Bosco,
well, still – statistically – it should be better to fly odd altitudes, because probably more people are flying with the correc QNH … i hope :-)
What did you see about my Fuel Totalizer? I know its set wrong for a week now because by mistake I turned the wrong knob and now it shows too little … (was not a factor becasue my flight was 14 minutes and there wars more than 150 l in the plane … HOW DID YOU SEE THAT?
Jason,
I could never fly track up, it confuses me. But I guess if I did it for a whil it would be okay too. I just got used to it a long time ago … but i ALSO refused to TURN THE PAPER CHART track up, like they teach today, I always hated that … with the MFD, of course, it woul
The suction cup mount used on the Zlin looks pretty familiar 
I do the same with an iPad running Foreflight, except I use a double suction cup mount to stop the thing occasionally dropping onto the cockpit floor at inopportune moments! With two suction cups, if one comes lose you fix it without anything moving.
Track up on the moving map gives me a headache… I like familiar airspace shapes to look recognizable!
I googled up some photos of the Zlin by the way, and its wonderful. The early 4-cylinder fixed gear ones look simpler and better somehow, and are flown from the front.
well, that’s really a matter of taste.
In your case (private pilot, single pilot operation) it certainly is.
…but i ALSO refused to TURN THE PAPER CHART track up, like they teach today, I always hated that …
“Like they teach today”? I was taught that way since I first set foot into a glider (1977 or 78)!
I use Pocket FMS on my desktop to plan the flight, usually via IFR Waypoints so I can use my GNS430 easier. Print out the PLOG from there, transfer the route onto my Garmin 496 and use that on the yoke together with the GNS430 as primary, as I need the tab to display the Jeppview Charts.
I do print out paper charts for Dep/Arrival and 1st alternate, the rest is on the tab. And usually I either carry the ICAO map or print one from PFMS preflight.
what next,
I understand. If I would fly PROFESSIONALLY, and only IFR – I would try to get used to “track up” too. But if you fly 75 percent VFR, and that for 20 years and have always flown (successfully :-)) with “north up”, it’s better for me to stay with it. I really like to be able to READ the information on the paper map, it’s more important to me, and I have no problems understanding left and right when i fly twds the south with “north up” ….
I wrote that because for many years our local schools did not bother to force students to use “track up”. I started flying in 1994 and i have never had an instructor do it or correct me. Now all of a sudden (maybe 2 or three years) they all start to teach power-off landings (which I HATE just as much :-)) and to turn the chart “track up”. Lately they also force new students to mark waypoints on the map with felt tip pen and put time and distance on the map. Whcih means you practically destroy maps you use often in very little time. Probably some deal with a map supplier …. I will stick with my (pencil) course line and the waypoints/frequencies on my kneepad …
Interesting!
Lately they also force new students to mark waypoints on the map with felt tip pen and put time and distance on the map. Whcih means you practically destroy maps you use often in very little time. Probably some deal with a map supplier …
In case of “my” FTO (which is an ATPL school that does mainly integrated courses) we also do it that way. Most of our students will only ever use one VFR map in their whole life and this only for 20 or so hours VFR cross country flying – so it dosen’t matter what they write on it and they will never buy another one again.
Myself, I bought my last VFR map maybe in 2001. Since then, GNS430 and lately JeppView on my iPad give me all the information I need for VFR flying: Airfields and airspaces (VFR relevant airspaces are included in the low-level maps of JeppView, including all necessary com frequencies!).
The problem with track up and VFR is that it requires vector charts i.e. a layered (database driven) electronic chart presentation which automatically rotates the text labels etc (e.g. JeppFD-VFR, SD, etc).
It obviously can’t be done with a printed map, and can’t be done with any electronic product which displays the “printed” map (basically almost everything out there).
So there are solutions.
Whether they are good enough is another matter. Serious database issues with SD have already been pointed out (won’t matter to UK pilots), JeppFD-VFR has severely limited coverage, and arguably limited functionality, and what else is there that has vector charts?
The other thing is money. These are all per-platform licensed products so you can’t do anything to reduce your costs. You can’t borrow a map from somebody who is not flying today, etc…
Is someone really teaching using a printed map track-up?
You can’t borrow a map from somebody who is not flying today, etc…
Can you print maps off these poducts?
Is someone really teaching using a printed map track-up?
Yes, of course. Been taught that way, been always teaching it that way myself. The idea is that looking down at your map will give you more or less the same picture that you get from looking down at the world below. Without any mental coordinate transformations in between. Not a very difficult task at 70KT groundspeed, but above 200 (and especially the fast military guys who do in excess of 500) one tends to get a little behind that way.
What next,
well, different for most VFR pilots here. I buy the complete set for Germany (8 maps) each spring (comes out late March most years) and costs almost € 100. Of course I mostly use the southern Germany maps most. If I did what they teach I could order a new set every 4 weeks …
Of “real printed” charts, you can print from
I think that covers the products I know. There are some very slick products, all in German, which can print off the DFS charts. I used to have a “loan” version years ago.
JeppFD-VFR can’t print. You can just take screenshots and print them via whatever route works on the Ipad. But that isn’t a “printed” chart. That is what SD gives you; I think SD can print.
