Do you flight plan?

I draw a pencil course line on the map and then highlite it in yellow. I
write the
altitudes of all MOAs by the MOA name so I don't have to look it up in the
air
later. I circle high towers in pink highliter. I mark TFRs in pink
highliter. I print
a DUATS briefing. As often as not it all changes once I get on my way and
talk to Flight Watch enroute. Stay flexible and have a plan A and plan B.



"Nasir" wrote in message
news
Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the
trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel
to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that
you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate
winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I have found myself getting lazy and I dont do all that I did when
planning
x-countries when I was training. I tend to draw my line and mark
checkpoints, make sure I have plenty of fuel to get to my destination
(plus
an hour more) based on 6gal/hr average. But I dont calculate
time/distance/fuel to each leg. I also have a GPS so that makes getting
lazy
easier!

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

Nasir

"John Smith" wrote in message . ..
"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
"John Smith" wrote in message
. ..

Correct, of course, but if you're not using pilotage, it'll be too rusty
to
use when you need it. Something you perhaps should schedule in a few
times a
year (a pilotage-only route)?

A few times a year? You must fly IFR a lot. As a VFR guy, I
always have the chart out and follow along, no matter what method of
navigation I'm using. If the nav radio or GPS bites the dust, I'm
already using pilotage.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Actually I fly VFR only, no GPS, and very seldom VOR/NDB, thus always
pilotage. I was only making the point that (to me) it seems a lot of people
rely heavily on GPS and are probably out of touch with dead reckoning. All I
was suggesting is that we all practise the basics as often as we can.

I knew someone would flame me... I wasn't looking for it, really.

Flame?

Just an honest inquiry. It seems that we agree on the value of
pilotage, I only questioned why one would use it only a few times a
year.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

TTA Cherokee Driver wrote:

Thanks to the AOPA's new flight planner, I now flight plan a lot more
than I used to. Give it a try, it's easy and very well done.

I've given it several tries. It still crashes. It still tells me about waypoints
named "Uuuuuuu". I've documented the problems to AOPA, no response.

Too bad, it seems like a reasonably well designed user interface and a lot of
function.

Dave up the road at RDU.
Remove SHIRT to reply directly.

Nasir wrote:

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?


Thanks to the AOPA's new flight planner, I now flight plan a lot more
than I used to. Give it a try, it's easy and very well done.

In article , Nasir wrote:
Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I always want a line on the chart.
I'll find the approximate time en-route, and data to tell me if I'm
behind or ahead of schedule. I certainly don't go to the nit-picky
detail that student pilots have to go to for VFR flight.

As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations. In the kind of planes I
fly, usually within the first few minutes of cruise flight, it's
possible to make a very good estimate of what heading must be flown to
maintain the course. Checkpoints and ground features allow fine tuning.
I've flown from cost to coast in the US using this method - without a
GPS - and never got lost.

The other thing I do is en-route, keep a note of time. I note the time
passing anything significant on the chart. Therefore when I do get
unsure of my position, it's easy to work out - "well, I was here 8
minutes ago, I must roughly be here now", and within seconds, I've
matched a landmark to something on the chart. One thing that I think is
not given anywhere near enough emphasis in VFR navigation is keeping
track of time. Time is as important as your course line.

I read an ILAFFT column, which summed up "Dead reckoning is the basis of
all aviation navigation. Everything else is just a refinement or aid".
Live by that motto and you'll never get truly lost.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Roy Smith wrote:
"Trent Moorehead" wrote:
Here's the important step: I checked over the Navigation log to make sure
that it somewhat matched my crude manual numbers.

Excellent idea. The problem with computers is not that they make
errors, but that they don't notice or care if you feed them bad data.
Garbage in, garbage out. Type in the name of a GPS waypoint wrong and
the computer is perfectly happy to send you to Nebraska instead of New
Jersey.

That's what I like about the mechanical E6B (and I suspect why they are
still popular, when slide rules have disappeared from everwhere else) is
that they make you think about the orders of magnitudes in your
calculations, and "hrm, that's not right" seems to scream louded on a
mechanical E6B. Add to that, also for time and distance calculations,
the mechanical one is unquestionably faster.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Dylan Smith wrote:
As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations.

Winds aloft can be a bitch. The difference between a 40 kt headwind and
a 40 kt tailwind can mean a factor of two in the range of a typical
piston single. For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

That really sux. I can't believe they wouldn't SELL the pilot fuel . . . what
assholes.


www.Rosspilot.com

In article , G.R. Patterson III wrote:
What engine do you have in there? I burn 8.6 gph with my 160 hp O-320 and
flight
plan for 9. My redline is 2700 rpm, IIRC.

That seems a bit high too. I used to reliably get 6.6gph at 6500' out of
our club's C172N at 105 KTAS.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Roy Smith wrote:
Dylan Smith wrote:
As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations.

Winds aloft can be a bitch. The difference between a 40 kt headwind and
a 40 kt tailwind can mean a factor of two in the range of a typical
piston single. For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

It's not a question of not taking the winds into *account*. I can look
at the winds aloft forecast and make a very good estimate without
needing to actually formally calculate anything. The winds aloft
forecast are really not reliable enough to be worth anything more than
estimation.

That's why I don't read anything special into them. When I get airborne,
I've often found the winds aloft (which ARE worth calculating from real
data which you're seeing now, and indeed reporting to the FSS in a
PIREP) to be many degrees different to the forecast, and usually quite
different in speed. The forecasts aren't any more good than an estimate
- what you actually find is what's good for a calculation. I've often
found that the forecast 5 knot headwind has in reality been a 20 knot
headwind or vice versa (which is a significant difference in an 85 knot
plane).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"