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Old 28th Jul 2022, 16:58
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Wrong Stuff
 
Join Date: Dec 2000
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I don't know the official answer to whether you could use a print out of the SkyDemon charts. My hunch is that it would be difficult to find a regulation which prevents it.

However to your question whether it would be ok on a test, I think that's a definite no.

There are a number of points which make it a generally bad idea for any flight:
  • When measuring distance, you can't use a standard ruler marked in NMs. You've got to measure it on the printout and then work it out from scale at the bottom. More work under pressure and you're much more likely to bust heading or height limits while staring down at your map.
  • There's generally a good amount of space around a route, but not always. It wouldn't take a big error at the wrong time to get into difficulties.
  • Are you sure your printer has perfect scaling horizontally and vertically? Because if not, any course angles or distances with a N-S component will be wrong.
For a skills test, I think it's a particularly bad idea.

Firstly, don't you still have to do a diversion without a GPS map? If so, it's a dead certainty the examiner will give you a diversion to somewhere that's not on your printout.

Secondly, if you're asking on here, rather than being able to just point to a rule or getting the OK from your instructor, it's obviously a contentious question. You might be technically in the right, but what if the examiner has a different opinion about its acceptability for a skills test?

Thirdly, the ultimate aim of the skills test is to prove to an examiner, who probably doesn't really know you, that you're a safe pair of hands to trust with an aircraft and passengers' lives. Turning up with what might be viewed as a Mickey Mouse, home-brewed navigation method just screams bad airmanship and will immediately sow seeds of doubt in their mind. Why would you start off your skills test by risking putting someone's back up? You're just making it 10 times harder to pass.
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