Cool pilot aid
 

Thought some of you pilots might find this cool...

http://www.mc.com/vistanav/

Looks like MS Flight Simulator!

Sooo much has changed...as a measure of progress in my time flying, I did the first Navy flight test of the NAVSTAR five channel GPS. Covergare was spotty, the thing was has big as a suitcase, but you could plainly see the future.

And here it is.

As an aside, there is still no substitute for pilotage.

We have used it for years and love it but... I just sit back and laugh at many of the kids coming up the ranks these days. As part of my "captain upgrade" checks I would turn the EFIS tubes off in flight, then ask the other guy "where are we?"

They usually do not have an idea without the electronic gadgets to show them. Pilotage I tell them! Look out the frigging window! See that railroad, mountain, river, town and tell me where we are? Pull a map out, compare what you see and figure out where you are!

Slowly they figure it out but we are clearly an electronic society. I love the PFM boxes but someday they will go dark and you may need to DR your way to an airfield, road or field where you can land.

Kids! Course when I was still "wet behind the ears" my IP (instructor for you civie types) held my hand until I came around. I was lucky enough to have a pilot who flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain as my commercial instructor. He had forgotten more than I may ever know and was a real pilot, through and through.

Enough rambling... check six!

Joe A

After my first fleet tour, I came to Patuxent River NAS and was lucky enough to fly at VX-1...1988, a real transition period in military aviation: GPS, usable Night Vision Goggles, guided weapons, integrated avionics, etc.

My XO was a crusty Nam helo pilot who flew HAL (Helo Assualt Light) for the Navy. Mostly Seal stuff. He has more Air Medals than I have teeth.

Too fly with him was a wonder...he could bunt the H-60 over a crest as cool as the other side of a pillow (thanks, Stu).

A real pilot...

lol...reminds me of my days as a flight instructor as well. i instructed out of the north little rock airport for a number of years (k1m1) and used to get actual air force navigator students from the little rock air force base. they were technically not supposed to be receiving civilian flight instruction, as i was told, but frequently snuck over to work on their private pilot license. these guys were the worst about bragging about all the incredible navigational devices aboard the c-130's and sims they trained in...but pull the fuses in a cessna 150 and plunge them into darkness on a night cross country and watch the mouths open..and very slow response time..lol. i have more than a few stories about training these guys..local folks with absolutely no experience were always easier to train and work with..they didn't already 'know it all'.
ryan

I got my private about 15 yrs ago and at that time, the planes I trained in had a navcom and a compass for navigation (one did have a loran, but it did not work). In the mid 90's, I got a handheld GPS then later in my next plane, an Apollo panel mount GPS. It truly is astonishing how easy it is to navigate now compared to the pre-GPS days. I can remember being scared *****less back when I started flying on a couple long x-countries. The GPS makes navigation a non-issue. My first handheld used to lose signal quite often, so I got into a valuable habit of checking my position on a sectional often. Thankfully I still do this even though my Apollo has never failed me once in 8 or so years! I would imagine most new pilots use GPS 100% of the time once obtaining their private and probably do not develop good pilotage skills as a result.

Nothing worse than feeling lost when getting low on fuel or with weather closing in.

yeah, tim..i was a masochist..i loved going out and shooting ndb approaches..and not the gps overlay variety.. ;) guys were ready for their instrument ride usually when they could handle these consistently. as you know, they really make you think..and when struggling a bit, a tad anxious in the soup, that's quite a workload on a single pilot.
ryan