Surviving Loss of ALL Gyros and Compass
Use the Course/track Numbers of the GPS to keep your wings level. Select a destination direction on the GPS that will take you to VFR. Always fly with three-inch post-its so that you can cover all instruments that are inoperative. Nothing, but nothing is more disorienting and attracting as an inoperative instrument. Been there, done that.
Advection Fog
Advection fog forms at sea and spreads inland like a blanket. It moves in and out over the land from ground level to about two thousand feet. During the day it rises
and thins but can remain for several days before retreating once again to sea. Those familiar learn to read advection fog cycles and to plan their flying accordingly.
Below the fog, visibility is often unlimited. By getting below the fog you can go
most anywhere and even land at airports where IFR traffic is unable to descend due to minimum altitude restrictions. Once visibility is above one mile at an airport you can cleared out of or into the airport airspace one aircraft at a time (conditional). The required visibility is one mile and clear of clouds. You can go as close as you want to the clouds, just not into them. The minimum altitude restrictions are offset by the 'intention to land' aspect of an arrival.
It is important that the pilot realize a SVFR clearance restriction related to altitude is based upon the altitude where radar control is possible. This altitude and SVFR
clearance applies only to the airport surface area. Once outside that area you are required to have three mile visibility and 1000'.500' and 2000' cloud clearances or to otherwise stay within 700 or 1200 feet AGL and one-mile visibility. At airport clearance and restrictions do not apply outside their airspace..
Radiation Fog Escape Plan
The nature of radiation fog is to be very low to the ground. This is because the sun burns through the initial layer and finds water to make more fog. It is not unusual to have radiation fog only a couple of hundred feet thick all day. It is not the thickness or height of radiation fog that makes flying difficult. It is the slant range visibility that is the problem.
In radiation fog conditions I have found it possible to both takeoff and land in SVFR conditions dependent on the ability of the tower to claim the one mile visibility required for SVFR. You are given a clearance that requires you to report over the airport in VFR conditions at or above a specific altitude. Once the control zone was clear or traffic or the traffic was observed and acknowledged a SVFR clearance would be given to descend in pattern for landing.. A departure in pattern is also used.
Radar Surveillance Approach
The radar surveillance approach is not the precision approach possible with the Ground Controlled Approach radar and it is not so labor intensive. The FAA has reduced the number of qualified controllers for the RSA approach but if a qualified controller is available it is a viable alternative if the pilot is capable of maintaining aircraft control in IFR conditions.
Since radar guidance is a near emergency situation it is important for the pilot to realize that the FAA regulations prevent ATC from giving you the location of an escape airport for which they do not have current weather. Preventable deaths have occurred because of this restriction.
It is important that you become aware of airports that may provide you an escape route.
Popular Checkpoint Avoidance
One of the safety techniques I have used has been not to use those checkpoints and arrivals that because of their over use become as hazardous as does a VOR.
I do this by calling in at less familiar and used points. I take two additional steps to increase my margins of safety. I use altitudes that are not ending in even thousands or five-hundreds. Secondly, I am always to one side of the checkpoint by a mile or so. My call-up would include the words, "..two west of blank intersection at 2700...".
Because of the required 'head in the cockpit' of IFR departures and arrivals it behooves VFR pilots to know and avoid IFR corridors as much as possible. The more you know about IFR procedures the better you can protect yourself by selecting and flying other places and altitudes to fly. You can use ass the little bits of safety you can get or make for yourself.
Uncontrolled Airport Arrivals and Departures
Opinions used as suggestions
The standard arrivals and departures from uncontrolled airports in the AIM provide maximum separation of aircraft. It is as good a system as we can get under present FARs. The problem is that the requirements are so flexible that they are not always
known or followed.
One of the most common arrival errors I have found is where the pilot does not know how to aim the aircraft at the touchdown numbers. Instead he aims at the midfield point and uses it as a guide for his downwind turn. When this pilot flies this misunderstanding of the process and when a departing pilot turns as soon as he is passing the end of the runway the separation margins are greatly reduced. At a short runway the margins are even further reduced.
Using 4' as a pretty standard length runway for an small airport and 5000' for the long and 3000 for the short I will suggest some safety options. In every instance aim your 45-entry at the touchdown numbers. For the 5000' turn downwind at midfield. For the two shorter runways turn downwind when abeam the departure end of the runway. Doing this gives you a degree of consistency in size of your pattern spacing in either right or left traffic and will allow you to see the runway even in right traffic.
Departing traffic should climb to an altitude that reduces noise problems before turning on his departure 45 and should climb above pattern altitude before turning to intercept his course line to the destination.
