PilotEdge Forums

Yes, Gavin - I watched your link from a previous thread and enjoyed it very much!

I strenuously avoid being dependent on the GPS but it is soo seductive. And in a stressful moment of From/TO confusion on VOR it sure is nice to glance at a moving map for 2 seconds and feel relief wash over you!

T

Todd,

If you fly with VOR-only enough, your confidence and proficiency reach a point where there is no ambiguity. You know where you are and what's going to happen next. Having a GPS enabled can hamper that learning process.

Not to be dramatic, but if it's late at night, you're flying somewhere, the GPS is inop for whatever reason (it CAN happen), it's IMC and you're tired. Are you going to be able to use those needles with complete confidence? Keep practicing using the needles and nothing else until the answer is yes.

I'm not suggesting doing NDB approaches in stiff crosswinds, but course tracking without moving map displays and GPS is an important skill.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tzbpb91kxirb6 ... 4.jpg?dl=0

Luckily it was a hard IMC day snowing and OVC003 at the destination.... wait that's not a good thing at all...

Keith

I'm with you. i have memories of a sweat stained flight suit a rinky dink kneeboard, a stopwatch, no autopilot, an ADF a Tacan and someone sitting directly behind you as you began an arcing approach with no moving map nada.

Good times. My proficiency is not bad now, but I'm not as good as I once was. Part of that of course is hopping into semi-complicated planes like the Carenado King Air where I don't fully understand the systems - I find the EHSI awkward and there is a bug in CRS selection rotation that is annoying blah blah...

Interesting you mention "dark of night" ...as I had a complete electrical failure enroute tonight over Palm Springs....total heads down moment in the pitch black...got the aviation flashlight on but it wasn't much help. Started slapping on starters and autoignition anything to get the fans going and the lights on! Very suspicous...then the "failure" reset itself and I continued on my merry way having been about 1.25 seconds from declaring an emergency and diving down in the dark to Cochran in front of me...

t

Apparently XP v10.40 has entered Alpha testing - http://www.x-plane.it/viewtopic.php?f=9 ... 18#p267247 (scroll down for the change-log in English)

The log specified:
------------------------
- New failures:
rel_nav1
rel_nav2
rel_com1
rel_com2
---------------------------

I was wondering if this was the separation of the com/nav radios mentioned earlier in the thread? Haven't actually been able to find a VFR Stationair in the PE service area, so I can't really test it to see if the change has already occurred. Also, a quick question on the topic of XP failures (somewhat on topic ), does XP have a way of differentiating between major (i.e. complete elevator failure) and minor (i.e. lights stop working) failures? From what I can tell from online sources (notice the vagueness...), the answer is no. Has anyone actually experienced something like a full rudder hardover while in flight that resulted in a spin, crash, flames, and an embarrassed call to ATC?

Those would be the changes, yes. I don't use random failures in Xplane so I couldn't tell you how it chooses them. I'm not sure if it distinguishes between catastrophic and minor. When I did used to run with random failures turned on, I'd get engine failures, prop governor failures, alternators, and various other systems, but I never had a flight control failure or a wing fall off.