fixated on finding a single position. Doesn't make sense does it?

Note: The color markers you use are up to you, or you can use all the same. This is just another form of organization.



Visualize the flight: This is a big one and is rarely done by anyone. But before you fly, sit down with the map and spend a good half an hour on this. Follow the line with your fingers, you will do this with two separate goals in mind:

Macro: The first goal, or first time you do it, look for larger things. How does the topography work? Where do hills rise/fall? How will my distant points be oriented with me throughout my flight? Don't focus on any little thing, only focus on the way the terrain will be shaped and orientation of points you can VERY EASILY identify.

Micro: Go back over this line and look for all the small stuff. What little towers will you cross over? Power lines? Roads? Are there roads/power lines that parallel my route?

This visualization step is something I see every student do in the air. Incredibly poor preparation. Do this on the ground enough and you will be able to do it much easier in the air.


I did not edit this, it is late and I am beat. Hopefully it makes sense, feel free to ask questions.

the King

"I tend to disagree with flying low. The higher up you go, the more the view outside resembles the sectional, and the easier it will be to identify landmarks. Of course this assumes that your landmarks aren't very small and difficult to see. I like to pick the biggest landmarks around, and don't usually have a problem identifying landmarks cruising between 6,000 and 10,000."

Agreed, especially if you get a nice tailwind bonus at altitude. Checkpoints were the biggest gotcha for my former students. Pick easy to see things on the sectional, and it helps if you know the area you are flying in.

You don't necessarily need to fly VOR to VOR. Instead, you could use a VOR radial to back up your checkpoint. Since all the VORs come with compass roses on your sectional, it's pretty easy to determine what radial a checkpoint is on. But do make sure you are comfortable with VOR operation so you can understand what the instrument is showing you.

Finally, enjoy the flight. Look outside. Scan for traffic, for checkpoints, and for cool stuff you would never see from the ground. The best XC's I had were the ones where I was able to look outside and just enjoy flying an airplane somewhere I may or may not have gone to before.

shdw

I completely agree with you. In fact, part of the lost procedure is to climb for the purposes of orientation. If you have to be low to identify points your doing some pretty poor planning IMO.