but don’t know how to use the FPL function of their G430/G1000.
yes but why would one want to use the FPL function for VFR, given it’s a major PITA to use and it would probably take longer to enter the flight plan than to actually fly (given you probably need to define user coordinate waypoints for all waypoints)
Maybe a strong statement. Is the PPL training “industry” not killing what remains of GA by not promoting GPS usage?
When you give perspective to people that flying is all about using a watch and a map, you are preventing them to understand that flying is mainly about going somewhere and not looking at the local church from above. Most people are just repeating what they learned and are not looking further. You don’t go very far with just a map and a watch, especially in less than perfect weather. So always looking at the same church is getting so boring that they don’t renew their medical/PPL…
Is the PPL training “industry” not killing what remains of GA by not promoting GPS usage?
Not strong at all… I would say exactly the same myself and have been, on the UK sites, before I got fed up with banging my head against a brick wall on them.
But the real issue is that the training business has no commercial incentive to produce capable pilots. If they got paid by say how many hours a new PPL holder does in the first 23 months most-PPL, they would be screaming to change the syllabus!
In training, GPS has not fully arrived to this day as we all know, especially in the PPL sector. Generally the attitude of most instructors (at least in the commercial training environment that I am part of) has been very GPS friendly since twenty years. But with most basic training aircraft still not GPS equipped this does not help much.
Not true. GPS is part of the EASA syllabus and even part of the list of questions for the theoretical exam in Germany. There is no way any flight school fulfils the syllabus without teaching the use and constraints of GPS. It is part of “radio navigation” and was part of the syllabus in the German CVFR-Training. You would have needed either a GPS, or an ADF for the flight test. And for a basic trainer (i.e. to teach basic stick and rudder skills, basic manoeuvres and airmanship), I don’t need anything but the basic flight instruments. Anyway, in our aero clubs flight school, all our aircraft have a GPS installed. No GNS430, but that doesn’t matter for teaching the principle. But maybe we’re just way ahead of the commercial flight training?
Would you be allowed to use a GPS during the PPL skill test now?
Yes. Our examiners allow any panel mount GPS to be used in the flight test. That being said, the student has to show the navigation skills without GPS on one leg of the navigation flight. In other regions, even handheld GPS devices or tablets are allowed, as long as they have a proper temporary installation (i.e. RAM mount, knee board mount or similar). Of course, I am instructing the pilot that he has the ability to pass the test, including GPS-less navigation. There are so many products on the market and so many software possibilities, that it is unwise to teach just anything random instead of instructing on the devices the pilot actually will fly with. So we do this instruction after the license and purchase.
The only skill test, I wasn’t allowed to use was that of my FI, but that was just for the FI-E to see if I could maintain situational awareness during airwork.
Is the PPL training “industry” not killing what remains of GA by not promoting GPS usage?
First of all, it does to a very large extent, as I whiteness. At least in my part of Germany.
If they got paid by say how many hours a new PPL holder does in the first 23 months most-PPL, they would be screaming to change the syllabus!
What are you talking about? GPS IS part of the EASA PPL-syllabus. (AMC1 FCL.210; FCL.215)
Since I am possibly who some users have in mind as a dead reckoning advocate: Yes, I like DR. I find great fun in flying with pen and paper, a stopwatch, an ASI and my Aristo. I will be glad to fly around the world using just that. But that is my private business. As an instructor, I will be glad to teach the art of basic navigation to anyone who finds pleasure in it aswell. I will teach the basics of GPS-less navigation to everyone, because GPS devices happen to fail and you have to cope with the situation then. Even if ATC gives you vectors, you have to be able to use them. Plus, understanding the principles of navigation is an advantage in GPS-Navigation, too. Even with a tablet (Skydemon or what ever), you’ll have a map if you don’t have a GPS signal. And I teach to use just a map to at least get to the next airport, get an ATC frequency. I find it very embarrassing if the pilot has to dial in 7700 just because the iPad got cooked. But again, that’s just me.
