Flying the DC-7

I wrote a while ago about two vintage aircraft that used to sit between the taxiways on Oakland's North Field: A P3 Orion that was cut up for scrap and a DC-6 that was refurbished and flew out on its own power. I've never flown on either aircraft types, but seeing the DC-6 do a last low-pass over 27 left before departing to the East was like going back in time.

Here's a video about Sully and Skiles getting their SIC type ratings in the Historical Flight Foundation's DC-7. It's fun to watch guys who flew a lot of hours in modern jet airliners flying with a flight engineer and talking about carb heat, cowl flaps, and mixture settings. Check it out!

The Historical Flight Foundation's web site says this aircraft suffered an engine failure and is in maintenance indefinitely for repairs. Should you feel like making a donation to help out, contact the Historical Flight Foundation at info@hffshop.com, easterndc7@gmail.com, or by calling 305-883-2012.

Diversion, Conversion

Cruising along at 5,500 feet, en route to the Columbia airport, my student had good reason to believe he’d never get there. Sure enough, in preparation for his upcoming private pilot check ride, I asked him divert to another airport. He began circling over a chosen landmark, produced a VFR chart, drew a course line, estimated the heading, distance, time, and fuel required to the new airport, all the while maintaing altitude and looking for traffic. His juggling of these priorities was impressive, but he soon discovered that his chart had been folded so many times that the frequencies for the new destination airport had been rendered illegible. Flustered, he scrambled to locate his Airport/Facility Directory while I kept an eye out for traffic and mused about how many times a day pilots must now be asking their instructors “Is it okay for me to use my iPad?”

I’ve logged nearly 1200 hours since my first flight with the iPad 1 and frankly, I’ve never looked back. When I was still searching for the ideal EFB back in 2009, I explained how the FAA doesn’t require any certification or qualification for EFBs under most Part 91 operations. Just recently, the FAA’s own Safety Briefing publication had yet another article making the same observations. Given that pilots are adopting EFBs faster than you can say “decommissioned NDB,” it’s time for instructors to start making EFBs part of the training they offer as well as part of their own training. I tell student pilots I train “Go ahead and use an iPad if you want, but be prepared with a credible back-up strategy in case your iPad fails or your instructor decides to simulate a failure.”


Before you start gnashing your teeth, complaining about newfangled gadgets, and pining for the good old days of slide rules, cigarettes smoking in the cockpit, and navigating via A-N Range, consider that combining old techniques with new approaches can actually aid in teaching pilots to that elusive correlative level of knowledge. The key concept here is combining approaches, not rejecting one in favor of the other. Here’s an overview of the old school approach, followed by some mash-ups of familiar approaches with new tools and software.

Old School Planning

The first half dozen times through the cross-country flight planning process, I like student pilots to do navigation calculations manually so they’ll understand and appreciate what their EFB or flight planning software will eventually be doing for them. My favorite nav log form is available for free from Dauntless-Software. The two basic variations in nav logs involve whether the True Course (TC) is first corrected for magnetic variation or for the wind correction angle.

ATC uses and refers to magnetic directions, so I say cut to the chase and go magnetic. Winds aloft forecasts are provided with true directions, so you'll need to account for that if you choose the TC-VAR-MC-WCA-MH format.

Virtually all nav logs end up with a Compass Heading (CH), to which I say “Who cares?” If you always set your aircraft's heading indicator using the compass correction card, calculating a CH is simply gilding the lily. If your aircraft doesn't have a heading indicator, then by all means compute the CH until such time as you manage to catch up with the later half of 20th century aviation technology.

I teach students to complete a paper nav log in this general sequence.

1. Calculate climb performance and ground speed
2. Determine the location of the Top-of-Climb (TOC)
3. Calculate cruise performance and ground speed
4. Determine the location of the Time-of-Descent (TOD).
5. Divide the course between the TOC and TOD into legs of equal length.

Aircraft consume more fuel and have a slower ground speed during the climb to altitude, so calculating where you'll reach the top-of-climb (TOC) is important. And if you want to avoid arriving high and hot, the time-of-descent is something you’ll want to plan for. Want to use an electronic E6B instead of a slide rule to do these calculations? Fine by me.

With TOC and TOD marked on your chart, try dividing the remaining course into legs of equal length. Sometimes this works, sometimes there aren’t good landmarks. If defining equal leg distances does work, you only need to calculate time, fuel, and distance for one leg to have the numbers for the other legs. Choosing landmarks on a paper chart is the ultimate in flexibility: You can choose whatever you want. With an EFB or internet-based planner, waypoints selection is as simple.

