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The website's primary goal is to "pre-Google"
some local interest aviation sites for general aviation
pilots in the Tri-State area plus provide pertinent
information about general aviation.
SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND: You
may like your airplane...your airplane does not like
you.
DID YOU KNOW OR DO YOU CARE?:
You have until March 31, 2010, to replace your
cardboard pilot certificate with the new,
tamper-resistant plastic laminated version. The
cost to do it now is $2.00. If the proposed FAA
funding bill passes as it's written, it won't include
user fees but the fee
for a new certificate will increase to $25.00.
FAA website
SOMETHING TO ENGAGE YOUR MIND:
Any group of pilots will contain that one person who
commands center stage only to tell you how many whiskers
Charles Lindbergh had on his left cheek. Now, maybe
that's talking aviation, but it's a painful stretch.
Here's a real aviation related question for you:
What common FAR has a specific calendar day expiration limit as opposed to the more common "end
of the month, XX months hence" expiration date such as
those for your
medical, biennial, or aircraft annual inspection?
(Click here for the answer)
CHECKLIST? I DON'T NEED NO @*!?
CHECKLIST! The pre-take-off C.I.G.A.R. (Controls
free, Instrument panel scanned and set, Gas,
Attitude trim set, Run-up...or the more
familiar GUMPF, are just two of the acronyms we use to
remind ourselves to perform required cockpit tasks. When
we're on the ground and not moving, it's usually safe to divert
your eyes from outside the aircraft to a written check list
or airport diagram.
But what about those critical occasions when we're single
pilot IFR or VFR and entering the pattern at an
uncontrolled airport? It's better for you (and the rest of us
aviating in your vicinity) if you have a few mind-jogging
acronyms developed for your airplane so you can keep your eyes
scanning the needles in the IFR scenario or looking
outside in VFR conditions.
HELP WITH THE CROSSWIND GO / NO
GO. How many times do you get the ASOS winds, "270 @ 12,
peak gusts 24,...." as you're setting up to land on Runway
31. Now, are you really going to whip out that
crosswind component chart (you know the one with all the
arcs, lines, and little teeny numbers along the edges)
or are you going to do it like most of us, attempt the
landing on Three-One by the Braille method and hope for
the best? How about something in between?
Have a look at Mr. Sweetie's Simplified X-Wind Approximator, the product of a misspent technical
education. Note: This is not intended for your flight
bag, it's intended to go between your ears as a quick
memory tool for calculating a working crosswind
component using three simple rules. (Crosswind
Memory Tool)
ELT UPDATE.
After February 1, 2009, your 121.5 MHz ELT signal will
not be monitored by satellite. Unless you've
upgraded recently, most of us still have that original
orange box back there in the fuselage somewhere and, while that 121.5
MHz unit
will keep you legal after that date, it will lose
considerably more of its already limited effectiveness.
For more information, (click here)
GPS SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY. New U.S.
satellites being launched aren't designed to have their signals degraded
by the Pentagon as were earlier units. Since 2000, the US military
has ceased to degrade navigation satellite signals. The reasons are
several. First, other countries have similar
satellite constellations in place and the technology
to access them has been available on the worldwide market for some time.
Turning off US satellites to disrupt guidance of hostile mischief simply
wouldn't be as effective today. Second, the FAA is implementing a
GPS-dependent program to either scale down or eliminate ATC radar
installations. The goal is to have Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast equipment, ADS-B, replace many of today's radar installations.
ADS-B will depend on an on-board transponder that allows each aircraft to locate itself
using GPS and then broadcast its position, speed, vertical
speed, and aircraft ID to ground controllers and other airborne receivers.
FSS BRIEFINGS. The ultimate goal
was to reduce the number of Flight
Service Stations from 58 down to 17 and that goal was reached December 22, 2007.
Of those seventeen remaining, three are in Alaska, one is in Puerto
Rico, and one is in Hawaii. One day we're
going to have to accept lower-cost DUAT-style briefings, which are
accessible now but, well, not something most of us are familiar
with...and aren't about to get familiar with until it's forced on us.
The nudging has started. For
more information, click these links.
http://www.afss.com/ or
Then & Now
ON THIS PAGE
Planning a local flight and need an airport identifier? Click
the little red button on the right for ASOS information by state.
It lists most airports with ASOS or AWOS observation equipment along with
its identifier. With the identifier found, click the "Calculators" button, and
that website link will provide you with a "Distance Calculator" between any
combination of two airports or navaids.
Check the Event Calendar
page
frequently to find places to fly
that aluminum Wichita Buick of yours straight and level and eat pancakes
in some smoke-filled hangar. The site page links out to aviation event calendars as well as to ASOS information for Iowa,
Wisconsin, and Illinois.
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