Am I correct that Stateside, if NAV equipment is fitted, and not placarded unserviceable (surprisingly all US school aircraft seem to have u/s ADFs), you need to demonstrate competence in using it?
Not integrating GPS into basic NAV, especially for establishing a wind corrected heading to fly a desired track, seems poor form in the regulated syllabus. Integrating GPS into deduced reckoning technique would enrich PPL training and presumably will be required at last when most VORs are decommissioned.
Why can’t the regulators be more forward looking, and presumably the examiners? We should be able to require a leg using ded reckoning, and once achieved demonstrate good GPS navigation knowledge.
Am I correct that Stateside, if NAV equipment is fitted, and not placarded unserviceable (surprisingly all US school aircraft seem to have u/s ADFs), you need to demonstrate competence in using it?
Yes, to the extent relevant so e.g. if it’s a PPL checkride there is no need to show how to fly an RNAV approach with a GNS430, but you are likely to have to show how to load some waypoints into it.
An excellent system, and clever because the FAA doesn’t get the blame for forcing the schools to modernise, because if a school doesn’t have GPS it doesn’t have to teach it (but it may not get many customers).
One other local examiner removes the data card from a GPS equipped aircraft before sending his students solo!
One IR examiner (a CAA staffer) told me that one big FTO he examines for keeps the GPS database 1 cycle behind, which prevents the GPS being used in the IR test 
However, our approved training material has no mention of GPS/GNSS,
Who approved that (and when), when even EASA regulations recognises the importance of GNSS navigation?
Is GPS in the PPL syllabus?
Yes, and has been for some years (I started instruction in 2008 and it was part of the TK at that point).
It may be in the TK but I don’t recall other than questions on RAIM integrity the TK gets to grips with using it as a practical proposition.
As most PPL school aircraft in the UK do not have a GPS fitted, and it is usually not examined in the GFT, it may be fair to say the standard EASA syllabus is not formally teaching it in an integrated way. Perhaps the continent is further ahead with a better proportion of modern trainers (G1000 172s)?
Peter wrote:
An excellent system, and clever because the FAA doesn’t get the blame for forcing the schools to modernise, because if a school doesn’t have GPS it doesn’t have to teach it (but it may not get many customers).
I doubt there are many (if any) schools like this around in the US.
RobertL18C wrote:
Am I correct that Stateside, if NAV equipment is fitted, and not placarded unserviceable (surprisingly all US school aircraft seem to have u/s ADFs), you need to demonstrate competence in using it?
Correct. You need to be able to operate anything (unless, as you say, it’s placarded inop) that’s installed in the cockpit. Also don’t forget that in the US radio nav is taught and tested at PPL level, so you will have to fly to a VOR and probably also demonstrate GPS nav. When I did my PPL GPS wasn’t around in many light a/c, but I certainly had to do VOR triangulations and NDB nav. The latter is of course largely gone today.
I doubt there are many (if any) schools like this around in the US.
There were such schools when I did my IR in 2006 and indeed I did it at one such school, intentionally (due to limited time). It would not surprise me if there were none left today.
The FAA doesn’t get too fussy about aircraft used and navigation techniques used for a Private check ride, as mentioned you demonstrate what’s in the plane. Many people get their Private in their own plane, or the plane of a friend or relative… and they are equipped however they happen to be equipped. FAA supports that, as they should. Schools are a side issue, mostly they are for foreigners anyway (just kidding although it does seem that way sometimes)
Learning how to use simple tools like GPS for VFR use is easy by simply buying and reading the instructions. Foreflight as one example is so simple It only takes a couple of hours before using it in flight. For VFR flight what meaningful difference does it make whether or not you go over Foreflight or similar with an instructor, a friend or on your own?
(I didn’t get a car drivers or motorcycle license in a school either, and had probably a thousand hours of motorcycle experience at age 15-1/2 when I started on the roads, plus flying time. At 16 I gave up those pursuits temporarily as I was now driving my car to school, having bought it and finished making it roadworthy by then. None of the above was rocket science)
Silvaire wrote:
For VFR flight what meaningful difference does it make whether or not you go over Foreflight or similar with an instructor, a friend or on your own?
Well if the instructor consistently discourages the student from using the on-board GPS, I guess it could make a difference
