If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#101
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
Harmonicas are best. Saxophones take two hands. Banjos only work in
open cockpits. Don |
#102
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
Mxsmanic wrote in
: The walk to the Louvre from the museum's parking lot is extremely short. But what if the weather is bad or there is low visibility? Seriously, though. I can't walk to any museums from my house. Yet I find walking to be a valid mode of transportation. That does seem to be a useful range for GA. Of course, it doesn't come remotely close to justifying GA for transportation, but if one already has a license and an aircraft, why not? It justifies it for me. I can't speak for the rest of the world. But when you make a claim with anti-GA undercurrents that is based on opinions that have been founded in something other than fact, you can expect me to respond harshly, and I would consider that quite on topic. Looking at general aviation objectively, it's extremely difficult to see any real transportation value to it, except for certain specific circumstances (heavy, short-range business travel, and some other purposes). I don't believe either of us are looking at it objectively. But it serves my purposes quite well, and I appreciate the value that it offers me. Just because it doesn't present value for you doesn't mean it has no value. Evidence would suggest that GA presents value to some number of people in the world, because there are many people, both pilots and otherwise, that use General Aviation as a form of transportation. If there is no value in it, they wouldn't use it. One man's trash is another man's treasure... |
#103
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
On Tue, 24 Oct 2006 03:10:38 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote: Sure, but if you want to get from point A to point B, and the weather doesn't cooperate, you are simply out of luck. This means that you cannot rely on GA for scheduled (meaning planned in advance) travel if you can only fly VFR. The longer the trip you plan, the more likely it is that an inability to fly IFR will prevent you from completing it (or even starting it). ... Unless I were flying over desert in the severest clear weather, I'd fly IFR with passengers. You never know when clouds or fog might appear ahead. Being equipped to handle icing would be handy, too, although avoidance would be the key policy for that. ... If you have understanding passengers, fine. If they are going to a wedding or job interview, though, this is a serious problem. ... If you seriously want to use GA for transportation, the private pilot IS on the same level. Without an IFR rating and an appropriate aircraft, a private pilot is fairly useless for real transportation, unless he happens to live in a place like Death Valley. You know, you're awfully opinionated for someone who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. RK Henry |
#104
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
Judah writes:
But what if the weather is bad or there is low visibility? I walk IFR. Just because it doesn't present value for you doesn't mean it has no value. Evidence would suggest that GA presents value to some number of people in the world, because there are many people, both pilots and otherwise, that use General Aviation as a form of transportation. If there is no value in it, they wouldn't use it. I think it more likely that many private pilots use the pretext of transportation as an excuse to fly. Not that there's any harm in that, but they should just admit it and not try to pretend that aircraft are actually practical transportation for general purposes. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#105
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
RK Henry writes:
You know, you're awfully opinionated for someone who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. I'm opinionated, but I'm polite, and I stick to the subject, without attacking the individual. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#106
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
... A Lieberma writes: Keep looking, they are out there. And for free that is! I discover new stuff every few days. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. hmm... don't think you looked very hard... a Google search for "sectional charts online" (no quotes), the site at the top of the list is one of the better sites for online sectional and terminal charts... |
#107
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
Mxsmanic,
I'm opinionated, but I'm polite, No, you're not. Quite the opposite, in fact. Being opinionated about subjects you know nothing or very little about is not polite. It is an insult to the people you are trying to discuss with when those people obviously know perfectly well what they are talking about. It's also illogical and plain dumb, if I may say so. Being aware of one's limits of knowledge and acting accordingly in discussions - that's polite. Oh, and should you think of using the good old excuse of "All I'm being is open-minded and sceptic (sp?)" - that can be done in a polite and sensible manner, too. You don't. And this not-so-subtle difference you refuse to understand is the key to all the problems you have in human interaction (here). Thanks for bringing it up so succinctly. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#108
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
