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Old October 31st 06, 12:34 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Jay Honeck
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Posts: 3,573
Default Technology is Incredible...

Glass cockpit, color radar, gps... lots of stuff.

These aren't things you can do, they are just equipment. What things
can you do with this equipment that you could not do a few decades
ago? Just replacing a real instrument with a picture of an instrument
on a screen doesn't change much of anything, except the potential
failure modes.


True, the physical flying is unchanged.

However, when the pilot is freed from the burdens of navigation, he may
fly more freely. It used to be that I didn't dare wander too far off
my planned flight, cuz that's what I had marked on the charts. In
fact, as a new pilot, if I diverted off my flight path (to look at
something on the ground, for example), I would laboriously fly BACK to
my original flight path, just so I could find all of my landmarks.

Those days are long gone, thanks to moving-map GPS. (Well, and 1500
hours of experience.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"