High-Tech Planning

The sad fact is we're well into the second millennium and there aren’t many computerized flight planners that account for the time- or fuel-to-climb. A few internet-based planners that do (to varying degrees) include DUAT (not to be confused with DUATS), AOPA’s Flight Planner, and FlightAware.

Once you’ve entered a profile for your aircraft, the DUAT flight planner will provide the location TOC and TOD in latitude/longitude format. Not terribly handy, but it also provides a magnetic course and distance which does turn out to be useful. More on that later.

The browser-based flight planners from AOPA and FlightAware both account for fuel consumed in the climb and descent, but they don’t tell you where TOC and TOD are located. Bummer about that.

FlightAware’s planner adds some value by including the estimated fuel costs for various altitudes, winds aloft forecast, and routes. In this example you can see that you’d only save a few bucks by climbing to 11,000 feet versus 9,000 feet. To access FlightAware’s flight planning features, you’ll need to set up an account. Don’t worry, it’s a free and simple process. Be advised that FlightAware’s planner doesn’t work completely on the iPad browsers I’ve tried.

So what about specifying waypoints that aren’t pre-defined objects like airports, VORs or airway intersections? Most planners allow you to enter your own waypoints as Lat/Long coordinates or as a VOR-radial-distance. That’s not terribly user-friendly, but it works.
You can add custom checkpoints in ForeFlight’s map view by tapping on the map view. A dialog will appear allowing you to add the location as a user-defined coordinate. If you tap on your course line, it’s easy to inadvertently change the course slightly and you won’t know the leg distance until you’ve tapped, but there you go.

If you know the lat/long for a waypoint, you can enter that into a ForeFlight route. Below, the lat/long that DUAT calculated for TOC has been entered as a TOC waypoint.

If you know the distance and radial from a VOR, you can enter a waypoint in ForeFlight using theta/rho format: VOR_id/radial/distance. This approach also works with airport identifiers. Below, I’ve taken the TOC and TOD data from the DUAT flight planner output and entered them as waypoints in the format KOAK/133/16 and KSBA/315/29.

Nav Log in Action

Using a paper nav log in flight starts with recording your departure time. For short trips, just record the two-digit minutes after the hour. Then to calculate estimated time of arrival (ETA) for the next checkpoint, add the time your off time to the estimated time en route (ETE) for the first checkpoint. When you reach the checkpoint, record the actual time of arrival (ATA), add that to the next ETE and you have the ETA for the next checkpoint. If your ETA calculations consistently differ from the ATA, consider doing an winds aloft and TAS calculation.

ForeFlight kinda-sorta follows the paper nav log tradition, but the assumption is that ForeFlight will use GPS information to calculate your estimated time en route for each leg in real-time based on your current ground speed. I find ForeFlight’s nav log display a bit cumbersome and difficult to read in flight, but that could be due to my 50-something eyesight. If you want a historical record, why not combine a paper nav log with your EFB?

Electronic Diversion

Planning an in-flight diversion with an app like ForeFlight is the height of simplicity.

1. Tap and hold on the airport to which you wish to divert
2. A dialog will appear showing the known waypoints in the area
3. Tap on the orange D-> button for the selection you 

EFBs can provide real-time calculation of the desired track, ETE, and fuel consumed, but you can do the same sort of thing with many panel mounted GPS. Electronic diversions are so easy and with no plotter, pencil and calculator to juggle, it's no wonder some pilots feel they are cheating. Hand-calculated diversions can be just as dangerous as fixating on pretty colors on a moving map. Having a quick way to calculate a diversion in real life gives you more time to look outside for traffic and manage whatever emergency or urgent situation you're facing. That seems like a good thing, not the work of the devil.

Combine and Conquer

Whether it be in paper format, electronic format, or a combination of the two, preparing and using a nav log in flight can be a curiously satisfying experience. Teaching student pilots the old ways is still a valuable part of the aviation education equation, but introducing and integrating new tools doesn't need to detract from the experience. High tech solutions can enhance accuracy and safety. As with anything in aviation, understanding the limitations of technology is a more productive approach that rejecting new techniques out-of-hand. To my mind, if a pilot can learn the basics and then combine old school and way cool, that strikes at the heart of the vaunted correlative level of knowledge.

