Analog cross-country flight planning begins with a paper sectional, navlog, plotter, and mechanical E6-B. [Credit: Adobe Stock]
Key Takeaways:
Learning VFR flight planning with analog tools like paper sectionals and E6-Bs provides a crucial foundational understanding of navigation principles that exclusive EFB training often misses.
Over-reliance on Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) can lead to a lack of understanding of underlying data and leave pilots unprepared for device failures, which DPEs often test.
While EFBs offer practical benefits like easy updates and cockpit organization, they should supplement, not replace, essential analog navigation skills to ensure pilots are always capable of manual navigation.
When I spread the Seattle VFR sectional out on the desk, the private pilot learner breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness you use paper,” he said, going on to tell me that he wanted to learn using paper sectionals and navlogs, and once he mastered those, he might move into using an electronic flight bag (EFB).
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
