Thread: Cool pilot aid
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Tim Hancock Tim Hancock is online now
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Join Date: May 2004
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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.
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Old 05-27-2006, 08:49 AM
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