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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
What methods do you deploy? How many folks use a kneeboard? What
kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? I've read the books, but I just wonder how people cope in real life. Rod Machado talks about using a clipboard (with extra clips on the 3 other sides) in his excellent training manual. This seems like a good idea to me. Steve PP ASEL Instrument student |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
First and most important rule: Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)! The more complex of an organizational method you have, the more likely it is to fail. I do use a kneeboard, with a pen holder on it. On the kneeboard is some scratch paper, and usually the enroute chart I'm using at the moment. I have a digital kitchen timer on the yoke for timing approaches along with a simple clip below it for holding the approach plate in use. That way, I don't have to divert my eyes too far from my scan when checking the approach plate. Do I write down every single clearance? No. Not if it's simple, like "turn left to heading 270, descend and maintain 5,000". I also don't usually write down approach clearances because you usually know what approach they're going to give you ahead of time, and the last thing I want do to during the approach phase of flight is take my attention away from the panel. That said, sometimes those approach clearances can get fairly complex and it may be worth jotting down the pertinent info. For departure clearances, I have a sheet of blank paper on which I write "CRAFTS" vertically along the left side for "Clearance, Route, Altitude, Frequency, Transponder, Special" that I can fill in when given my clearance. Keep your cockpit clutter to a minimum, and keep things as simple as possible. The purpose of cockpit organization is so that you can focus on the important things, like flying the airplane. -- Dane In article . com, wrote: What methods do you deploy? How many folks use a kneeboard? What kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? I've read the books, but I just wonder how people cope in real life. Rod Machado talks about using a clipboard (with extra clips on the 3 other sides) in his excellent training manual. This seems like a good idea to me. Steve PP ASEL Instrument student |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
I use a spiral bound notebook, 5.5 by about 8 inches -- it's easy to
tuck a pencil in the spring. WX info on the top of the sheet, flight plan under that, clearance under that. Ilist frequencies in a column down the extreme right hand edge, fixes with eta, ata, and time over destination down the left hand side. Clearance modifications are recorded as they are given, and approach details make it easy to refer to. You won't find yourself wondering if you were cleared to 3000 or 2000 if you see a down arrow and 3000 written there. The notebook has a rubber band around it, that holds maps, calculators and so on. You simply don't need to have a lot of paper active in the cockpit, this system is a reasonable starting place for you to develop your own way of doing it. The neat thing is each notebook sheet records the details of a flight much better than your log book entry will, and a full notebook, with its 60 pages, can hold easily a hundred flights. I use the back pages for FSS phone numbers, flight plan forms, that sort of thing. No kneeboards for me, at least half my flights are business related and I don't want my suit pants to look like I had something strapped to the leg. Try it even VFR, it works just as well, and you'll notice how easy it is to take notes and the like. You'll probably organize the pad differently than I do, but once you decide on how you want to record things, do it that way all of the time, it will, I promise you, make things a lot easier as you gain experience. Figure out a better way and then tell us about it! wrote: What methods do you deploy? How many folks use a kneeboard? What kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? I've read the books, but I just wonder how people cope in real life. Rod Machado talks about using a clipboard (with extra clips on the 3 other sides) in his excellent training manual. This seems like a good idea to me. Steve PP ASEL Instrument student |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 18, 9:33 pm, wrote:
What methods do you deploy? How many folks use a kneeboard? What kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? I've read the books, but I just wonder how people cope in real life. Rod Machado talks about using a clipboard (with extra clips on the 3 other sides) in his excellent training manual. This seems like a good idea to me. Steve PP ASEL Instrument student The fewer things you have with you in the cockpit, the simpler everything becomes. Leave everything in your flight bag but somewhere within reach, and grab only what you really need. In a training environment our students are trained as if every flight is an emergency, and to be prepared for the worst. Nothing wrong with that, but you have to decide the correct balance of things to carry for each flight to minimize clutter and workload. I clip the weather and flight planning printouts to the kneeboard. That also doubles as my scratch paper. Attaching a string is a good idea, but I have never done it. I carry one pen for multiple things (signing logbooks and such), so tying it to the clipboard would be inconvenient. My wrist watch serves as the timer if I ever need one. I don't bother timing the approach