Foggy Inland, Clear at the Coast

Known for it's microclimates, the San Francisco Bay Area weather is a year-round marvel. In the summertime, with little moisture in the Central Valley, the sun often beats down mercilessly on the earth, that in turn heats the air near the surface, the air expands and rises, resulting in an area of thermal low pressure. The summertime pressure gradients between cool, moist coastal areas and the hot, dry Central Valley can be dramatic: It's not uncommon to see a barometric pressure difference of 0.1" Hg or greater between Oakland and Byron, a mere 29 miles away. With the Santa Cruz and Diablo Mountain ranges acting as low altitude barriers, the strong on-shore pressure gradient draws the famous San Francisco fog Eastward, through the Golden Gate and into the bay and other low lying areas.

Winter in The Valley

In the winter months, the effect can be just the opposite. Surface moisture from heavy rainfall combines with low surface temperatures and light winds to form Tule fog in the Central Valley (this is really just a regional term for radiation fog). Add a high-pressure system like the one currently ensconced over North Central California, and you get a temperature inversion that makes the Tule fog persist for days, even weeks. Winter months can often provide an off-shore surface pressure gradient that is just the opposite of the summer pattern. The result is the Tule fog in the Central Valley can be drawn Westward into the Livermore Valley and even into San Francisco Bay.

One benefit of this winter fog pattern is that instrument pilots can depart under visual flight rules (VFR) from Bay Area airports, fly just a few miles to one of several Central Valley airports, and experience instrument approaches to minima - often less than 1/2 mile visibility with indefinite ceilings of 200 feet or less with calm winds. With widespread low IFR, wise pilots and instructors carefully weighs the risks associated with practicing instrument approaches under these conditions.

Seeing an ocean of Tule fog sitting in the Central Valley, but with warm temperatures and clear blue skies aloft is a great way to teach pilots and non-pilots that this type of fog does not burn off. Tule fog will mix into the upper atmosphere and dissipate once the surface winds increase. I still cringe when I hear pilots and weather forecasters (folks who should know better) talk about radiation fog burning off. D'oh!

Here are some recent photographs of Tule fog from above. Having grown up in the Midwest, I'll take Tule fog over sub-zero temperatures and snow shovels, thank you very much.

East of Lake Berryessa

Widespread Low IFR

Tule Fog pilled up behind the Devil's Mountain

Procedure Turn Inbound at KEDU.

Ripples near Rio Vista

There's an airport down there ... somewhere

A Perfectly Imperfect Flight

After a cold and gray summer in the San Francisco Bay Area, the weather for tonight's flight is hot, so hot that record high temperatures were set today for several California cities. The goal is to complete back-to-back cross-country flights to meet commercial pilot requirements: One flight during the day, one at night, both a minimum of 2 hours with a straight-line distance of at least 100 nautical miles between departure and destination. Along the way I'll test the commercial candidate's ability to navigate with VORs, GPS, dead reckoning, and pilotage. The unstated goal, as is the case anytime pilots decide to go flying, will be to savor the joy of flight, even if the air is hot and dry.

These back-to-back cross-country flights are not new to me and I have a few possible destinations up my sleeve that will meet the distance and time requirements. For tonight, we'll fly to Harris Ranch, near Coalinga, California, at the Southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Harris Ranch is more than 100 miles from Oakland. We can easily get there in less than 2 hours, so the solution is to give the pilot a diversion and there are many airports from which to choose. After diverting, we'll land at Harris Ranch, buy some fuel, sit in the air conditioned restaurant, have a bite to eat, if necessary we'll wait for official night to begin, and hope for a cooler two-hour return flight.

A luxury on long flights is the ample opportunity for a pilot to demonstrate their skills in a relaxed, slower paced setting. And since we'll be doing two cross-country flights with a break in between, the candidate gets a chance to integrate what he learns on the trip down and apply it on the trip back. Learning is a change in behavior ... A flight instructor candidate will be riding along in the back seat, observing, taking some photos and videos, and sharing the fun. The surface temperature at Oakland is a sizzling 34˚C, the air is still and bone dry, and it will be a thousand years until the winter rains come.

The aircraft for tonight's flight is a well-equipped, late-model G1000 Cessna 172 with a nice, accurate autopilot. That should help relieve the tedium of the long flight. We depart Oakland, turn to the East and begin a slow climb. Norcal Approach eventually clears us up to 5,500 feet and the outside air temperature gradually drops to 28˚C. That's over twenty degrees warmer than the standard temperature for this altitude, but the air flowing out the tiny cabin air vents feels surprisingly cool.

