Search Results for: Lear 45

A simple ILS approach ends in an unexplained disaster.

Pop quiz: When must you file an alternate? Thats an easy one, we all know the rule about needing 2000-3 one hour before and after the ETA. Next question: When do you file an alternate? Probably the most common answer is, I always file an alternate. Fair enough, its never a bad idea. Now, regulations aside, why do you file an alternate? Naturally the response is: In the event the weathers gone down too low at the destination and we need somewhere else to go. Right up there is an unexpected loss of equipment or a navaid required for an approach. And while the regs are also designed to provide a backup for lost communications, this often serves as a distant third, cause these days were just not all that worried about that.

Since this is the first issue of IFR Magazine in the 2020s, its fitting that we stop and look at how far weve come with computer forecast models. Theyve made a huge impact on aviation forecasting. If you just take the single-engine up for an hour on the weekend, you probably dont have much need for the weather models, but if you do any sort of regular cross-country flying, chances are youve run across at least some of them.

Your shop gave you bad advice. Garmin says that the frequencies are sufficiently different, even counting various harmonics, that interference wouldnt be an inherent problem. They do, though, recommend a minimum of two feet between a GPS antenna and any strong transmitter. There are few, if any, airframes where it would be impossible to get at least that. If your tech, however, has seen that problem, its likely due to other factors, like poor antenna grounding, poor connections, bad wiring, etc., but not antenna proximity unless they were right next to each other.

The MON will remain until an advanced system emerges that can seamlessly recover from a GPS failure. Until 2014 the FAA advanced a system that provides alternate positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT) as GPS provides PNT. In 2015 APNT research was pushed into NextGens far term, 2026-2030. Once the MON is complete, the FAA plans to re-evaluate existing VORs, but at that point, APNT research will just be getting off the ground. The bottom line: some VOR navigation will be with us for years to come. Youd be well advised to keep your VOR navigation skills sharp.

Contributing Editor Fred Simonds sent me a brief There I Was story that he published elsewhere. Not being one to let a good idea slip by without exploiting it, Ive borrowed the topic and moral for these remarks. Heres my True Confessions story.

Few things are more annoying to me than when something simple turns complicated. For instance, our local grocery store is only a five-minute drive from our home. Some days, though, unexpected traffic, an unfortunate accident, or construction transforms a five-minute jaunt into a 20 minute slog-usually when Im in a hurry, too.

She took to flying like an eagle to the sky—to her, flying the Taylorcraft in which she first took lessons was easy. Azellia White watched her husband, Hulon “Pappy” White, fly during his service as a mechanic for the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, and when she expressed an interest in aviation following the […]

From the early days of aviation when Charles Lindbergh first flew across the North Atlantic, pilots have been looking for ways to secure a notepad and some charts somewhere in the cockpit. What evolved was the “kneeboard” and as technology has advanced, so have kneeboard feature sets. Here are some things to consider. Secure Your […]

As I write this, there were 1,729,694,062 websites (and counting) on the internet. While the World Wide Web can be a helpful place most of us cannot live without, many of those sites are useless fodder of little use to anyone. However, once in a while, we stumble upon a simply wonderful site, a site […]