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Paper Charts

BC12D-4-85 said:
Do they still paint town names on water towers or train depots? Or arrows to the nearest airport? Why make it so complicated.

Gary
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I hope so, the one in Kalida Ohio saved my bacon back in 99 when I was scud running between two thunderstorms. I was lost and looking for anyplace to get out of the sky, it was September and all the fields had 11' high corn. If I had to I was landing in the corn. Raining so hard it was running down the floor. 300' ceiling and I looked up at the water tower and saw the town name on it. Figured out where I was and headed down the county hyway towards a county Airport 10 miles away. Saw a hay strip between the corn under me and landed in a monsoon. Turned out to be a duster strip and Dave took me in for the night. Hot shower, dinner and a bed. Ended up on the couch with him and his wife Cindy eating popcorn watching " the man show " Life is good if you let it happed. If a had a GPS it never would have this great story. If you live out that way tell Dave Gerker I said hello

Glenn
 
Yes knowing where we think we are is important. Haven't eaten fresh corn off the stalk since the middle of the last century so I'd be tempted to find some in adverse weather anyway. Down in the other States without much for terrain features in spots and lots of complex airspace having a GPS would be essential. They even have nav and terrain charts buried inside so I guess they're ok. My Garmin 660 has a little airplane that thinks it's me and dances around in one screen view.

Gary
 
Lindbergh throttled back and hollered out to a fisherman for a little guidance. Don't forget that option.
 
With all the "Gee Whiz" things we now have it must be difficult for the new pilots to imagine what it was like to have to use dead reckoning navigation. How many of you remember using A-N radio beacons? When the VOR came about I thought it was the utimate and it was at that time.
 
Beargrass said:
With all the "Gee Whiz" things we now have it must be difficult for the new pilots to imagine what it was like to have to use dead reckoning navigation. How many of you remember using A-N radio beacons? When the VOR came about I thought it was the utimate and it was at that time.
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Saying you were a pilot 80 years ago really meant something about your ability to handle any situation. Not so much anymore. We aren't a pimple on someone's ars that flew the first half of the last century.

Glenn
 
Beargrass said:
How many of you remember using A-N radio beacons?
Click to expand...
I had to demonstrate navigation with the BOS range station as part of my private flight test. In those days if you got to use a Narco Superhomer you were at the top of the heap of electronic navigation.
 
Most have no idea what a superhomer is nor a tuneable receiver where you would zero beat against the crystal. Amazing isn't it, we flew from here to Europe and Asia with all this crude stuff. Would not want to have to do it again. :):)
 
My first airplane, a ragwing 170, had a superhomer in it. I think it had 3 or 4 transmit crystals and a whistle stop receiver tuner.... In Anchorage in ‘75 more than 4 transmit crystals seemed like overkill!
 
My primary flying in Alaska was SE land and sea VFR/MVFR pilotage. Paper chart, terrain, compass, time. Radio Range stations were about gone. Then some VFR/IFR mixed via VOR and NDB to stay current. Loved NDB's and learned to use them when they could be received. We flew too low for VORs most of the time. ARNAV R-40 LORAN-C came along and I thought it worked sometimes. They did ok but geographic location relative to Master and Slave stations limited their use and so did signal to noise ratio that affects reception. Now there's the Plastic Oracle (GPS) to be consulted. But I've never given up having some paper handy.

Gary
 
It's all magic now to me. J3s without radios, then Taylorcraft BC12D with Lear LTRA6 flying the beam, wow Superhomer and then Wright Executive in first 180. Always paper at hand.
 
You guys are making me feel negligent. I keep current paper in the plane, but in the last year or so have become trusting enough in the magic that I almost never look at the paper.

Chart on the knee, and finger on the chart can't possibly be bad. Thanks for the reminders.
 
nanook said:
Biggest problem I have is keeping things working in the cold! The mini iPad last a tad bit longer than than the iPhone 6 but not much. You start using the things cold and suddenly there is no battery left...Not something that I would use for backup. We are also having to deal with multiple GPS outages from the military during their never ending maneuvers.
Click to expand...

I can second that. Battery life measured in terms of minutes on ipad and iphone when temps in single digits. Often times it won’t charge either until cabin warms up. Garmin works fine though.

That said...not using paper anymore.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
cubdriver2 said:
Saying you were a pilot 80 years ago really meant something about your ability to handle any situation. Not so much anymore. We aren't a pimple on someone's ars that flew the first half of the last century.

Glenn
Click to expand...

Maybe not but having Bushwheels soothes my pain:lol:
 
Electronics in the 12 with a sectional in the pocket. (It's not current) Paper chart in the glider cause I haven't decided what electronics I want to use.
 
No battery. No electrical system. Garmin 195 that I have had forever and I can figure out where I am on a sectional long before I figure out which button I need to push on the Garmin. I suppose I never gave the effort to learn how to use the damn thing and I couldn't afford the spending spiral for the next biggest baddest gps gizmos. I did have a chart fail me one time. It was a user error. It got sucked out the window in flight. I learned to close all the windows when unfolding a chart after that. Oh. Most of the chart was still on a talbrace wire when I landed.
 
Hey Glen, I did not intend to say I was a pilot 80 years ago, I think I said I was 80 years old at this time. I started flying in 1957 and that would be about 67 years ago. Just finished the annual inspection on the Champ and Beech yesterday.
 
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