The initial route takes us over Tracy, California and then we begin some IFR flying (I Follow Roads) along Victor I-5, a major commercial freeway that runs the length of the state. It's hard to get lost following a big swath of pavement and there are several small airports along the route, just in case we unexpectedly need one.

Dead ahead is the Lemoore Military Operations Area, which brings up the first topic of discussion: Is the Lemoore MOA active? The pilot had planned a different route than what I've asked him to fly. He planned the trip primarily using IFR charts and confesses a dislike for VFR charts, but now he consults his sectional and finds the Lemoore MOA is listed as active. Just to be sure, he asks the approach controller who tells us the MOA is cold. Good to know that in the entire state of California, something is cold.

As we near Los Banos, it's time to divert and the fun begins. I take away the GPS navigational information and after drawing a course line, measuring the magnetic course and distance, estimating the time en route and fuel required, another lesson is learned: On long trips it sure helps to have a big plotter instead of one of those small, compact rulers. Flying along the new course using dead reckoning and pilotage distracts us from the heat. The winds aloft are negligible, the ride is smooth, and as the sun sinks to the horizon the Sierra Madre are bathed in a golden light.

The pilot locates and identifies various airports along the way, Madera, Fresno, Reedly. During the descent to Woodlake, California, the new destination, the temperature climbs. The Sierra foothills shimmer in the twilight and seem to be glowing from within. Peaceful orchards and farmland are slipping by underneath us, lush and green in spite of the heat. The life of a professional flight instructor is fraught with difficulties, but this view makes the trials and imperfections melt away. A little voice in my head says, "Fix these sights in your memory and they will give you solace in the future."

Gliding closer to the runway, we can see that the pavement appears freshly resurfaced. I recall landing here in a Caravan during 135 indoc training, doing a 180 and back-taxiing on the poorly surfaced runway because the parallel taxiway was even worse: A trail of broken asphalt and potholes. Back to the present, the Skyhawk seemingly hovering in the landing flare, I glance to the left and see a familiar wooden building. This unassuming structure houses something out of a time warp, the archetypal $100 hamburger restaurant straight out of a pilot's dream. I had a grilled cheese sandwich here years ago and the check airman had a cheeseburger. Alas, the restaurant is not open at this hour and after a touch and go, we depart straight-out for Harris Ranch.

My half-liter stainless steel water bottle that was filled with ice cubes and cold water is now empty. My stomach is growling and I didn't pack any snacks. The pilot neglected to bring any water at all, which spawns a quick discussion of aeromedical factors. In hot weather the body loses water fast and with low relative humidity perspiration dries so quickly you may not realize you're dehydrated until the symptoms start: Headache, dizziness, dry mouth, difficulty concentrating. Not to worry, we'll soon be ensconced in cool, air-conditioned comfort at the Harris Ranch restaurant.

On the way we briefly receive flight following from Lemoore Approach and the controller is busy talking to what I assume is a squadron of F-18 Hornets. Nothing appears on my traffic detector and I can only conclude their transponders are not turned on. Told to squawk VFR, the descent to Harris Ranch commences and the narrow, brightly lit runway comes into view next to I-5 and its endless stream of truck and automobile traffic. Turning final, something unexpected happens: The runway lights begin to flash on and off at regular intervals. We attempt to click the mic (the aviation equivalent of The Clapper), but the lights go off and stay off. We live in an imperfect world and it's time for a real-life diversion.

In the go-around there's a low-fuel annunciation, most likely due to the climb attitude combined with a somewhat low fuel quantity. We have at least an hour's worth of fuel, but a flashing yellow annunciator isn't soothing. The pilot chooses to divert to nearby New Coalinga where self-service fuel should be available. Then the sinking realization: No cold drinks, no snacks, no air-conditioned restaurant. The pilot needs water and I'm hungry. Another lesson relearned - something about Plan B ...

New Coalinga is deserted and save a few hangars, the only signs of any aviation activity whatsoever is a single Cessna, tied down on the ramp. The air is still and warm, but surprisingly, not that hot. And there's a smell in the air you'd instantly recognize if you've ever driven past Coalinga: We're downwind from a huge cattle stockyard. No matter, the fuel pump is functioning and there is a pilot's lounge/briefing room in a mobile-home style building just beyond the fence. A dog is barking somewhere in the darkness that has settled on the airport and then a light comes on.

The airport manager lives in the other half of the mobile home. He appears, dressed for the weather, barefoot, wearing jeans and sans t-shirt. I apologize if we've disturbed his evening. He says it's fine, turns on the lights for us and shows us what's available. There's no food to be had, but there is a vending machine with cold soft drinks. The CFI candidate riding along takes some pictures and the sounds his digital camera makes are all we hear.