... Wade Hasbrouck writes: Yes, a current IFR rating could be helpful, but a VFR pilot should be very concious of what the weather is and what the weather will do, doesn't leave without a "back up" plan, should the weather not do what is expected. Sure, but if you want to get from point A to point B, and the weather doesn't cooperate, you are simply out of luck. This means that you cannot rely on GA for scheduled (meaning planned in advance) travel if you can only fly VFR. "scheduled" is poor choice of words, as to the FAA, that inferes "airline" "air taxi" or "on demand operation", which is strictly prohibited under Part 91 of the FARs (part under which Private Pilots operate). In the eyes of the FAA a "planned flight" is different than a "scheduled flight" (scheduled implies that it occurs regularly and is "for hire" or "on demand") If I want to drive from GTF to SEA, and the weather doesn't cooperate, I am out of luck too. I have had this happen (Avalanches have been know to close Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, and Steven Pass can be quite treacherous in the winter). I was stuck on the eastside of the Cascades for two days while they cleared both Stevens Pass on US 2 and Snoqualmie Pass I-90 because of Avalanches, along with freezing rain on I-90 in Eastern Washington, not to mention the 3 other mountain passes that had to cross to get to Eastern Washington. This has actually happened to me twice two separate years) No form of transportation is perfect and 100% reliable. The longer the trip you plan, the more likely it is that an inability to fly IFR will prevent you from completing it (or even starting it). Many people fly from places like Seattle or California to Oshkosh every year for EAA's AirVenture. I know many people that make flights from Seattle to places on the other side of the Cascades, and the Rockies for that matter with out problems. Granted it gets tougher in the winter time, and for that matter driving across the Cascades in the winter time also becomes tougher and is something I try to avoid. Also things like Fligh****ch are very useful tools for the VFR pilot to find out what the weather is doing up ahead of him. Also, a good pilot will keep his passengers informed of what is going on with the weather. Unless I were flying over desert in the severest clear weather, I'd fly IFR with passengers. You never know when clouds or fog might appear ahead. Being equipped to handle icing would be handy, too, although avoidance would be the key policy for that. Do you even know what Fligh****ch and EFAS are? Have you heard of Pilot Reports? You make it sound like once you a Private Pilot is in the air he is all alone and helpless. Do you have any knowledge about weather? Do you know what weather conditions need to be present for low clouds or fog to form or when they are likely to form? Are you familar with the weather trends of the areas that you are flying in? i.e. fog in the Seattle area doesn't start to form until after midnight and usually doesn't become problem until early morning... Those pieces of knowledge alone can be extremely helpful figuring out what might be going on at your destination or along the route. Let me guess you would probably file IFR if it was a 2000' ceiling, 6 mile visibility in going from PAE to SEA in a Cessna 172 or even the Baron. I had a coworker who wanted to go have lunch at PWT (Bremerton National) on a Saturday morning. We planned this flight several weeks ahead of time. The day before the weather forecast showed that it could be questionable weather, but still looked flyable. I let him know that it is questionable, but won't really know for sure in the morning. The next morning the ceilings at PWT dropped to 600', and we couldn't go. Tried again the next Saturday morning, with basically the same results. The Seattle area seems to be IFR heaven. Very often when I load real-world weather into my sim for a flight, it's all IFR, and I have to file a flight plan to go anywhere (fortunately, I'm building up a nice little library of common IFR flight plans). Depends on when you fly... Fall/Winter (October - March) is definitely "tougher" because of the weather. Spring/Summer are nice. afternoons, Evenings, and nights in the Fall/Winter are generally better than mornings. I am up front with my passengers when they fly with me, and say that the flight is very dependent on the weather, and will keep them in the loop as far as what is going on with the weather, and if they want will explain the things that went into my decision, especially for a "no-go" decision. If you have understanding passengers, fine. If they are going to a wedding or job interview, though, this is a serious problem. Again you are inferring that the Private Pilot can ignore FAR Part 91 and FAR 61.113 when they want to help out friends. If a friend comes to me and says "I have a wedding or job interview to go to, could you fly me there?", this would most likely be considered a violation of 61.113, and would be illegal for a Private Pilot to do. If you have passengers asking for these types of things, or you are volunteering to fly them places like this, depending on how it is initiated, it will more than likely will result in a violation of FAR 61.113. FAA says that compensation doesn't always have to take a monetary form, doing a "favor" for someone can be considered compensation by the FAA. You are starting to imply that a Private Pilot can operate as an "air taxi" or "on demand operation" which is strictly prohibited for Private Pilots. A Private Pilot can only fly in furthence of a business if it is "incidental and there are no other passengers or cargo on board for hire" I make it perfectly clear to my passengers, that I am the one responsible for the safety of the flight, and if at any point I see that it is not safe to go or continue, I will terminate the flight, and ask before they get in the airplane (alot of