Martin wrote:
when you go try an aeroplane for a size, don’t forget your bike
Believe me, I have not 
De-icing boots and turbos and machines that go ping are a long way down the list of priorities behind the ability to put two road bikes in the back. I may raise it as a seperate question later.
BTW This is the kind of thing I like to do and I am hoping the plane will help get me there
tinfoilhat wrote:
I was just pointing out that….oh never mind…sigh!
Well, you have mentioned that you were never taught the use of GPS in your flight school. Obviously your school then taught the use of ADF or deviated from the regulations quite a bit. Furthermore, it seems that you weren’t taught to prepare and execute a cross country flight to an airfield new to you by yourself. In any case it seems as you missed out a good chunk of practical navigation during your PPL training. Since you have comparatively little experience, or so you have told us, the quality of your PPL training has a big effect on your aviation knowledge at this moment. It does seem that you are willing to learn about all aspects of cross country aviation, but it is at this moment hard to make correct assumptions about what you know and what you don’t know. Maybe the icing did play a big role during your ground school, but some more practical navigational lessons apparently did not. So if someone points out what seems obvious, he is just making sure you know. It is part of the forums education programme, rather than a try to belittle either your knowledge, your ambitions or your capability to learn. It’s nothing personal, just making sure we all use the same vocabulary to describe the same effects.
Safe flights!
Here’s one reason to seriously consider a high wing plane. :-)
(kindof surprised this hasn’t come up yet… now me is having second thoughts about posting, but here goes nothing…)
Peter wrote:
I have never heard of VFR routes.
VFR routes are a little like SID and STAR. Standardised routes through controlled airspace – generally speaking CTR.
They are used in France, and they were used in Norway back when I flew there VFR which is a while ago. In many cases, particularly in low-traffic airspace like Rouen, they will not be assigned to you. Don’t know about south of France. Prior to SERA, in France there used to be NVFR routes that you had to adhere to. Now they are recommended itineraries.
In the US there are VFR routes through for example the LAX terminal airspace where you do not even talk to a controller.
mh wrote:
Well, you have mentioned that you were never taught the use of GPS in your flight school
Is GPS taught at any flight school? I have flown with 10 FIs at 5 schools in 3 countries on 2 continents and no one has ever thought fit to show me how to use the GPS. It’s not difficult but it still takes some time to learn which buttons to press. Is my experience unusual? .
I am always complaining about this by the way. I have 30 years sailing experience and I did my first crossing of Biscay with dead reckoning in pre-GPS days. (We had an aviation ADF with us btw, which we found worse than useless). Last year I was sailing in the Channel Islands on a friend’s boat and I was shocked by the 100% reliance he placed on his chartplotter : and he had his Day Skipper licence, which is I suppose the equivalent to a PPL. He didn’t even have paper charts on board. Rather than teach him how to integrate old school nav with GPS, his Day Skipper qualification had left him to make up his own rules for GPS-only sailing. As a result of a “conversation” on that trip he has since gained his Yachtmaster qualification (maybe the equivalent of an IR) and is an infinitely better sailor as a result.
I would have liked my PPL to teach me how to safely integrate Skydemon onto my flying but I am left to come up with my own rules.
mh wrote:
Obviously your school then taught the use of ADF
Just barely. Not so that I could have used it. I have since done an IMC course so of course now I am an expert with the ADF 
mh wrote:
Furthermore, it seems that you weren’t taught to prepare and execute a cross country flight to an airfield new to you by yourself. In any case it seems as you missed out a good chunk of practical navigation during your PPL training
Aviathor wrote:
Peter wrote:
I have never heard of VFR routes.
VFR routes are a little like SID and STAR. Standardised routes through controlled airspace – generally speaking CTR.They are used in France,
Yes, that’s it. Maybe they are taught in most UK flight schools except for the ones that Peter and I attended
mh wrote:
Maybe the icing did play a big role during your ground school, but some more practical navigational lessons apparently did not.
Seriously! OK, now we are getting personal. I don’t get it. I have been abused, belittled and patronised by a number of senior posters here. Is it any wonder that so few people post? I am doing my best to keep it light but…jeez…there aren’t enough smileys on the planet to disguise the heat I am taking
mh, are you an FI? Here’s an experiment. Ask your students to plot LFMD – LFMA via a DR2 departure and see how many of them take the VFR route to the north. If the majority take that route you can come back here and tell me again how sh%t I am.
(to anyone who knows LFMD, yes I know you wouldn’t normally fly a DR2 departure for that route, but it’s the one I was presented with.)
I have never directly known a UK school that teaches GPS in any way whatsoever.
Unfortunately anyone who wants to progress in GA needs to throw away an awful lot of what they learned “at school”. Such is life… and Yes a lot of people moan about this, but thankfully there are not so many people today who spend time on the internet telling everybody to use a map and a stopwatch. That was a big problem 10 years ago and even 5 years ago I recall seeing old farts on the UK sites who kept spurting out dire warnings… I have never done sailing but I understand from sailing friends that the sailing community went through this phase too but it got it “out of the system” years before GA did.
Which French charts show those VFR routes? SIA, IGN, Cartabossy, or the old Jepp ones? And if so, does anybody actually fly them, and if so, who? Are they flown within the typical club activity there?
IMHO, schools cannot teach Skydemon because
So, in many ways, getting out of the school environment and becoming a pilot who actually goes to places, is a big step and a big eye-opener for those (few) who manage it.
tinfoilhat wrote:
Seriously! OK, now we are getting personal. I don’t get it. I have been abused, belittled and patronised by a number of senior posters here. Is it any wonder that so few people post? I am doing my best to keep it light but…jeez…there aren’t enough smileys on the planet to disguise the heat I am taking
Why don’t you move over to Pprune, and get a taste of what real abuse is like. I watched this thread develop, and frankly I thought you were a troll. A lot of what you posted earlier, is filled with basic stuff that a new recruit would know, and yet……..The carb ice comment is totally basic, and yet you are considering flying high, in a TKS aircraft, like a Malibu/Meridian. Sorry, but you would really need to brush up on basics before you ventured there.
You have managed to pick fights with some seriously experienced pilots and operators, who are only trying to give you advice. I would be a bit more humble if I were you, and Peter is the admin, so he cannot really fight back…..
Aviathor wrote:
they were used in Norway back when I flew there VFR which is a while ago
They still are. Some are still called “VFR routes light aircraft” while others are included in the “visual approach” charts. They are found at the AIP at ippc.no. Makes VFR in the TMA dead simple anywhere you go.
Peter wrote:
Which French charts show those VFR routes?
They are on all. My screenshot was from ANP with the 1:500.000 IGN chart, but will also find then in the 1:250.000 SIA charts and on the former VFR+GPS charts. Where relevant they are also on the VFR approach charts.
But again, in many places ATS will give you a lot more freedom to deviate from these routes. I can believe it is not necessarily the case in PACA.
tinfoilhat wrote:
This is a great looking plane but it doesn’t look like the kind of thing I associate with grass strips. I reckon it could carry 4 people and 4 bikes though. I must read up on the Bonanza
As I wrote elsewhere, the Bonanza is very sturdy and you will have less problems with it on grass than with a SR22