I bring up FltPlan on my iPhone, locate Harris Ranch and give them a call. I get the hotel receptionist and describe the problem with the runway lights. I'm not sure the receptionist understands the nuances of runway lighting, but she assures me they'll look into it.

After departing, I ask the pilot to head toward Madera, he programs the GPS and contacts Lemoore Approach. We get flight following through the MOA, which seems to be active and the runway lights at Harris Ranch are working again. The controller is still talking to a bunch of Hornets, but we can only hear one side of the conversation since we're using a VHF transceiver and the F-18s are using high frequency transceivers. We see some flashing red beacons, but my traffic detector insists we're all alone.

When I was a kid and we were reaching the end of a road trip, I recall how a peculiar silence would engulf the car and make every small rattle, click, or bump in the road seem significant. That same feeling overtakes me as we cross over Tracy and turn toward San Francisco Bay. The pilot elects to fly a practice ILS approach and while Oakland's North Field is quiet, the South Field is humming with activity. A single tower controller is working all the frequencies for the entire airport: Tower, Ground, and Clearance Delivery. Whatever gets you through the night ...

The North Field is eerily quiet and the temperature is actually warmer here than it was at New Coalinga. With the plane back in the hangar, we're back to business cleaning all the leading edges and the windshield. A cynical Larry Summers famously claimed "In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rental car." The same cannot be said of rental aircraft and Mr. Summers would get some serious remedial training if he were ever to fly with me. After a quick debrief and signing of the logbook, this evening's two cross-country flights are in the books.

Flying focuses our minds, offer tangible goals, tests physical and intellectual skills. Yet while we're focused on our flying performance, we're also taking in sights and sensations that only a flying animal can know and appreciate. The next time you go flying, bring a friend or a loved one, and drink in the world from above. May the joys you experience stay fixed in your mind and provide comfort as you make your way through this perfectly imperfect world.

Must Have Apps Stuff for 2010

The iPad has been out for about half a year now and many pilots have found the device useful, some might even say invaluable. The perfect cockpit device has yet to be produced and clearly each pilot's personal preference will determine whether they continue to use paper charts or trust a stream of electrons. The iPad may not be perfect, but it offers numerous advantages for pilots and even more for flight instructors. Here's a round up of some apps, gadgets, procedures, and tricks that can help you harness the power of the iPad.

Head in the Clouds

Whether you're using DUAT, DUATS, ForeFlight, or AOPA's Flight Planner, getting a preflight weather briefing on the iPad is a no-brainer. Of course you'll need a 3G iPad with 3G coverage or WiFi access, but you can access almost all the data you could possibly want. For prolonged ground sessions, I've taken to using a kickstand for my iPad along with the battery-powered Apple Wireless Keyboard. This allows me to use my favorite Dvorak keyboard mapping, even though the iPad's touch keyboard layouts still don't support Dvorak.

Regular readers may recall the iPad kneeboard I created by modifying an aftermarket plastic case. Ten minutes with a Dremel tool and I had two slots through which I threaded an elastic band from an old kneeboard. Surprisingly, the price of this case has dropped to a mere $11.99 and now includes a clip-on kickstand.

Another iPad kneeboard solution I just learned about is the HandHolder for the iPad. While it costs a bit more, apparently it can be had with a longer strap for kneeboard use. What's more, this solution doesn't involve a case which may reduce the likelihood of the iPad overheating in hot weather.



I haven't used the HandHolder, but you can read nice review on Rick Felty's blog.

Charts 'n Stuff

I find the iPad as electronic flight bag works very well, in spite of some short-comings. I continue to be a big fan of SkyCharts Pro, which recently added Fly charts containing the reverse side of many VFR Terminal Area Charts that depict landmarks and VFR transitions around and through Class Bravo airspace. Compare a $19.99 one-time purchase price with subscriptions that can cost several times that per year and SkyCharts Pro is a most excellent value. Still, I'd like to see some SkyCharts Pro enhancements like:

• Double-tapping on MOAs and prohibited/restricted airspace to reveal details
• A method for measuring between arbitrary points on a chart
• Separate buttons for selecting the type of chart (rather than one button that scrolls through all chart types)
• The ability to store and recall frequently used routes

ForeFlight is a big contender in the EFB app market, though I use it more for preflight briefings and filing flight plans than I do in the cockpit. Compared to SkyCharts Pro's chart-based tap interface, locating and displaying terminal procedures with ForeFlight is convoluted enough that I tend to lose interest.

