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Mountain Flying with NavAirEFB |
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Mountain Flying with NavAir EFB - 2006/09/07 02:32 Aside from the moving map with overlay of real time Nexrad Weather, the most impressive flight experience I have had with my NavAir NavPad has been my three flights (and more to come) between COS (Colorado Springs) and GJT (Grand Junction) CO through the mountain passes of the Rocky Mountains.
All of my past flying had been, essentially, east of the Mississippi, so when my son moved to GJT, I was cautious about making this transition. I read up on the subject, reviewed the Colorado Pilots Assoc web site (a wealth of information) and attended the ABS Mountain Flying School in COS in June '05. At that time, I had not yet purchased my NavPad, so I loaded cardinal fixes in my strictly IFR GNS-480 in spite of the fact that this was to be a purely VFR experience and GPS was frowned upon by the instructors as useless, even dangerous ("straight line navigation through Cumulogranite") in mountain flying folklore.
Since the GNS-480's moving map is devoid of almost all terrain or other topographical depiction, the NavPad promised to supplement, rather than just duplicate, some the many advanced features of my panel mounted GPS. Nowhere has this been more obvious than in mountain flying. After initial difficulty figuring out how to create user defined waypoints, then loading some cardinal and other user defined route fixes into a stored flight plan, the previously intimidating task of flying up valleys flanked by mountains with peaks soaring above my enroute altitude, and transitioning over “mountain passes” to the next valley path, became quite easy to do with a new found sense of confidence and safety. Zoom in for intricate terrain avoidance detail with elevations and all other manner of terrain features depicted of what is immediately at hand - or - zoom out to see where the rest of the depicted flight path winds it’s way through visible valley gradients bounded by equally distinguishable mountain peaks with cardinal elevation numbers depicted all the way to destination.
This course even includes the rather tricky initial transition through the COS Class C Airspace, sliding south around the USAF Academy Restricted Airspace, then west of the NORAD Restricted Airspace and finally squeezing between Ft Carson’s Restricted Airspace and the western edge of the Rockies before turning up the Arkansas River Valley into the full majesty and height of the Rockies. I can only imagine how many pilots without the benefit of this moving map terrain and airspace depiction, as well as real time situational awareness, incur the administrative enforcement wrath of the FAA while transitioning through this complex airspace. After my first flight using all of these features, I even added another user defined waypoint fix to fine tune the very tricky and tight transition between, literally, a rock and a hard place (the Rockies & Ft Carson).
I am not suggesting that anyone just load up these waypoints and blast through the Rockies without the benefit of task and terrain specific training - or - not rely primarily upon VFR pilotage skills but, when you add all of that to the amazing features of the
NavAir EFB, it sure makes an otherwise challenging flight a breeze. If I knew how to upload the flight plan I created for this route, I would be more than happy to share it with other pilots.
Post edited by: davidmcgee, at: 2006/09/07 02:37
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My flight was to Asheville AVL from Toronto on Friday afternoon and back today, Anyone in the north east or central US knows it has been quite a week end weather wise. Mist, haze, convective segmets and isolated CBs and major rain/wind storms all over the weather forecast was doable as on my route it was all PROB for the CB's , never the less there was a lot of cumulus build up and heat haze. I would have been uncomfortable doing the flight both ways without this system.
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