Heads up Air speed display on your iPad for .99 cents

[ussyorktown]

I look down to see that I have reached 45 knots and I drift quickly to one side of the runway or the other.
or
I am landing and think that I have bled off enough speed so I pull back only to begin to climb again. Flight Design has no stall horn.
Cue carnival huxter: "
Do you have these problems pilots!
For just .99 you can get an app that shows you in BIG LETTERS what your airspeed is on heads up display.
It shows you on your ipad in BIG NUMBERS and in reverse so you can put your iPad onto your glare shield in front of you and then keep your eyes on the runway while seeing the ghostly image of your air speed increasing or bleeding off for landing!
Just .99 (should be $19.99 as all crap on t.v. is priced)"
I'm going do do some runs around the patch to see if it works.

[dstclair]

Can't see the iPad displaying airspeed -- only ground speed. Not something you want to use in place of IAS unless you're at standard conditions with no wind. Ground speed on landing will typically be much lower than IAS given you land into the wind so you'd land hot if you relied on an iPad speed readout.

[roger lee]

The drift at 45 knots in a CT is caused by improper rudder trim and there is no reason to always land at stall or one day you'll make a tiny mistake or the wind will change and you will join all the others with trashed landing gear and a very expensive repair. try not going below 50 and if you leave a little rpm in to touch 2500-2800 rpm the landings will have a lot more control and nice landings all the time. (1000 hrs in many a CT) The plane may stall a little slower sometimes (40-45), but by the time you find out where it's too late.

[ussyorktown]

but...but...I already spent my .99 cents on it!

[ussyorktown]

I have returned from the airport and did 3 touch and goes and the .99 app is the bomb!
I valcrowed the back of the ipad and put a strip onto the cowling inside the air ship.
I have it sit just right so it does fall forward or back-it just balances on that short strip of Velcro.
On take off, it is worthless. The plane was in the air before the thing said 45 knots.
Coming down, I'm watching my steam guage to stay at 61knots. But on final with a few feet to go and flying over the numbers, THE THING IS GREAT! I looked out the window for when I thought I should flare but it said 55k knots. I let her fly some more and looked again and it said 45 knots. I then started to flare and peeked and it said 40 knots and we touched down like a 2 year old kissing her Daddy!

[FastEddieB]

I honestly cannot tell...

...is this a joke thread or not?

[drseti]

but...but...I already spent my .99 cents on it!

but...but... .99 cents is ninety nine hundredths of a cent, which is a little less than a penny!

[drseti]

...is this a joke thread or not?

Assuming it's not a joke, I'm going to get serious for a moment.

Yes, airspeed control on final is important. But, you don't accomplish it by staring at the airspeed indicator (or at a heads-up display, for that matter). You nail the right airspeed by learning, and then holding, the right pitch attitude for your particular plane.

Remember that it is pitch that determines airspeed in a glide (which I'm assuming is your landing configuration). Pitch up too high, and you slow down. Pitch down too much, and you speed up. Hold the correct constant pitch until you're ready for the round-out, and your airspeed will be correct. If in doubt as to what the right pitch attitude is, ask your flight instructor to fly a correct approach, at the correct speed, while you look out the windscreen. Once you learn that sight picture, you'll never look at your ASI (or your iPad) again.

[ussyorktown]

3 touch and goes and I used it today as an additional aid.

1. look out the window-when the picture shows me below the horizon then I should start thinking of flare,
2. look at IPAD quickly/taking tenth of a second as it sits stuck to center cowling. Am I above 45 knots? If yes, don't flare yet as you were merely go up and then down,
3. if quickly heading to 50 to 45 to 40 then flare.

Worked perfectly every time today.

I wish that FD had bothered to put in a stall horn but for NINETY NINE cents this is a fun training wheels.

[FastEddieB]

OK...

Assuming now that you're serious...

...what you're doing is dangerous, for several reasons.

1) In the roundout and flare, a pilot's attention needs to be outside the cockpit. Juggling altitude, runway alignment and drift by subtle and not-so-subtle changes in control movements is difficult enough without having to even glance inside the cockpit.

2) As has been mentioned, if your device is not plumbed to both your pitot and static systems, or unless it has it's own, it must be utilizing gps-derived groundspeed. Airplanes fly through the air. Please try to imagine two landings - one with a 20k headwind and one with a 10k tailwind. Now imagine both made while slavishly looking at iPad ground speed. How might those landings differ?

3) Food for thought for number three involves a scenario...

You're approaching to land at Denver on a 90° day.

What is your density altitude?

How should you adjust your approach IAS to compensate?

Assuming you've answered the above correctly, what might be wrong with using your newly discovered iPad method at Denver on a 90° day?

In any case, please this one time assume that a few of the experienced, graybeard instructors here may actually know a thing it two and stop playing with your iPad on landing.

Please.

[ussyorktown]

I see your point. It is 100% GPS.
This is what I will do. When flying with a passenger, his job will be to sing out my speed using the pitot tube/stationary air method.
I will then also have the GPS speedometer in front of me.
I will have the WORLD in front of me comparing this landing with the few hundred I've done so far.

Based on all of this, I will make a decision as to when I flare. Eyes out 99% of the time.

[designrs]

USSYORK, please heed the advice of the experienced CFI's on this board and stop using GPS ground speed in critical phases of flight, and they are all critical phases when it comes to maintaining proper airspeed.

Don't just take my word for it.
All who agree please reply "+1"

Thanks all.

[drseti]

Eyes out 99% of the time.

That's good. It means you will only crash 1% of the time.

All jest aside, please realize that you need to keep your eyes outside 100% of the time when landing. Learn to fly the environment, not the gauges or the iPad. I don't want to have to read about you in the NTSB reports.

[drseti]

All who agree please reply "+1"

+1

[ussyorktown]

Fear not. I shall never be mentioned in a NTSB report.
I am a very cautious pilot. I am like Tiger Woods. I am never satisfied with my performance and always strive to improve it.
Wish the FD had a stall horn. Maybe I can rig up the IPad gps to do one (although it is only one factor as to when I flare).
By the way, I also have a grey beard. Admiral Halsey earned his wings at 52. I earned mine at 62. (light sport)