Jeppesen's new iPad app appears to let JeppView subscribers download and view terminal procedures. I've not yet used this product, but my understanding is that it doesn't currently provide a way to view en route charts. I have asked Jeppesen to provide a demo and I hope to post a review in the future.

Whatever you use as an EFB app, you'll need a plan B and a maybe even a plan C. My plan B is SkyCharts Pro on my iPhone and my plan C is a selection of a few paper charts. I use ReadyProcs to print out a small booklet of terminal procedures and airport diagrams that I can use if my two electronic solutions fail.

Take Note

Adopting the iPad as EFB has meant that I haven't used a single scrap of paper, thanks in no small measure to Penultimate, which lets you take notes using your fingertip as a pen. After some practice, it's become second nature to me. No more dropped pens or pencils, broken lead, or running out of ink. Sure my handwriting still sucks, but I have yet to misplace my right index finger.

The latest version of Penultimate offers a selection of different pen widths and several colors, making it even more useful as a miniature whiteboard in a teaching environment. Penultimate lets you create multiple notebooks and (edit 9/30/10: correcting my earlier post) allows you to name the notebooks. I like to keep a different notebook for each student, so naming each one let's me find the specific notebook I want.

Penultimate lets you email PDF versions of pages or entire notebooks. I've been using this feature to store notes and records using a web-based service called EverNote, which lets you organize most any type of data whether it be a PDF, a text file, a URL, or a sound or audio clip. This provides a valuable way to keep a record of training given without having to actually file pieces of paper.

Logging Time

LogTen for the iPhone runs just fine on the iPad, but Coradine says they'll soon release an iPad specific version of LogTen. Syncing the iPad with LogTen Pro on the Mac has gotten a lot better. And LogTen Pro makes it easy to answer weird questions like "How much night IFR time have you logged in a Bonanza in the last 120 days?" Logbook Pro now has an iPhone app that could be just the ticket for PC users, though I've not used it and cannot make any hard and fast claims.

Grace under Pressure

For weight and balance calculations, I've imported most of the Excel spreadsheets I had already developed into the Numbers application on my Mac and then transferred them to the iPad version. It works well, except there isn't anyway that I know of to protect cells in a spreadsheet you don't want changed: You best tap carefully.

You can also use CFI Tools Weight and Balance. Since I fly a bunch of different aircraft, entering the data for each aircraft is a bit tiresome. Also, the CFI Tools Takeoff and Landing Performance app can a big help, provided your aircraft type is supported.

'lectric Book Bag

The iPad can store a lot of books and I'm a big fan of the $0.99 app GoodReader for downloading, storing and viewing FAA books, practical test standards, and a lot of other useful data. A blog reader pointed me to the app iAnnotate as a way to view and annotate PDFs. I currently have several flight instructor candidates who all have decided to adopt the iPad. When it's time for them to practice teaching a lesson, we just electronically transfer the lesson plans from their iPad. iAnnotate lets me mark up each lesson plan, adding suggestions or corrections, and then email the annotated version to each instructor candidate. The word on the street is that GoodReader may soon support annotations, too.

Portable Classroom

If all the above capabilities aren't enough, consider the iPad's ability to display videos and display Keynote lectures.

In addition to weight and balance, the Numbers app is useful for tracking a pilot's training progress, using a spreadsheet based on the appropriate practical test standards.

On Schedule, In Touch

The iPad's built-in Safari web browser is useful for accessing web-based aircraft scheduling sites like AircraftClubs.com. If you have a MobileMe account, you can automatically sync your iCal calendar and AddressBook contacts, too. Throw in email capability and all you need is an administrative assistant for your portable electronic office.

Cash In

Many pilots tell me that the only checks they write these days seem to be for flight instruction. With everyone paying electronically, it was only a matter of time before an iPad solution was created. The one I've adopted is from SquareUp. The reader and account set-up is free and the transaction fees are a bit cheaper than most other services. Also, there's no monthly charge for SquareUp.

Though they had some growing pains, I finally received my Square Reader, which plugs into the audio port of all things. My first credit card transaction was last Sunday and I found swiping the card is a bit tricky. I recommend resting the iPad on a desk or table, holding the card reader with one hand and swiping the card with the other. The app then provides a space for the buyer to sign using their fingertip.

