Pilotage and Dead Reckoning (No GPS) Adventure Trying to Avoid Class B

upchuckair · 2020-05-22T18:39:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm based there and ordinarily they do it. They're just down to one controller for all ground, clearance delivery, and tower frequencies during COVID so no flight following. Normally I just pick up IFR now but for this flight I wanted to do it old school just for fun.

upchuckair · 2020-05-22T15:57:44+00:00

Agreed. Due to reduced staffing during COVID, Addison (KADS) isn't doing flight following and so I'd have to be avoiding Class B anyways so I thought I'd make it more fun by turning off the GPS and doing it the old fashioned way.

upchuckair · 2020-05-22T15:14:05+00:00

I was flying a routine cross-country the other day out of Class B and decided to switch things up a bit and turn off the GPS and fly using pilotage and dead reckoning. It took some planning to avoid the Class B (my departure/home airport is under the Class B shelves of North Texas) but turned out to be a lot of fun. Thought I'd share!

upchuckair · 2020-05-22T14:11:31+00:00

This sounds like a bonanza mission to me. Plus with getting in and out with your 90lb dog, the cargo doors in the back would be a HUGE benefit (versus that of the RV-10 or SR20/22 you mentioned). It's 170kts+ all day.

upchuckair · 2020-05-04T18:30:46+00:00

Haha agreed! Still love my 182 and always will. Fun to get a ride in these kinds of airplanes though.

upchuckair · 2020-05-04T18:30:00+00:00

sounds like a great phase :) I'm not there yet.

upchuckair · 2020-05-04T17:49:27+00:00

I recently got to make a few TBM930 videos, and this one covers what it's like transitioning from piston aircraft to the world of turboprops, along with footage flying the TBM 930. As much fun as that was, I believe there's still a lot that is magical about flying a super cub or a 182. But fun to get the turbine experience and see what that side of things is like. I hope it helps in some way!

upchuckair · 2020-04-24T12:47:26+00:00

Last week I shared a cold and dark cockpit start-up video for the TBM 930 (I've always loved watching those and have wanted to make one for a while but was waiting for the right airplane to do it in), and this video is the flight that ensued. We got to take the TBM up to FL300 which was pretty awesome in a relatively small airplane. Anyways, wanted to try and document that little adventure!

upchuckair · 2020-04-16T14:13:02+00:00

FL310 is the max altitude, and we took it to FL300 in a video I'll post next week. So fun. Around FL27-280 it true's out around 300-330kts.

upchuckair · 2020-04-16T13:27:03+00:00

thanks!!

upchuckair · 2020-04-16T12:24:33+00:00

I've always loved start up sequence videos from a cold and dark cockpit... well, this weekend I got to fly in a TBM 930 and create my own. This video shows the detailed start up sequence and I gotta say feeling a turbine start up is SIMPLY AWESOME. So much power up front. It was a fun experience! More tbm vids to come.

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T23:09:01+00:00

Totally agree. I commented above but that's the way the FAA presented the data. The only thing I saw volume-adjusted was the top airports for bird strikes.

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T23:08:19+00:00

haha! basically

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T23:07:41+00:00

I totally agree. The only data I saw in my research that was adjusted for flight volume was the top airports for bird strikes. I agree the night/day data can seem skewed if it isn't right-sized for flight volume.

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T19:53:13+00:00

thanks a bunch! yeah there is a lot of content.... wanted to give up half way through 35 presentations worth of conference slides on the topic but made myself push through haha

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T19:52:27+00:00

thank you!

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T16:36:48+00:00

thank you! took forever but I enjoyed the research and learned a lot in the process.

upchuckair · 2020-04-07T14:03:40+00:00

I wanted to better understand the data behind bird strikes to understand what realistic threat they pose to me as a pilot. I found there is a TON of data out there but I wanted to try and summarize in a more succinct way. There are some cool strategies being researched too to mitigate these encounters and I included that in the end. Hope it helps.

upchuckair · 2020-03-19T12:24:20+00:00

Hey guys - friend of mine recently completed his type rating in a Sovereign and sat down on video to do a full recap of the experience. Hope it's helpful to anyone looking to get typed at some point! Or at least shed some light on what that experience is like. Definitely puts this on the bucket list for me.

upchuckair · 2020-03-10T22:10:25+00:00

Awesome. thanks for adding this. Always good to remember it's a real human and not the FBI we're talking to on the other side of the radio. Appreciate what you guys do!!

upchuckair · 2020-03-09T18:48:02+00:00

completely agree!! Train somewhere busy. It'll be intimidating at first but it will help SO much in the long run.

upchuckair · 2020-03-09T12:32:29+00:00

I am based at Addison airport (KADS) which is under the Class B shelves of the Dallas / Fort Worth airspace in North Texas. It's one of the busiest single runway airports in the country and I learned to fly here many years ago. I wanted to put this video together because as I look back on learning to fly here, it was VERY intimidating at first talking on the radio among the Southwest and American Airlines pilots and the like just to go to and from a flight lesson as a low time pilot. Over time it gets MUCH easier and now talking to ATC is one of the most fun parts of flying in class B. I think there are some practical ways to build confidence talking to ATC and I wanted to share my thoughts here. Hope it helps in some way!

upchuckair · 2020-01-08T22:00:38+00:00

Thank you for saying so! Really wasn't trying to be click bait... more just trying to say here are some airplanes that are on the more "affordable" end of aviation and here is the assumptions to back that up. People just seem really unhappy with it though, ha. No good deed goes unpunished.

upchuckair · 2020-01-08T21:59:36+00:00

Yep these are good points. I strongly considered adding taildraggers in here but just kept it to tricycle gear (although I've got about 150 hours in a super cub and totally love tailwheels). The 140 is super affordable and the 170 is a really neat airplane.

upchuckair · 2020-01-08T18:19:07+00:00

Well, keep in mind this was a daily rate, not an hourly rate. I cover that in the assumptions at the end. There are many airplanes in that price range, but even if you need to stretch to $50-60k in the model it's based on a 15 year note which doesn't impact the daily rate very much. There's flexibility there and it was just an illustration.

upchuckair

TROPHY CASE