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On a cross-country IFR flight today, my iPad was near 25% battery level and I decided to turn it off for the majority of the flight. It was kind of fun to fly with just the Garman GPS 155 and the Garman G5. No moving map - just following the needles. 
Does anyone regularly ever practice "old-school" like this?

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On a cross-country IFR flight today, my iPad was near 25% battery level and I decided to turn it off for the majority of the flight. It was kind of fun to fly with just the Garman GPS 155 and the Garman G5. No moving map - just following the needles. 
Does anyone regularly ever practice "old-school" like this?

Pretty funny. “Old school” with just a Garmin GPS 155. I can remember the days of good old “dead reckoning” and “pilotage”. The biggest issue with turning off the iPad is I wouldn’t have a map to follow.

Some days I do VOR to VOR tracking and others just looking out the window and guessing where I am - only to have the iPad tell me how wrong I am.


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A couple years ago, I had an old school VFR XC. Took my data card home to update, and showed up at the airport to notice that the card was still at home. But lunch waits on no man, especially when meeting others, so off we went. I still had an old paper sectional, and even dodging weather along the river at the state line didn't throw me off. Probably need to do it again, if I could get another paper sectional--using the tablet is cheating!

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Had a GPS fail to initialize in the Beech 400 while x-country with two student pilots.  The MEL said we could press on using land based NAVAIDs, but had to remember to change the designation on the flight plan as we were no longer /G.  I loved it, as that was how I learned to fly IFR, my students HATED it.

 

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I flew from KRHV to KADH back in 2007 for an APS seminar in an Arrow with dual VORs and a flakey DME. 

When I arrived, most of the other attendees were Cirrus pilots. They could  not believe that I could fly 1500 miles and find Ada, OK without a glass panel, engine monitor, autopilot, GPS, and XM weather. 

Never tell people you need all this fancy stuff to aviate — they’ll think you drive a Cirrus. 

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Old school….

Fly VOR to VOR and use the Magenta line to see how scalloped shaped the analog path really is…

Fly out to your favorite VOR and Struggle to have your VOR receiver navigate to it…. To later find out the VOR was notamed out of service… :)

Log a VOR test to say you did it…

Use the system often… to make sure it is still working…

PP thoughts on the subject only…

Best regards,

-a-

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Situational awareness is everything… when using VORs.

Get slightly confused when turning left or right at the next VOR on an approach… airport is one way, mountains the other…. :)

Simple goofy things can occur….  
 

Simple distractions can become gigantic…

Always use some form of confirmation that you are still flying the right direction at each intersection…

GPS adds a gigantic amount of situational awareness that used to take gobs of human brain memory to do…

:)

Best regards,

-a-

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59 minutes ago, Nick Pilotte said:

I fly using VORs (not IFR and my CFI wouldnt let me use GPS in my training). In fact my night XC was planned using VOR radials for the turn points. I like it.  Now I’m getting used to GPS……. 

When I resumed my instrument training in 2019, I picked up right where I left off in 1983- chasing CDI needles.   My CFII asked me after a few hours of training "I see you are focused on the six pack and CDI.  You've got all this other information, why don't you use it?"   My answer was that it "seems like cheating".   So, at his recommendation I started looking at the DTK and TRK on the 430W from time to time.  Then I started sneaking in peeks at the moving map on the iPad.   Stopped me from chasing the CDI needle so much.   Still, it does feel like cheating.  So much more information.  

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I know I'm not alone here, but I'm entertained by how my risk aversion has grown in inverse proportion to my aircraft's capability.  I flew in far worse weather many years ago with two KX-170Bs and an ADF receiver, bouncing around in the soup and asking "Flight Watch" to give me radar updates.  Sheesh.  Now I've got a magenta line and I avoid that stuff like the plague.

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13 hours ago, Hank said:

A couple years ago, I had an old school VFR XC. Took my data card home to update, and showed up at the airport to notice that the card was still at home. But lunch waits on no man, especially when meeting others, so off we went. I still had an old paper sectional, and even dodging weather along the river at the state line didn't throw me off. Probably need to do it again, if I could get another paper sectional--using the tablet is cheating!

This sounds like a trip to Portsmouth!

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15 hours ago, 211º said:

No moving map - just following the needles. 
Does anyone regularly ever practice "old-school" like this?

Nope and nope. My mechanical HSI isn't anywhere near as accurate as the 430 Nav page. Especially since it doesn't correct for wind. Nor is following map on ipad.

20090702_032807_GNS430.jpg

On the 430 navigation page, I just line up the TRK value to match the DTK value when the CDI above them is centered. If the needle isn't centered, then I make a small turn to the left or right so that the TRK value is a couple degrees above or below the DTK value to re-intercept. Corrections of just a degree or two over time make a smoother and more efficient correction.

I just use the Ipad for airspace, situational awareness, and backup.

Edited by 201er
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1 hour ago, 211º said:

This sounds like a trip to Portsmouth!

KHTW-->KPMH is easy, just depart 26, turn right climbing through the gap and fly 333 for 15 minutes.

The trip I referenced above was KALX-->6A2, across the bottom of ATL Bravo. Lots of weather was forming on the Chattahoochee River / West Point Lake on the state line, much warmer than the Ohio. Almost an hour including diversions. 

At the end, Griffin was right out the windshield! :P

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