Rough Edges

Some users have reported problems with their iPad overheating in hot weather and I've seen this only once when the outside air temperature was showing 35˚C, I had left the display on continuously, and my iPad was in direct sunlight. I put the unit to sleep, moved it to the shade and redirected one of the wemac vents onto the iPad. After about 2 minutes, the iPad was back and by following some common sense precautions (turning off when not in use, keeping it out of direct sunlight, etc) it continued to operate. Folks who use the Apple iPad folio-style case seem to have more problems with overheating since that case seems to reduce conductive cooling. While flying yesterday with surface temperatures being reported at 40˚C, I had no overheating problems by following the common sense procedures described above.

Multi-tasking for the iPhone was released this past summer and iOS 4.2 slated to arrive for the iPad in November of 2010 and it can't arrive too soon. Switching between tasks like SkyCharts Pro and Penultimate will be a lot simpler with iOS 4.2. There is the option of jailbreaking your iPad and using non-approved software to provide multitasking, but I'm content to wait for an approved solution.

Must Have, For Now

For now, that's my brief round-up of must have apps and stuff for the iPad/iPhone. If you know of a cool new product you'd like to see reviewed, drop me a line.

GPS Transition, Part I

If you are a pilot who has avoided flying GPS-equipped aircraft or glass cockpits, you’re not alone. Many pilots, some who are VFR-only pilots, shy away from getting checked out in glass panel aircraft. It’s as if they take one look at a glass panel or read the first pages of a GPS pilot’s guide, get a sinking feeling, and think “This looks way too complicated.” Or they may fly a GPS-equipped aircraft and simply avoid using the GPS for anything but direct-to navigation. Take heart because learning to fly a glass panel or GPS-equipped aircraft is not only doable, these systems offer some important advantages.


A big part of the intimidation factor is that instructors, training courses, and pilot guides often focus on mastering the knob-twisting and button-pushing for a particular brand and model of GPS or worse, they start with nitty-gritty details of how all the components function. The key to learning and then mastering GPS and glass is to start with what you learned about pilotage and VOR navigation, use that as a bridge to learning RNAV concepts, and then you’ll be ready get into the details of the particular model of GPS you plan to use.


Start with the Known


As a student pilot, you undoubtably recall learning to get a weather briefing and then creating a navigation log for your cross-country flights. Most instructors still require student pilots to complete this process using pencil, paper, plotter, a navigation log form and an E6B calculator. The drill goes something like this:

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  Draw one or more course lines on your chart between your departure and destination
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  Determine the altitude(s) for direction of flight based on terrain, airspace and other considerations

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  Using the chart and a plotter, measure the True Course (TC) for each leg
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  Apply the local magnetic variation and determine the Magnetic Course (MC)
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  Determine a planned True Airspeed (TAS)
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  Using the winds aloft forecast, calculate ground speed & a wind correction angle
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  Use the wind correction angle to determine a Magnetic Heading (MH) to fly
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  Apply the compass deviations to determine a Compass Heading (I find this a bit precious)

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  Determine Top-Of-Climb and Time-Of-Descent based on aircraft performance
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  Identify checkpoints along the route and measure the distance for each leg
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  Calculate the leg time and fuel burn for each leg
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  Determine total time and fuel required for the entire trip

If this seems like a lot of work, it is. But it’s a good learning process, too. As soon as the ink is dry on their temporary airman’s certificate, most pilots quickly graduate to using an computer-based flight planner such as the ones offered by DUAT, DUATS, or AOPA. This is smart because it saves time and reduces errors. I like the flight planner that DUAT provides because it has a nice format and it calculates Top-of-Climb and Time-of-Descent, but there are plenty of choices out there.

Whether you create your navigation log by hand or by computer, you’ll refer in flight, make notes on the estimated and actual times of arrival, and update subsequent legs as you gather real-time flight information. This process of dead reckoning is not foolproof: You’re bound to discover some discrepancies in what you planned. After all, the winds aloft forecast is just a forecast.




Old School, meet New School


When navigating via VOR, you either fly to the VOR station or away from the station. Whether you are tracking a particular radial or you simply headed direct to the VOR, this sort of navigation involves basic steps:

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  Tune the frequency of the VOR station you want to use
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  Listen to the Morse code identifier and verify it is the correct station
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  Twist the OBS or HSI course pointer to set the desired radial
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  Choose an intercept heading or determine a direct-to heading
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  Fly that heading and adjust as necessary for winds aloft

When flying on Victor Airways or Jet Routes (course lines connecting VOR stations on the ground), you generally fly away from one VOR and then switch to flying to the next VOR. The point on an airway where you switch from using one VOR to another VOR is called a changeover point.


