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Thread: Instruments for Home Built

  1. #31

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    What some folks tend to forget is the GPS readout is based on computer software and it can change... unlike the satellites in orbit. So when the FAA implements the GPS system we know Is coming, will it need be calibrated to agree with the barometric altimeters? Its going to be interesting.

  2. #32
    robert l's Avatar
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    Got my P/L in 1974 and all we had was paper charts and they worked good. Also, we didn't have head sets, the only thing in the 150 was a hand held mic and what ever volume you could get from the radio speaker ! Damn, and we survived !
    Bob

  3. #33

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    Well, Robert, it's true, but the advent of cheap handhelds that hook to a headset, GPS tracking, and other modern advances like flaps sure have made things easier.

    It's kind of like a conversation I had about WWI pilots, the finicky airplanes and the lack of training or aids to help them out:

    "How did they manage?"
    "Well, actually, they crashed a lot."
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  4. #34

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    Having once gotten myself into a very tight corner, exacerbated by my GPS device deciding to cease functioning at the absolutely worst moment, I'll never be without a back up, old-tech, solution.

  5. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by conodeuce View Post
    Having once gotten myself into a very tight corner, exacerbated by my GPS device deciding to cease functioning at the absolutely worst moment, I'll never be without a back up, old-tech, solution.
    Someone asked me why I still carry a sectional on a kneeboard when I have a perfectly good GPS enabled tablet on the other leg. That's why.
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  6. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by robert l View Post
    Got my P/L in 1974 and all we had was paper charts and they worked good. Also, we didn't have head sets, the only thing in the 150 was a hand held mic and what ever volume you could get from the radio speaker ! Damn, and we survived !
    Bob
    Bob, same era but I flew a light plane with an iPad and moving map (sectional chart scale) for the very first time earlier this month. I was blown away, lol. Penty of room in my fight bag to store those paper charts......IF I need them.

    Also bought my son a ANR headset as a high school graduation gift last yr and by golly, I'm thinking about buying one for myself! I might embrace this technology stuff after all!!

  7. #37
    Auburntsts's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frank Giger View Post
    Someone asked me why I still carry a sectional on a kneeboard when I have a perfectly good GPS enabled tablet on the other leg. That's why.
    Meh. I ditched paper years ago and will never go back. I have a triple redundant system: EFIS, tablet, and phone with all the US Sectionals, Terminal charts, IFR low enroute charts, approach charts, and chart supplements not to mention misc pubs plus redundant avionics. If all you fly is local VFR, then having a sectional as a backup isn’t an issue. I fly a lot of IFR X/C and having paper backups just isn’t practical for me. YMMV....
    Last edited by Auburntsts; 05-19-2018 at 03:33 PM.
    Todd “I drink and know things” Stovall
    PP ASEL - IA
    RV-10 N728TT - Flying
    EAA Lifetime Member
    WAR DAMN EAGLE!

  8. #38

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    Paradigm shift. I wonder how many crashes or ran out of fuel stories there were when the pilot got lost using charts? If it saves lives, and least of all just saves time and fuel why not use GPS? This is a guy who owned a Garmin before everyone had one for car travel, and there have been some major advances in the software over the past 20 years.

    My son used my newest one when he went snowmobiling up in Gods country, Northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Yes I needed to load in the purchased maps for the trails. but when you get up there all the trees looked the same,it gets dark early and you can make one wrong turn and your camping out in the snow for the night and no gas to get back.

    Yes I know it can not be used for flying.
    Last edited by wmgeorge; 05-19-2018 at 02:58 PM.

  9. #39

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    I now fly with two GPS in the aircraft. My Samsung tablet running Naviator and an old Garmin 196. No paper charts. That said, I have flown coast-to-coast and from Canada to the Gulf with paper charts. And I will suggest that running out of gas has nothing to do with the type of charts on board.

    I also carry a big power brick to keep the tablet going on the days when I am in the air for 6 or 8 hours on a trip. The Garmin gets ships power.

    I never trust my life or my situational awareness to a single electrical device. They fail. These days a second unit, even if it is just your phone, is very cheap insurance.

    Best of luck,

    Wes

  10. #40
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wmgeorge View Post
    Paradigm shift. I wonder how many crashes or ran out of fuel stories there were when the pilot got lost using charts?
    Well...severe consequences for bad navigation have never been limited to aviation. The other side of the coin is what is referred to as "Children of the Magenta Line": Those who are slavishly devoted to the product of automation they cannot detect when things were wrong, and get in, perhaps, even worse trouble than the paper-chart guys.

    Ran into this situation this very afternoon. Went to a destination I hadn't been to for 15 years. In my car, fortunately. I entered the address into the built-in Nav function and let Betty tell me how to get there.

    However, about two miles shy of the destination, we hit a weird intersection.... a hard left turn, then a three-way intersection following. With two left turns and one right one. Betty told me to turn left, and I did. Into the wrong road.

    In the past, I would have traced my route on a paper map first, and noticed the weird intersection. Last trip (15 years ago), I would have called up an online map before departure and found the weird spot.

    Failing THAT, I just would have followed the signs on the road and taken the RIGHT turn at the 3-way intersection. It was the main road into the town, and I would have quickly found the intersecting road to the destination. Betty was saving me a mile or so by taking some side streets.

    I'm not quite the luddite I pretend to be. I do own a GPS*, and do use it when I'm flying to places without direct, clearly visible ground references. But I do monitor where I'm at, and how the GPS is taking me there. I don't just follow the magenta line.

    * Garmin Etrex 30. A hiking GPS

    Ron "How do you change the line color?" Wanttaja

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