In Part 1, the article left off with GPS failures that would affect both primary and secondary GPS units (such as failures related to shared antennas, identical software bugs, satellite outages, or the loss of shared power sources or cooling equipment). In such cases, being able to revert to “old school” forms of navigation can…
[Author’s Note: This two-part series will discuss a variety of navigation system failures and abnormalities, with ideas for training and handling them. While this installment will deal primarily with management of GPS abnormalities, the next installment will focus on the utilization of other navigation systems in GPS failure situations.] It was a blustery spring afternoon…
Complying with Mandatory Cold Temperature Altitude Corrections The alarm jolts me awake at 4:30 a.m. and I fumble in the dark to stifle its intrusive wailing. Dreading the scene, I stumble to the hotel room window, pull the curtains, and confirm the accuracy of last night’s forecast. Fresh snow blankets everything outside and gently falling…
In Part 1 of this article, we left off after completing the 53-mile drive across Glacier National Park (GNP) via the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road. We pick up the story along the final stretch of that most picturesque of drives. The final 10 miles of the Going-to-the-Sun Road follows the north shore of St. Mary Lake…
In cruise flight, we had reached the halfway point across the expansive width of Montana. The smoke that had been looming ahead, obscuring the western horizon in a thick and dingy haze, was now upon us and reduced forward visibility to almost nil. Peering out the side window and downward, the terrain features were visible…
Using Airline Safety Techniques in GA Operations A hearty eye-roll is often the first reaction when it is suggested that general aviation pilots should apply “airline techniques” to their operations to improve safety. First of all, GA is so multi-faceted that lumping so many types of aviation into such a catch-all term is ridiculous. How…