some navigation questions
Well I am waiting for good weather to take my 11th lesson. Pretty much from now until solo I will be doing this lesson...basically pattern work. Things have gone quite well so far with the exception of almost landing on top of another aircraft that snuck in underneath us from a LONG final without making any radio calls. Neither me nor my CFI picked him up after both dutiful visual scans and a look at the traffic scope. I really hope that doesn't happen again!
Anyway, with all this rain I have been studying cross country navigation. I have some questions on the topic that I was hoping the forum could possibly help me with:
1. Charts. When planning a cross country, it is necessary to draw nice thick black lines on them to show the route. The charts aren't exactly cheap. How do pilots usually handle this? Meaning, is a special pen or lamination or something used so that the course can be erased after the trip is complete...so that the chart does not become full of confusing intersecting lines all over the place? Sorry if this is a very dull and boring question.
2. Same question on the E6-B wind side. It's necessary to draw a line and a point on the face of the wind computer...over time it will just fill up with lines.
3. VFR training videos in my King School's Cessna program all show the King's flying over western terrain with *very* obvious landmarks...lakes, rivers, mountains, towns in the middle of nowhere, etc. Where I live, it's all suburban. Everywhere you look are houses, more houses, towns, and more towns. The landmarks are not NEARLY as obvious as they are in the King videos and quite honestly they really make it look a lot easier than it really is in an area like mine where finding a landmark is sometimes like finding a needle in a bucket of needles. Does anybody else fly over what you consider somewhat difficult VFR territory?
4. GPS or not...I understand that I MUST learn to navigate by pilotage, both for safety reasons in the case of equipment failure and for my check-ride, and because it's just fun (when you can find your landmark!). However, it's not 1950. We HAVE the technology to never get lost. Should I always take a GPS with me, even during training, to avoid getting lost? I guess I would feel really silly getting lost because my GPS is sitting in my truck. Anyone feel the same way? Obviously the GPS can fail, but it's guaranteed to fail if left on the ground.
5. Autopilot coupled to GPS...a question I've wondered for a while. When aircraft are flying a GPS course and there is a decent crosswind, is the flying actually inefficient compared to simply flying a heading? OK what I mean here is that the GPS does not know that there is any wind. Say you are flying coupled to GPS on a heading of 270 magnetic. The wind is out of 360 magnetic at 20 knots. The GPS is going to fly a unit of distance, let's say 200 feet, then check where it is again (I am making up these numbers). GPS says OK, we're too far south, bank right a bit. 200 feet further, OK we're on course, roll out. 200 more feet, we're south again, bank right...on and on and on.
If one was hand flying, or had the AP set on a heading, say 280 magnetic which would take care of that wind (it's probably not actually 280, just an example) the aircraft is always "clean", meaning there are not constantly aileron's dropping or rising into the relative wind. Would this not be more efficient flying?
I know, a lot of questions. Hopefully this thread will help not only me but others as well. Thanks for reading.
And Guppy, I am fully expecting your expertise here, don't let me down!