Do you flight plan?

This is an interesting statement that begs for an explanation. Why do you
like to fly "very low"?

Gosh, doesn't everyone?

My primary reason for flying at 2900 feet AGL (if you consider that
low--I do!) is that it frees me from having to think about airways
while getting me above the controlled airspace near my home.

I almost never go higher, and I am so accustomed to this altitude that
I feel a bit uncomfortable flying lower, though I will do so if
there's a strong headwind. There aren't many pastures where I fly, and
I like the extra gliding distance.

The view is great from 2900 feet. If the poster means that he likes to
smell the newmown hay--well, that's another matter.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

2900 Feet AGL is Low???? Just kidding. Army helicopters, if anything other
than the rotors are above the trees, your too high. But when I fly PP-ASEL
anywhere, I get up there. There is nothing like altitude.

What is that saying? Two things that are useless, Fuel on the ground and air
above you?

Fred


"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

This is an interesting statement that begs for an explanation. Why do
you
like to fly "very low"?

Gosh, doesn't everyone?

My primary reason for flying at 2900 feet AGL (if you consider that
low--I do!) is that it frees me from having to think about airways
while getting me above the controlled airspace near my home.

I almost never go higher, and I am so accustomed to this altitude that
I feel a bit uncomfortable flying lower, though I will do so if
there's a strong headwind. There aren't many pastures where I fly, and
I like the extra gliding distance.

The view is great from 2900 feet. If the poster means that he likes to
smell the newmown hay--well, that's another matter.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
newsmRAb.53585$_M.258452@attbi_s54...
You are taught pilotage as a shield against the day when you computer
flight
planning software crashes. You do need something to fall back on.

Bob Gardner

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)?

For most VFR flights of significant length I plan carefully, especially
since I like to fly very low.

This is an interesting statement that begs for an explanation. Why do you
like to fly "very low"?

If you fly antiques the likes of Cubs and Champs, there is no need to
fly high. 300 to 500 AGL will get you anywhere you want to go.
With a max cruise speed of 75-80 MILES per hour, obstruction avoidance
takes a long time. Something a mile ahead of you will give you 40-50
seconds to maneuver around.
You can pull back the power and yell at people on the ground.
Any patch of ground without trees or wires is a potential landing area.
Long drivways, country lanes and fields, big yards, beaches, etc.
Not only can you land, you can takeoff.
I have flown Columbus OH to Oshkosh WI and never gone above 500 AGL.
When I flew Columbus to Lakeland FL for Sun N Fun this year, the only
time I climbed above 1000 AGL was to cross a few mountains and swamps.

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 19:31:34 -0500, Roy Smith wrote in
Message-Id: :

You certainly want to look at a chart and make sure your proposed route
makes sense.

I have one cardinal rule regarding XC flights: Don't get in the
airplane without a course line drawn on the chart. The rest varies...

"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?

Nasir,

I am a relatively low-time pilot and just made a small cross country just
yesterday. My experience has been that I still do some flight planning
manually, but I let my computer do the number crunching.

My flight planning consisted of looking on my sectional for a destination,
drawing a line, making note of landmarks for checkpoints, measuring the
distance and True Heading and estimating time en route with my E-6B. This
took all of 10 minutes (It would have been shorter, but the Sunday morning
news was on and I would plan during the commercial breaks).

Then, I went to my computer, started up the AOPA's free flight planner,
typed in my departure and arrival points and voila, my flight was planned.
All the wind correction, magnetic variation, fuel calcs and times are
computed almost instantly (for both forth and hence), saving me many minutes
of planning.

Here's the important step: I checked over the Navigation log to make sure
that it somewhat matched my crude manual numbers. This way, if I made a
mistake somewhere, it would be a red flag telling me to look over my plan
again. I then went to AOPA's AFD and printed out my destination's info and
diagram.

I let the computer's flight planner do the wind correction angle, fuel
calculations, fuel at each leg, time en route etc. Manually, doing these
calculations is the most time consuming part of flight planning.

I usually fly totally by pilotage since I don't have a GPS. I rarely even
use the VOR, since most of my flights are over the country to small
airports. Some day, I'll get a GPS though, because I think it would be a
great insurance policy against that sinking feeling that you've just passed
your destination airport and you've got to turn around (or do you?).

-Trent
PP-ASEL

"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.