times before I even book the plane) if they can deal with the possible dissappointment and/or hardship of not being able to go or complete the flight, and if they can't, we don't fly. I am not an airline, I am not an air taxi, I am not an on demand operation, I am a private pilot who wants to go someplace with some friends, and see it as a convient form of transportation to take my friends and myself places that we want to go, and if the weather doesn't cooperate, we have a backup plan either an alternate route or ground transportation if we really want to go. I would rather fly to my hometown in Montana from Seattle in about 5 hours, vs. the 10 hours of driving to get there. You also make it sound like a Private Pilot doesn't check the weather until about 5 minutes before his friends show up at the airport to go fly, when in reality, a responsible pilot will be checking it further out in advance than you may think. For instance, if I am going flying in two weeks, I will keep an eye on the long range forecasts, starting about 10 days out from the flight. While these forecasts are not pinpoint accurate, they are generally accurate enough to tell me if I need to start reconsidering my options, especially with in 3 days or so of the flight. I do this about once a day up until about 24 hours before the flight, at which time the more detailed forecasts (online stanadard weather briefings) and things such as the Terminal Area Forecasts start become available as they forecast what the ceilings should do and what the visibility should be. Then I will check it again before leaving for the airport, which is when I call Flight Service for a Standard Weather Breifing (up to this point I get Standard Weather Breifings online through DUATS), I actually call Flight Service and talk to them just in case I missed something in the online breifings. If at any point during this process, I feel that things are not safe for the flight, I let my passengers know and what our options are (wait and see, wait it out, cancel the flight, find a different mode of transportation). This makes it much easier should it become a "no-go". You make it sound that a Private Pilot is on the same level as an Airline Transport Pilot and is flying regular routes, which is not the case. If you seriously want to use GA for transportation, the private pilot IS on the same level. Without an IFR rating and an appropriate aircraft, a private pilot is fairly useless for real transportation, unless he happens to live in a place like Death Valley. A Private Pilot IS NOT on the same level. Again "regular travel" implies a "scheduled service" and operating under something other than FAR Part 91. You also make it sound like a Private Pilot is taking passengers that are paying for transportation, which if that was the case, you wouldn't be a Private Pilot for very long as the FAA would quickly take your certificate. Not at all. You could have commitments to friends or relatives to transport them here or there, with no money involved. FAA could still consider this as flying for compensation, which is prohibited under Part 91 and FAR 61.113. FAA has said that compensation doesn't have to be monetary in nature to violate FAR 61.113. If I am taking friends and family on a trip they must realize, that there is always a possibility we might not be able to fly or that we may need to stay longer at our destination, otherwise again we don't fly and we find a different mode of transportation. If a friend comes up to me and says "I need to go somplace, can you fly me there?" and I do the flight (even if I pay for the flight), that can still be considered a violation of FAR 61.113. The president of the flying club I belong to, is an ATP rated pilot and is currently a 747 captain for a notable airline, and has been flying for this airline for more than 20 years (started in 727s and moved up). He was planning on a trip to Sun Valley from Seattle, in the club's 182, which does have the Garmin gns430 GPS, and the Garmin Mode S transponder. Weather in Seattle wasn't that great, and I figured he would go IFR, but he canceled the flight. I saw him the next weekend, and asked why... he simply stated "Weather...", so an Instrument Rating doesn't always get you where you want to go. He could have gone if he had really wanted to, with the proper rating and aircraft. Maybe IFR irritates him; I can understand that, as it's mostly instruments and radio, rather than admiring the countryside outside the window. He already does that at work, so it would be a sort of busman's holiday. That first sentence is almost insulting, implying that he is not properly rated and would consider taking improperly rated aircraft. He has the proper rating, as he is a Designated Pilot Examiner for Private, Commercial, Instrument, ATP, Flight Instructor, and Multi Engine which means he has all of those ratings and is current, and he had properly rated aircraft, an IFR rated Cessna 182 with Garmin gns 430 GPS, DME, Garmin Mode S transponder, etc. Going "because you really want/need to" will more than likely get you killed, becuase you are no longer thinking rationally about the situation and results in poor judgement. I know him, you don't... He doesn't mind IFR, as long as it is sensible and safe. He was doing IFR with a student the other weekend. If he didn't like IFR he wouldn't do it. He evaluated the situation, and felt that it was not safe to go, even IFR, and knowing him, he doesn't go if it is not safe. Do you actually think your typical airline captain has his eyes glued to the instrument panel when it is VMC outside the plane? A 747 captain who doesn't have a plane of his own? What are you implying? I almost take this as an insult, like