We’ve covered this before but funny waypoint names are still funny and here’s a new one from reader Dominique Beaulieu.
Why twin engine aircraft are better…
"When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash."
Paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit: A cost comparison
Gary, the blogger behind Gary’s Flight Journal, has recently written a post where he calculated the costs of a paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit. For his example, he included everything east of the Mississippi River and came up with the following costs:
PAPER = $846.00
3 AFD’s @ $5.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $90
12 IAP’s @ $6.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $432
10 ENR’s @ $3.00 each, every 56 days, say six orders – $180
12 VFR @ $6.00 each, semi annual – $144PAPERLESS = $149.99 w/iPad $800.00
ForeFlight HD (1 Year)
Moving map, weather, plates, charts, AF/D, and filing. $74.99
ForeFlight Pro (1 Year)
Adds geo-referenced instrument procedures and diagrams $149.99
* Lets figure in the cost of an iPad with Wifi-3G, 32GB $650
**The cost of foreflight includes the ability for radar, satellite, IFR enroute (high or low), VFR sectional, fuel prices, flight rules, winds, temperatures, dew point spreads, ceilings, sky coverage, lightning, and more for the entire US.
In this particular example, the cost of having a paperless cockpit were lower than the costs of having a paper filled cockpit. Moreover, Gary noted that the costs for subsequent years will fall as a pilot would only need to subscribe to foreflight at $75 basic and $150 geo-referenced a year.
Hence, we want to ask our UK and European readers to see if anyone has calculated the costs of a paper cockpit verses a paperless cockpit for the UK or continental Europe. If so, what figures did you come up with?
Learning to fly video series
If you have been thinking of getting a pilot’s license but you don’t know where to begin, FlightSchoolList.com has posted the short Learning to Fly video series from Sporty’s. In the series, the importance of picking the right flying instructor was emphasized as your flight instructor will shape and impact your flying long after your training ends. In addition, it was pointed out that there really is no such thing as failure in flight training as you simply train until you are able to master a particular skill and then move on.
The entire short video series is well worth watching if you do not know where to begin with learning how to fly.
Learning to Fly: Why Learn to Fly
Learning to Fly: How Do You Learn to Fly
Learning to Fly: Your First Flight
Learning to Fly: Choosing a Flight School
Miscommunication leads to a CFI and a student pilot wrestling for control
General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from the USA’s National Transportation Safety Board, include a June 2009 report about an incident involving a flight instructor and a student pilot that occurred in a Challenger II aircraft in Moses Lakes, Washington.
According to the accident report, the flight instructor instructed his student to enter a traffic pattern for runway 16. However, the wind was 250° at 8 knots – amounting to a right crosswind component of about 8 knots. The student pilot was told to perform a low approach above the runway but as the plane passed midfield, its right wing started to lift up and the airplane veered leftward. At this point, the student pilot added full power.
However, the flight instructor then announced that he was taking over and grabbed the aircraft’s controls. Unfortunately, the student pilot did not hear the flight instructor as the engine was operating at full power – making verbal communication impossible. Hence, he did not relinquish control of the aircraft.
Ultimately, the flight instructor attempted to level the wings and increase airspeed but the left wing of the aircraft hit a parked airplane resulting in substantial damage and one minor injury.
While the probable cause of the accident was blamed on the student pilot’s inadequate compensation for crosswinds and failure to maintain control of the aircraft, a major contributing cause was the flight instructor’s inadequate supervision of the training flight and inability to effectively communicate to his student. In other words and if you are a student pilot, ensure prior to the flight that you have worked out an effective means to communicate with your flight instructor once you are up in the air.
What’s the best way to learn cross country flight planning?
John Ewing has recently written a lengthy post about cross country flight planning where he noted that the introduction and use of new technologies or techniques in flying will raise interesting new questions, such as the following:
Should student pilots be taught to use paper charts, plotter, pencil, and a slide rule E6B or encouraged to switch entirely to electronic charts, calculators, GPS and computer-based weather briefings?
In reply to his question, John wrote that the best way to learn the complicated process of cross country flight planning is to combine “old school” methods with “waay cool” new technologies. He then proceeds to go into considerable detail about how to do this.
However, one interesting point that John brought up was that so-called “old school” pilots and instructors are correct to claim that a student who has never drawn a course line on a paper chart will be robbed of an important lesson about Magnetic declination. On the other hand, John also noted that with the right data, a computer will probably do a much faster and more accurate job than a human would.
John also pointed out that while old school paper chart adherents may claim that paper charts are foolproof because they will not require batteries, can be handled or folded and can be used by less tech savvy pilots, they also have serious disadvantages. After all, paper charts can get torn, lost or too marked up from previous flight planning efforts to be read. More importantly, all paper charts will eventually become obsolete as they do not update by themselves.
John’s lengthy post about cross country flight planning is well worth reading and it should be noted that this particular post is the first installment of a multi-part series of posts about the revolutionary changes occurring in VFR cross-country flight planning. In future posts, John will discuss how technology is already changing calculators, navigation log preparation tools and in-flight diversions.