Creamie
.....you are not the FTDK's wife in the back seat are you?
Actually the tools at your finger tips particularly when looking at in flight diversions or an IFR upgrade or any other aspect certainly take a lot of the chances for error out of the equation.
Sure you can do it all on paper but here is how I saw it work in reality, and its pretty good. 296 set to destination, at a button push most info readily available. The 430 set up for a direct or IFR route and coupled to the A/P. The PC which is coupled to the 296 then gives you real time WAC moving map, plus all the Jepp charts and data and real time position on all the Jepp charts too.
So let me be cheeky here, say you wanted the FLIGHTWATCH frequency for where ever you are, click with the stylus pen and there you are. Of course you have to manually dial up the frequency
, but hey you have to have some work to do! Then you can try calling them. OK better still very good when VFR and not in radar coverage because your position is on the ERC charts etc as well.
I did get to watch Forkie do a leg or two IFR and the cockpit workload without all the Jepp stuff all around the cockpit was really very low fuss and high on "situational awareness", contrary to what some of you may be thinking. Should the tech stuff go U/S the Jepp bag was within reach and you could revert to the old paper stuff.
Some of you may slag off at this, but in reality it was a damned fine way to fly as it actually meant you looked out the front and sides a heck of a lot more.
J