he is a "lesser" 747 captain because he doesn't have his own plane. In a way he does "have his own plane..." The club is limited to 60 members, each member is a 1/60 owner in each of the three planes the club has. Why own your own plane and pay all of the maintenance on it yourself, when you can share the cost with 59 other people and the availability and upkeep of the planes are excellent, and since he is the president of the club he also gets a certain amount of free flight time each month. Again, a VFR pilot should always be aware of the weather, and have a suitable backup plan before leaving. Often the only backup plan is not to go, which is unacceptable if you really need to get somewhere (the underlying presumption if you are flying for transportation). A backup plan could be an alternate route or other means of transportation. I believe his back up plan, and in the case of many others, is to drive, which to the Private Pilots I know, is a suitable and acceptable back up plan, which is better than killing yourself in an airplane because you did something stupid or had "get-there-itis" What time of the day are you flying around Seattle. Seattle is notorious for "morning clouds and afternoon sun". The bad weather has indeed been early in the day. I fly late in the day here in Paris, but since I use real time and weather in many cases, it's early morning with 1/4 mile of visibility when I try to fly. It's good IFR practice, though. And it seems to be mostly low visiblity, not windy or icy. Seattle typically is not windy or icy. Last week and the weekend before, the weather was pretty crappy. Yes, I was there ... so to speak. My practice flights from KPAE to KTIW were all IFR, but it was good practice. No rain and seemingly very little wind, but practically zero visibility. I had one tragic accident at KTIW when I couldn't see the runway until I was only about 100 feet off the threshold (and heading directly for a tall tree). Thank goodness a new Baron 58 was waiting for me only seconds later! It also sounds like SEA might have been below IFR minimums, but I know what the IFR minimums for SEA are, as I know it probably depends on the avionics in the plane as well (remember hopping a comercial flight from GTF to SEA, and it was the first day in about a week that they could land at SEA as their planes didn't have an adequate avionics package to land in very low visibility. I meant to say "I don't know what the IFR minimums are for SEA" If you are flying IFR in the simulator, don't you know what the IFR minimums are? Just because you are on an IFR flight plan, doesn't mean you can land in zero visibility, especially at a place like TIW, as many airports have some minimums where if you don't see the runway at a given altitude, you are required to execute a missed approach. |
#109
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
"Don Poitras" wrote in message ... In rec.aviation.piloting Wade Hasbrouck wrote: a few West coast ones... :-) S16 - Copalis State. Land right on the beach... :-) It is a kind of popular place in Washington state. I have yet to do this, and my instructor hasn't done it yet either. I don't know of many beaches that you are acutally allowed to land on. :-) MMV - McMinneville, Or. They have a pretty cool air museum here, and is the current home of the Spruce Goose. BFI - Boeing Field, Seattle, WA - Museum of Flight (www.museumofflight.org) , one of the best aviation museums on the west coast. Can walk through a Concorde, and the first jet Air Force One. (http://www.museumofflight.org/Collec...9-1087DA0DD65B) I wish you could walk through the Concorde. Instead you can step aboard and peer down the isle through a plexiglass panel. Even moth-balled, it's still too special for the hoi-polloi... You aren't missing much in the Concorde cabin. I flew on it from Heathrow to Bahrain in '76. The seats were nice leather but the size of standard coach seats. The food was good and the view out the window was interesting but other than that it felt like a really long regional jet. Thank god it was fast because it was not comfortable. |
#110
|
|||
|
|||
Common instruments on small aircraft
"Mxsmanic" wrote in message ... Judah writes: But what if the weather is bad or there is low visibility? I walk IFR. Just because it doesn't present value for you doesn't mean it has no value. Evidence would suggest that GA presents value to some number of people in the world, because there are many people, both pilots and otherwise, that use General Aviation as a form of transportation. If there is no value in it, they wouldn't use it. I think it more likely that many private pilots use the pretext of transportation as an excuse to fly. Not that there's any harm in that, but they should just admit it and not try to pretend that aircraft are actually practical transportation for general purposes. Some of us value our time. I understand that you don't, else you would earn more than $637 per hour. But in my case GA allows me to leave the office and see 4 customers in a day instead of 2 or 3 if I were to drive. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
I want to build the most EVIL plane EVER !!! | Eliot Coweye | Home Built | 237 | February 13th 06 03:55 AM |
Washington DC airspace closing for good? | tony roberts | Piloting | 153 | August 11th 05 12:56 AM |
Homebuilt Aircraft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Ron Wanttaja | Home Built | 0 | May 1st 04 07:29 PM |
Homebuilt Aircraft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Ron Wanttaja | Home Built | 2 | February 2nd 04 11:41 PM |
Homebuilt Aircraft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Ron Wanttaja | Home Built | 1 | January 2nd 04 09:02 PM |