GPS navigation is sometimes called To-To navigation, not after the little Cairn terrier in the Wizard of Oz, but because you’re always navigation to something called the current waypoint. A waypoint can be anything contained in the GPS database (an airport, VOR, NDB, intersection, computer navigation fix, or user waypoint). At its most basic, GPS navigation involves these basic steps.

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  Press the Direct-to button
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  Enter the name of the waypoint you want to navigate to
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  Confirm you’ve entered the correct waypoint
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  The GPS will display a desired track (DTK) to the waypoint
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  Twist the OBS or HSI course pointer to the desired track (DTK)
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  Fly a heading that corresponds to the DTK and adjust as necessary for the winds aloft

Some of the differences are that with GPS don’t have to listen to Morse code and you don’t have to figure out the correct course since the GPS tells you the desired track. With GPS, pilots can also fly on a desired track that is a course line between waypoints entered in a GPS flight plan. You can even enter waypoints that define a Victor or Jet airway, but more on that later.


Move toward the Unknown


As you apply old school flight planning to GPS navigation, you’ll need to correlate the old school terms to some high-tech terms. Below is an elegant figure from an old Garmin manual that concisely illustrates some core GPS navigation concepts.

Current track (TRK) is essentially the aircraft’s current, real-time magnetic course across the ground. It’s easy to appreciate that calculating TRK by hand in real-time would require significant time and effort. That’s why airliners of yore had dedicated navigators as part of their crew. With GPS, the TRK is automatically calculated, displayed on your GPS screen, and updated in real-time for free. That’s pretty cool.


Desired track (DTK) is either the magnetic course between the current waypoint and the previous waypoint in your GPS flight plan or, if you pressed the direct-to key, it is the magnetic course from your current position to the current waypoint. GPS receivers with a moving map usually show the desired track as a magenta line. Glass panel systems with an electronic horizontal situation indicator (HSI) will automatically set the course pointer to the the DTK. Without an electronic HSI, you will need set the course pointer or OBS to the DTK, just like you would do when tracking a VOR radial.


Track angle error (TKE) is not used by most pilots, but it is the difference between the desired track (DTK) and the current track (TRK). If the DTK and the TRK both read 060˚, you are either on the magenta line or you are paralleling that line. If DTK and TRK differ, TKE can tell you if you are diverging from or converging to intercept the DTK.


Cross-track distance (XTK) tells you the lateral offset (usually in nautical miles) between your current position and the DTK. When XTK is zero or near zero, you’re on the DTK.


A full-scale deflection of the CDI or HSI needle can mean different things, depending on the current GPS course sensitivity. The three sensitivities are ENR (enroute), TERM (terminal), and APR (approach). A full scale needle deflection means the XTK is 5 nautical miles when in ENR mode, 1 mile in TERM, and 0.3 miles in APR (again, there are other possible approach sensitivities we're leaving out for now).


So what about updating the old school navigation log and dead reckoning? The GPS will continuously calculate the time and distance to the current waypoint, leaving you time to focus on other tasks like looking for traffic, evaluating the weather, and talking with ATC. If you still want to create a navigation log and update it in flight, by all means do so. Dead reckoning is a skill and if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.


What about the magnetic heading and the wind correction angle? You don't really need them to stay on course because the GPS calculates the DTK and TRK in real-time. As for winds aloft corrections, you simply fly a magnetic heading that will keep you on the DTK. Many glass panel aircraft will even calculate and display the winds aloft for you in real-time.


What about the leg time and fuel consumption? GPS and glass panel systems that are aware of your fuel consumption can display the estimated time en route for each leg as well as the estimated fuel burn for each leg, too.


While all of this information is waay cool, it’s important to remember that having GPS on board won't keep you from running low on fuel, flying into restricted airspace, crashing into a mountainside, or flying into a thunderstorm. You still have to use your little gray cells, otherwise flying wouldn't be much of a challenge, would it?


How you go about accessing the above-mentioned GPS information on a particular brand of GPS will vary, but rest assure that this information is available in virtually all aviation GPS receivers. There really needs to be more discussion of these basic concepts in the FAA's Instrument Flying Handbook and in all GPS pilot guides.


Some other important and often-overlooked GPS concepts that are common across different models of GPS receivers are Waypoint Sequencing, Turn Anticipation and GPS flight plans.  We’ll examine at these in GPS Transition, Part II, so stay tuned.