What are some of your favorite „tricks of the trade“, mnemonics, rules of thumb that you kept over the years and use while flying?
Some examples:
An old experienced captain with thousand atlantic crossings asked me one day: „..so let’s say we loose IRS, GPS etc.. what do you do?“
We were in the middle of the ocean. He dialed in 252 on the ADF, it’s some radio station in Scotland and will get one too shore. Not really necessary, but nice.
The 60 minute clock crosswind correction method is another one I use.
Temp/Dewpoint Delta times 400 for cloud base works well too.
Obviously the times/divided by 3 rule for descent and groundspeed times 5 or divided by two for applicable rate FPM is a favorite.
I’ll try and think of some others.
DA increases 1000ft per 8C above ISA
Snoopy wrote:
He dialed in 252 on the ADF, it’s some radio station in Scotland and will get one too shore. Not really necessary, but nice.
Might that be in Ireland? There’s a mast near EIWT that broadcasts on 252 kHz and a lot of people leave their ADF tuned to it to keep situational awareness when returning to the field (and occasionally listen to the news!). I heard a rumour that a pilot was using it for tracking back one day in bad weather but it was out of service, and the transmission was radiating from a backup mast in the Dublin mountains causing a CFIT accident. Can’t find any info online about it though so maybe an old wives tale.
Many years ago I effectively “lost everything” over Russia (which is to say, none of the VORs were working and ATC spoke no English) and we navigated most of the way from Moscow to Tashkent by pointing the weather radar at the ground and identifying rivers and lakes.
I’ve collected my “rules of thumb” here.
Great stuff, thanks!
zuutroy wrote:
Might that be in Ireland?
Might as well be. Very interesting story. Thanks!
Edit: This seems to be it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarkstown_radio_transmitter