I once sat in the cockpit of an airline flight during the pre-flight
preparations for a flight to Bermuda. Between the plane's computers and
the airline's dispatch department, the flight was planned about as
carefully and accurately as possible. But the pilot still pulled out a
chart and a plotter (looked just like the one you got in your student
pilot kit, except that it had the airline's name printed on it and
looked like it had accumulated a lifetime's worth of dings and
scratches), drew some lines, and went over it leg by leg verifying that
the headings and distances the computer spat out looked reasonable.

Well, a cross country is just a series of one hour flights strung end to
end... To go for a one hour flight I simply check the weather and notams,
and if there are no show stoppers we get into the plane and launch in the
general direction of where we want to be... To go from one end of the
country to the other, I do exactly the same - wx / notams / fuel / go...
Fuel stops are usually not preplanned, about two and a half hours out I
start looking ahead an hour for the fuel stop... I try to go to a different
airport for fuel on every trip even if it is the twentieth time I've flown
the route.. I do avoid the jet ports simply because they have high fuel
prices, though...

The Howie Keith Charts are the easiest I've found and I have used them off
and on for decades... The GPS195 keeps me from blundering into controlled /
restricted airspace, and the airport database makes it easy to look an hour
ahead for an airport with fuel.. Out west where the airports are further
apart I do a smidgen more preplanning on the fuel stop, but that's all...

So, my flight planning is the absolute minimum possible in todays
airspace... The reality over most of the country is that you are within ten
minutes of an airport... Relax and look at this beautiful country instead of
sweating over check points and being exactly on time with your flight
plan...

Denny


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:r4SAb.459877$Tr4.1276545@attbi_s03...
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?

Last spring we flew from Iowa to Florida, with a stop in Alabama, with
less
formal flight planning then when I prepared for my first few 50-mile
student
cross country flights.

We subscribe to Aeroplanner, an on-line flight planning service, and
create
Sectional Chart "Trip Tiks" in .pdf format upon request, printing them on
my
color laser printer at work. This pretty much wraps up our "flight
planning" in the traditional sense, except for programming everything into
our AvMap GPS. Aeroplanner literally does everything for you, including
drawing the line on the charts, right down to the 10 nm "ticks"... (It
also
creates sectionals on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, in flip-chart form, so you
don't
have the "octopus arms" of charts in the cockpit.)

That said, it's the weather prep that really matters on a long cross
country
flight -- and, if anything, this has gotten MORE extensive over the years.
For several days before a flight, we'll study the weather patterns on The
Weather Channel. I'll get a really thorough outlook briefing the night
before a flight, and then a standard weather briefing the morning of the
flight.

I'll virtually live on ADDS and a host of other weather websites, tracking
the METARS and TAFS along our route of flight. I'll try to be aware of
trends and anomalies in the weather pattern. If they're predicting crap
weather the day before a flight, and it's sunny, I'll be very aware that
the
NWS has no clue what's happening.

Finally, for vacations we always plan at least three flights. If the
weather is socked in to the North, we'll choose our "Southern Option". If
it looks bad that way, too, we'll choose our Western Option. We always
leave our options open, and we always leave at least one "contingency day"
in our flight plans.

This procedure has worked well for almost ten years, and almost 900 hours.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Nasir" wrote in message
news

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

My primary reason for flying at 2900 feet AGL (if you consider that
low--I do!) is that it frees me from having to think about airways

I was presuming he meant lower than 2900 AGL.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In a previous article, Cub Driver said:
My primary reason for flying at 2900 feet AGL (if you consider that
low--I do!) is that it frees me from having to think about airways
while getting me above the controlled airspace near my home.

The problem with flight below 3,000 AGL is you keep encountering other
aircraft. Every time I'm down there, I feel like I'm a World War II
fighter pilot over Germany, because there's always somebody whizzing past
in one direction or another, and if I stop scanning the skies for even a
second in order to sight see, I'm going to get killed.

I like to cruise between 6,000 and 10,000 - there's NOBODY up there. I
flew for five hours yesterday, and the only traffic pointed out by ATC was
down in the weeds, and I saw a few Dash-8s climbing or descending through
my altitude, but otherwise it was pure bliss with the world stretching out
as far as the eye could see in all directions.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
It's fun to mock old people. They're going to die soon anyway.
-- Mike Sphar