Routing wide of complex airspace...
What about electronic charts going out of date? First, the easy bit; it would be rare for GPS-Apps not to refresh their charts every 28 days, coinciding with official updates (known as the AIRAC cycle) but you might need to open the GPS-App while connected to the internet be offered a chart update. So an internet connection with the GPS-App opened needs to be a task shortly before any flight, not only for Notam, but to check for chart updates.
As for traditional GPS units, as many instructors helping out individual or syndicate owners know, it’s much more common to see databases out of date because they often need extra effort to update. Clearly, if out of date, airspace depiction can’t be relied on, but it doesn't mean the GPS itself is completely useless – far from it, the real navigator will always be interested in track and ground speed and general position in relation to permanent features. The prize for the ‘most aged database’ that I have seen goes to a syndicate in which it was well over 15 years out of date…
Planning a route? Remember, the risk of a GPS-enhanced head-on airprox (or worse) is greatly enhanced by flying exactly on track between two 'obvious' points, especially those such as airfields, navigation beacons or 'coasting out/in' points in Class G. If you are using a traditional GPS and your track line is between two 'obvious' points, why not check for any terrain or airspace to the right of track, and then use the magenta line as the equivalent of an old fashioned railway line and choose to stay right of it, or perhaps introduce a
12 CLUED UP SUMMER 2019
very minor dogleg into the magenta line route that will avoid the danger of meeting someone doing the same in the opposite direction.
If the planning has been done properly on a route designed to minimise alerts and avoid cockpit workload and distraction the flying can, as we’ve said, be relaxed, so why do pilots seem to use GPS to deliberately plot routes to 'skim' airspace boundaries meaning more distraction and extra concentration? They wouldn’t skim over hills with only a few feet of vertical separation from the ground, yet when hills are replaced by regulated airspace above, below or to one side, they seem quite happy to do so?
Another point worth thinking about while flying is that the scale of the display is sometimes critical: ‘zooming-in’ on the aircraft can cause awareness problems and extra work a few miles ahead, an oncoming airfield, for example. Again, if you avoid tight 'skimming', the visible chart picture can often be expanded more, allowing tasks (e.g. radio calls) to be made in good time rather than being left to the last minute. Equipment shutdown in flight might not be common, but it isn't unknown, so absorb in-flight information early while it’s still being offered, there’s nothing worse than looking at the display and finding it’s locked. Note it and compare it with your preflight planning values and expectations. Drift requires a minor effort of simple arithmetic, comparing GPS track to aircraft heading (comparing GPS magnetic track to a recently-checked DI) while groundspeed can be read directly.
...can make flying more relaxed
Away from coastal or mountain effects, if your planning was good, you should only see minor differences, but major ones need to be noted and intelligent consideration given to why that would be. Sampling the data over a few miles should help to decide whether the mismatch was a local temporary effect or the pre-planned values were wrong, in which case noting the measured values at this early stage will prevent severe embarrassment should equipment fail later in the leg due to overheating or power problems. Including groundspeed and drift comparisons into regular FREDA checks can even alert a pilot to changes in winds, a possible early indicator of deteriorating weather.
Using GPS and associated apps intelligently can, as the vintage aviator at AeroExpo found, make flying even more relaxed and enjoyable.
Irv Lee is an Flight Instructor/Flight Examiner mentoring GA pilots in the UK
Resource Search / Address CAA's Skywise
www.caa.co.uk/skywise (or Skywise App)
CAA's Safety Sense Leaflets
www.caa.co.uk/safetysense
Airspace Safety
www.airspacesafety.com
Airspace for All (Airspace4All)
www.airspace4all.org
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