unless the weather is near minimum. All my charts stay in the bag, and I only rip out the pages I need. For the most part, the NACO chart book stays in my flight bag (which could be outdated), and I fly with individually printed approach charts. I don't write everything down. Squawk codes and radio frequencies get loaded into the stack right away as I am reading them back to the controller. I only write down stuff that the controller starts with "advice when ready to copy". If an instruction is too lengthy and I happen to miss something, I can always ask it to be repeated. It doesn't happen often enough to worry about hogging the frequency. Don't forget the flashlight. I have yet to find a good way to keep it from getting lost. It is too bulky to attach it to a string but it is too small to keep from rolling off into a crevice. |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote:
Don't forget the flashlight. I have yet to find a good way to keep it from getting lost. It is too bulky to attach it to a string but it is too small to keep from rolling off into a crevice. Flashlights come in two styles. Style 1 has a wrist lanyard attached to it. These get hung over a horn of the yoke. Style 2 has no laynard. These get lost under the seat. |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
I like the tip about using OBS #2 to hold altitude assignments! As
far as the flashlight goes, I have one that hangs around my neck on a lanyard. I don't bother timing my approaches. With 2 GPS units and associated situational awareness, timing is a waste of time. --Dan On Feb 18, 8:50 pm, "Andrew Sarangan" wrote: On Feb 18, 9:33 pm, wrote: What methods do you deploy? How many folks use a kneeboard? What kind of timer (analog or digital stopwatch) do you use, and where do you put it? Where do you keep the charts, approach plates, and scratch paper? How many people write down every clearance, heading, altitude and frequency change? How do you keep from dropping your pen (or pencil)? Is it on a string? Where do you put in when not in use? Velcro? Your pocket? I've read the books, but I just wonder how people cope in real life. Rod Machado talks about using a clipboard (with extra clips on the 3 other sides) in his excellent training manual. This seems like a good idea to me. Steve PP ASEL Instrument student The fewer things you have with you in the cockpit, the simpler everything becomes. Leave everything in your flight bag but somewhere within reach, and grab only what you really need. In a training environment our students are trained as if every flight is an emergency, and to be prepared for the worst. Nothing wrong with that, but you have to decide the correct balance of things to carry for each flight to minimize clutter and workload. I clip the weather and flight planning printouts to the kneeboard. That also doubles as my scratch paper. Attaching a string is a good idea, but I have never done it. I carry one pen for multiple things (signing logbooks and such), so tying it to the clipboard would be inconvenient. My wrist watch serves as the timer if I ever need one. I don't bother timing the approach unless the weather is near minimum. All my charts stay in the bag, and I only rip out the pages I need. For the most part, the NACO chart book stays in my flight bag (which could be outdated), and I fly with individually printed approach charts. I don't write everything down. Squawk codes and radio frequencies get loaded into the stack right away as I am reading them back to the controller. I only write down stuff that the controller starts with "advice when ready to copy". If an instruction is too lengthy and I happen to miss something, I can always ask it to be repeated. It doesn't happen often enough to worry about hogging the frequency. Don't forget the flashlight. I have yet to find a good way to keep it from getting lost. It is too bulky to attach it to a string but it is too small to keep from rolling off into a crevice.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 18, 9:54 pm, Roy Smith wrote:
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote: Don't forget the flashlight. I have yet to find a good way to keep it from getting lost. It is too bulky to attach it to a string but it is too small to keep from rolling off into a crevice. Flashlights come in two styles. Style 1 has a wrist lanyard attached to it. These get hung over a horn of the yoke. Style 2 has no laynard. These get lost under the seat. How about flashlights attached to your head? Or your headset? I tried one of the LED "headlights", but it gave me a headache after awhile. It was sure was convenient though! Does anyone use the neck lights, seatbelt lights, ballcap lights, and even tongue switch lights they advertise in Sportys and Spruce? |
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Organizational Skills Required During Instrument Flight
On Feb 18, 10:59 pm, "Dan" wrote:
I like the tip about using OBS #2 to hold altitude assignments! As far as the flashlight goes, I have one that hangs around my neck on a lanyard. I don't bother timing my approaches. With 2 GPS units and associated situational awareness, timing is a waste of time. --Dan Except when you need the OBS #2 for navigation! It sounds like GPS navigation is now the norm. One of the planes I fly has a GNS-430, but the other just has 2 old fashioned VOR's. Plus of course my Lowrance 2000C, which I use for situation awareness only. But since I'm still a student, I don't bring along the portable yet. I don't think the examiner would appreciate it. |
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