Checkpoint Selection
After you have drawn your line straight from to departure to destination for your cross-country your next step is to select your checkpoints. Ideally, a checkpoint should be to your left, easily seen and cross checked by two other seen elements.
The bridge you plan to use should have a city in the correct place and a bend in the road leading to it or some such. When you cannot get three things to help assure you of a checkpoint you should get a VOR radial through the checkpoint mark on your course line that cuts no less the at a 60 degree angle and better near 90-degrees.
A checkpoint right on your course line is going to be difficult to see and get a time check on. A checkpoint to your right needs to be far enough away that you can see it without ducking a wing. In low visibility you should keep your checkpoints closer together. When you are uncertain as to what your flight visibility will be you are better off to select more closely spaced points that could be amended by skipping every other one when good conditions permit. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Reliance on GPS will ultimately deteriorate checkpoint finding, selecting and seeing checkpoints. In my opinion, use of the GPS should be minimized in training for as long as practical. GPS makes navigation too accurate and too easy. Reliance on GPS grows and its failure can be devastating to the dependent pilot.
Controlled Airport Arrivals and Departures
Local authorities control the noise abatement procedures. They set pattern altitudes, directions and certain flight restrictions regarding takeoff turn heights.. They set operational hours for certain activities.. These are standards that can only be varied by ATC for safety reasons.
With ATC approval, you can do things that you cannot do at an uncontrolled airport. ATC can authorize a buzz-job. ATC can offer you about any kind of arrival or landing that you can make and even more departures. However, they are somewhat limited by local regulations.
As a pilot you are just as likely to be violated by local authorities as you are by the FAA. To keep out of trouble you must know not only the FARs but the local rules as well. Beyond this you can fly.
The single runway offers several arrival options:
One of the more difficult landings is the straight in. More difficult because you need to mentally unwind the normal landing pattern into a straight line so you can space out your landing procedures. You get two of these usually one from each end. However, some runways for reasons such as terrain will allow arrivals from only one end. Sometimes there is a day and night end as well.
There are two base entries one from each side. Some towers allow modified base entries and some terrain can require modified base entries. The modified base lets you arrive at the turn to final at an angle other than at 90-degrees.
The standard arrival is the downwind arrival in which you aim for the landing numbers at a 45-degree angle as you fly to intercept the downwind entry. At a controlled airport it may be possible to get either a left or right downwind entry.
Modifications of many of these approaches may be made by notifying the tower such as short-approach, long landing, low-approach, stop and go, full stop taxi back on runway. All these and several more are available by asking and getting approval.
Single runway departures
By request you can ask for any departure you want. Local regulations determine not only the the pattern altitude and direction but at what point or altitude the first turn can be made.
The unasked for is usually the standard left-45. You must ask for the right-45, a straight out, left/right crosswind, left/right downwind, left/right 270, or any on course departure..
When to Turn Downwind
The beginning of a good landing most often begins on the downwind. The downwind is the place where you usually do your pre-landing checklist. It is where you adjust for crosswinds to get the length of base leg you need to judge your high/low angle of the base. It is where you use the wind velocity or lack of it to make your base turn. It is where you set your power for the normal approach, short approach, short-short approach and no flap landing. The downwind is the mother of all landing difficulties to follow.
When to turn downwind very much depends upon aircraft performance. Faster and larger aircraft need to be on a wider pattern. The standard arrival for G.A. aircraft is most efficient at cruise speed. I have spent many flights trying to teach pilots with high-performance aircraft not to slow to C-172 speeds as they get near an airport. The faster the aircraft and the smaller the airport the further out should be the downwind. At a 2500' runway you turn downwind abeam the departure end, at 5000' runways you turn down midfield. In every 45 arrival you aim at the landing numbers of the runway. Adjust your arrival for winds that will change your 45' angle and turn early with an angle away from the runway on downwind if there is a crosswind combing behind you. Don't let the wind blow you into the airport.
A common fault I find is on a right downwind where the pilot has difficulty seeing the runway out the side window to the right. He lowers the wing to see the runway better and every time he does this he gets slightly closer to the runway. By the time he gets ready to turn base he has hardly any base leg left. Far better to fly extra wide any time the wind is blowing you into the runway and on right downwind patterns.
270 Departures
I have written extensively about the advantages and usefulness of the 270 departure. Directly over the airport is one of the least traveled regions of airspace.
However there are some cautions. The 270 is not a good choice for departure at an airport used for parachute jumping. It is not a good way to leave if your aircraft is not capable of getting you at least 500' above the pattern altitude as you cross the downwind pattern route.
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