Sport Pilot Talk

Reminder tonight Wednesday May 11th is the webinar!

While I'd want to watch it, that's my 6 yr old's bedtime, and while the presentation would be riveting to me, I'm betting it'll lose out to Animaniacs or Dinasaur Train, or Dino Dan (Trek's Adventures). I'll try to get to it after the fact.

Bruce, I'll post the rerun link tomorrow.

.......

Very well done and informative. Your experience as a teacher was evident. Thanx!

I haven't been very active in FAAST/WINGS... how do I make sure the webinar gets logged? Under [email protected]

Thanks!

Thanks for tuning in, Tim. If the email address you used to register with EAA is the same one on your FAASTeam account, credit will be given automatically. If not, email [email protected], tell Timm your FAASTeam email address, and he'll see to it you get the credit.

I missed the seminar last night - I was driving back from Knoxville after a nice dinner with Mr. & Mrs. Cluemeister.

Looking forward to catching it once the link is up.

Looking forward to watching the webinar as well!

Paul - I echo CT4me's comments. It was well done, and an eye opener (to say the least.) This has convinced me to vary my course from a due North/South direction from time to time. I'll likely watch the replay as well since I think there was very good information in there that I'd like to absorb again!

For those who missed it (or for those gluttons for punishment who want to see it again), last night's webinar is now available for viewing at:

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=4890470314001

Just finished it.

Great presentation. Really laudable that you took the time to put it together, all in the interest of helping others. Your wife is right about the "born teacher" part.

But, of course, instructors look for little things, so let me pick a couple nits...

1) When describing your approach to Gainesville, you mentioned that your plane had a lift/drag ratio of 10 to 1, and used that in your planning. I think you meant glide ratio, and they are not the same, right?

2) The only traffic system I have flown with was the L3 Skywatch system in the Cirrus.

In the "Limitations" section of the POH, it says this: Traffic information shown on the GARMIN 430 displays is provided as an aid in visually acquiring traffic. Pilots must maneuver the aircraft based only upon ATC guidance or positive visual acquisition of conflicting traffic. Pretty sure most tragic advisory schemes short of full TCAS have similar recommendations, but of course I'm not familiar with all of them.

In the training, it was emphasized never to maneuver the aircraft solely on the basis of a traffic warning. You touched upon the reason - pressure altitude is only broadcast in hundreds of feet, so its possible that if your aircraft is off by only one "tick" and the other aircraft by one "tick" in the opposite direction, you might both be getting warnings of an aircraft at the same altitude when in fact you might have up to 200' of separation. For a pilot to begin a climb or descent based solely on the traffic warning could actually put aircraft in conflict that would otherwise not have been.

Now some say the limitations are put there by lawyers and it would be foolish to just cruise on without taking some evasive action. I understand that reasoning as well. But waiting for either visual contact or ATC instructions is what we were advised to teach, and I think its the safest option, with anything short of a full TCAS which advises what specific action to take.

But great presentation, in spite of those "nits"! I'll definitely recommend it to others.

+1 for the presentation. Very clear, very useful ... note to self: avoid headings near due north and south ... well done. Glad you came through unscathed!! Lots of good and interesting things and I really appreciate you took the time to prepare the webinar and share it with the pilot community!

Cheers

MackAttack wrote:... note to self: avoid headings near due north and south ...

Seconded.

Something I think I may have known at one time, but probably forgotten.

FastEddieB wrote:1) When describing your approach to Gainesville, you mentioned that your plane had a lift/drag ratio of 10 to 1, and used that in your planning. I think you meant glide ratio, and they are not the same, right?

Actually, Eddie, they are very highly correlated, and for light aircraft, are essentially equal. Lift dominates the horizontal component, and drag the vertical component, of a glide. So gliding at optimum L/D will give you the longest glide distance.

drseti wrote: Actually, Eddie, they are very highly correlated, and for light aircraft, are essentially equal. Lift dominates the horizontal component, and drag the vertical component, of a glide. So gliding at optimum L/D will give you the longest glide distance.

Did not take long to find this on Wikipedia:

"As it turns out, the glide ratio, which is the ratio of an (unpowered) aircraft's forward motion to its descent, is (when flown at constant speed) numerically equal to the aircraft's L/D."

Which makes you right, and me, well, that other thing.

I should know better than to match wits with a professor!