SFI145
The fact that you haven't heard the word departure discussed on your flight deck does not mean to say that it is not discussed elsewhere. Amongst other such obscure subjects, it's been a lively discussion in many crewrooms I have been in.
I have used those types of calculations for a major proportion of my professional flying career (over 35 years) - first of all during four years of aerial survey, then roaming all over Canada where there is no real use for a GPS (a good map reader will often outperform one). Working it out mentally saves a lot of time and trouble - if you know the cosine of your latitude (Edmonton is around 54 degs) and you have to move a certain distance E/W, you can give a quick ETA and do some rudimentary flight planning on the fly without taking your hands off the controls.
Departure is a word that refers to a distance in nautical miles in places other than the Equator, where it is referred to as ch long. More technically, it is the distance made good in an E-W direction along a rhumb line. It suits the above scenario perfectly.
I don't much care what the FAA syllabus demands - they are not the arbiters of what is and is not useful to a pilot. I have licences from several countries and they all have good ideas that could be adopted elsewhere.
And what has this discussion to do with CRM? We are talking about the technical nuts and bolts of the professional flying of an aircraft. CRM is good management of resources - as departure etc is one available to me, I will use it.
Speaking as a CRMI, and a person who is equally well qualified in the computer industry, over reliance on technology without learning the basics is asking for trouble, as taught in all the HF syllabuses I know (the JAA have many questions on the handling of automation). Unless you know the theory behind what these machines are doing, you will come unstuck one day if you don't keep an eye on them.
We don't need astral nav these days, but we certainly shouldn't be flying without the elementary tools of our trade.
Last edited by paco; 17th Dec 2011 at 18:37.