GPS IS part of the EASA PPL-syllabus. (AMC1 FCL.210; FCL.215)
This is the Syllabus of Theoretical Knowledge
It is very far away from teaching anything useful on how to use a GPS.
Page 185:
(xxiv) Exercise 18c: Radio navigation:
(A) use of GNSS:
(a) selection of waypoints;
(b) to or from indications and orientation;
(c) error messages.
It’s in the LAPL-Syllabus, too.
And the syllabus has to be filled with life by an instructor. This is as true for GNSS navigation, as it is for slow flight or crosswind take offs.
There is a UK PPL instructor I know who says that you could teach the entire PPL using GPS navigation (I mean actually flying with GPS) except ~2 specific exercises which require DR.
That would be a novel approach and I wonder if any other country in Europe does it.
As to what happens in the PPL skills test is another matter. I know that in the FAA system the examiner can request the demonstration of all installed equipment, but I don’t think that’s the case in Europe. And the school has to teach to pass the skills test.
I know that in the IR skills test the examiner could ask for an installed GPS to be used but one IR examiner told me that FTOs get around that by making the database 1 or 2 cycles out of date, which totally prevents it being used for any test.
BTW I don’t agree that a GNS430 or some other panel mount is bad for VFR. I have been flying VFR with my KLN94 since 2002. All I do is plan a route around waypoints which are already in the database. In most cases there are enough waypoints for the job, especially if airway intersections are used. This is a route from Shoreham EGKA to Cranfield EGTC via MID WOD WCO and it is very close to the optimum you would fly using any other tool. I run a GPS moving map on a tablet, showing the “real printed” chart and then I can use that for shortcuts or just for any change of plan, but the primary plan is on the KLN94 whose battery will never go flat and which will never shut down because it has sunlight shining on it… Obviously it’s a lot quicker to enter a route into any of the tablet apps and fly with that, but then if the tablet packs up or crashes (which happens a lot) you have nothing. The exception to the foregoing would be if flying VFR through airspace which is so complicated that it is almost impossible to plan an OCAS route using existing database waypoints, as for example in the recent VFR flight I did from Bergerac to Cannes to Lucca. I would never use user-specified waypoints; too much hassle. But then if you use the tablet solely you don’t get great stuff like the projected fuel on board at destination…
yes but why would one want to use the FPL function for VFR, given it’s a major PITA to use
My point was that VFR pilots are not trained to do anything with the GPS, except maybe using the DCT button.
A function which is very useful for VFR is the OBS function. I always use it when flying to a unknown VFR field. Its a great tool to visualize where the circuit is.
Having a FPL loaded will give you any data which is on the PLOG, but far more accurate. ETE, ETA, tracks, distances, fuel calculations, etc.
When I am flying VFR, I just use IFR waypoints. I can imagine that for a flight through valleys that won’t work and you have to use user waypoints.
But for a simple flight like EHLE-EGKA it will work just fine.
I have a tablet running Skydemon, and use that as well. But the GPS signal is not reliable. It might not get a fix at all when it is switched on during flight.
A certified onboard GPS is far more reliable (and even redundant in most IFR aircraft).
A certified onboard GPS is far more reliable (and even redundant in most IFR aircraft).
Exactly. If GPS is to be used as more than a “ad hoc, but unnecessary” addition, then it needs to be certified and panel mount. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it would make aircraft even more complex and expensive.
VFR navigation is not complicated. You don’t need a GPS to do it. It’s like saying you need a PC and excel to add together a couple of numbers.
Funny thing. VFR navigation (precision navigation) is a sport practice’s by many PPL pilots. To judge the accuracy, a GPS logger is mandatory in competitions 
If you are tired of looking out the window, then EIR is the next step.
In the UK, I’ll bet the anti-GPS crowd are mostly the folks who fly no more than 25 nm from their home airfield.
