Scary Read In Wings This Month.

[cap]

Albert -------PM'd you with a new e-mail address.

 

 

Charles --------I'm preaching to the converted when I converse with you and Albert and I know that. Then again, the colour of your hair denotes that you didn't get all of it from onsetting age.

 

I also notice these days that the radio is quiet when it comes to a/c reporting their positions when over sparsely settled areas. Years ago, you constantly heard some a/c, some place, calling out what major geopgraphic point they were passing over or nearby. This was all over 122.8 or 126.7 and you always had one radio tuned into one of these for your own effort also. I still do that and have given up waiting for an acknowledgement from some a/c.......hasn't happened in eons. I'm also advised that one of the reasons for the removal of ADF's from a/c is a "weight thing". That's odd also because I never realized that they weighed in at that much.

[downwash]

While jumping merrily on the bandwagon in favor learning AND retaining all the 'good old stuff' like airmanship and map-reading, I'd like to momentarily draw our attention back to the opening posts of this thread where, to me at least, another clear example of a perennial problem in our humble craft is all too visible - the lack of GOOD instruction. The 'balls to the wall,' "let's get them qualified and out of here" attitude that persists in far too many schools, and also occurs in freelance instruction, still fails to be addressed by the regulatory authority. Not the least of the problems therein is the paltry experience requirement for instructors. The examples shown here are all too common, and far too frequently evident in accident reports.

[tDawe]

Downwash,

 

You nailed my fear on the head (although I fully agree with the other posts about never putting all your eggs in the GPS or any other basket) When I read this article I saw another case of "Too much money, not enough brains" I work at an airport with a large private side, lots of people who have the money to buy all the latest and most powerful in aircraft and toys to put in them. Now don't get me wrong, some of them are very accomplished pilots, but some.. not so much.

 

Now I am not by any stretch holding myself above these pilots with the illusion that i am superior to anybody, but I cant help but shake my head when someone with 50 hours total time (all on 150's and 172's from the local flying club) go out the the next day and drops 300,000 on a brand new top end Mooney or Bonanza, with all the latest crammed into the dash.

 

If guys on the commercial side have to put in there time, and work their way up to higher end machines, shouldnt that be a signal to private guys to try the same? In my mind its no different then kids nowadays going right out and buying a 750 or larger as their first bike, its just not the best idea.

 

As always, my most incredibly humble 1.5 cents.

 

tDawe

[Deep Throat II]

Yes it is possible for the GPS to shut down, but anyone ever been fat dumb and happy only to have the map sucked out the window on a warm summer's day, this to can happen.

[Charles W.]

Deep throat:

 

I think you missed the piont.

 

The point being a smart pilot uses everything at his / her disposal when flying rather than depending on one thing, such as GPS for positional awareness.

 

The problem in todays flying world is the "smart" teachers are few and far between.

 

And I agree that to many people can afford airplanes that are far smarter than they are and the airplane flys them to eternity with a big bang at the end.

 

Rev.

[arctic_front]

I'm not sure if any of you have heard of this technique before but there are more than a few stiff-winged bush pilots I know personally that use the GPS to achieve IFR approaches in very poor weather and "auger down over a pre-set waypoint such as a large lake, or flat vally. most of the time, the surrounding terrain is quite nasty or steep. all this takes place in remote areas far from an airport.

places like fishing/hunting camps or other areas where TC never gets too. They use this method to 'get the job done' as a matter-of-fact, not on rare occasions like a medivac ect. There is nothing in aviation that I've ever heard of that is that stupid. No radar, no FSS, just GPS "prescision approaches" in the middle of nowhere.

[cap]

Arctic_front ------- concur with your thoughts entirely, but having did the fixed-wing "bush thing" eons ago for a company called Lamb Airways, I understand the "mindset" involved. I say I understand it only......but don't agree.

 

Deep Throat II -------1) I understand fully that loosing a map out the window/door can and does happen. How many guys that have a GPS go u/s have the same exact idea where they are as if they had themselves beneath the point of their finger on a map? Loosing that map doesn't mean that you don't now know where you are. If it does, then you can't read a map anyways and loosing it didn't make any difference anyway. 2) After serving time in the US Armed Forcs, I trust absolutely nothing 100% that is owned by, put up by, or maintained by the USAF. They don't control my HF, my ADF and sure as **** don't control my finger on an 8:1 or 4:1 map........nor does my CP, Ops Manager or the PM of Canada......I'm the "Head Mother whose in charge" of my navigation. Unfortunately, I'm a product of the time before something called ELT's. We had something called SARAH beacons and you wouldn't want to be putting all your trust into one of those either......they sometimes "went south on you" also. In otherwards, you learned to trust only you and you learned your "trade" of navigation to the "nth degree" and NEVER put your life in the hands of ONE navigation instrument because of that or you didn't come home again.

 

I'm going to really "date" myself now and raise some "hackles" I'm sure, but here goes. I witnessed this all begin to happen when they decided eons ago that one could walk in off the street, get 100 hrs. of training and "off you go". So off you went to northern Alberta or the Arctic and you had a magnetic compass that hadn't been truly "swung" with a Land Compass since Christ was a Lance Corporal in the Salvation Army and an DG. Ahhhhh, the wonderful DG......something that was probably u/s by the time you passed Barrhead, Alberta. So back to the g.d 8:1 and now you better be able to use it because the fuel stops were very limited, the wx was closing in and it was -20F outside. .....Grrrrrrrr. It helped a lot if one had already been in the same enviroment with a fixed wing and one had some navigation experience and knowledge of "I've been here before, so don't get rattled".......and God Bless Lycoming, the 1340 and the Wasp for keeping me safe to relate this passage.

 

Sorry for the length of this, but my only excuse is that it's a factor of the aging process..... ******.

[twinstar_ca]

nothing wrong with a lengthy rant, cap, especially on a subject as important than this...

 

i'm still of the old agage that if it's mechanical, it can go u/s and then you better have some airmanship skills up your sleeve...

 

come to think of it, i wonder if i still remember how to even use my E6B... never know when the batteries in my cx-1 pathfinder may die!!! :shock:

[Zazu]

Still remember logging years ago and the 61 had a cross country from southern BC to northern BC. Now why two 61 caps had no maps but considering I had just finished flight school, I didn't feel too geeky when they asked me for one or two for their trip. To this day still carry maps. Although a GPS sure makes you look good out in the flat land with 30 or 40 survey spots to go to.

[cap]

Agree totally Zazu. I have no problem at all with new-age navigation aides. ......the more the better. What I have a problem with is throwing out all the other aides and relying on the one new-age navigation aide totally. I didn't do that with the "old-age" nav aides, so why would I do it with the new-age ones?