Using the 'printed Skydemon PLOG'...
Tagged this on to the back of a 'Skydemon thread' but didn't get much joy.. More for my own information purposes really.
I flew over to Cambridge last week Tuesday and was carrying my "first passenger". I planned the flight manually using the CRP-5, Wind Corrected and noted it all down on a Pooleys VFR PLOG.
As a precaution I also took out a sub to SkyDemon to run on my Android Phone - only to find that you are able to "plan and print the PLOG" also and use this for your flying. The only time I needed to use SkyDemon was to confirm I was actually overhead Chedburg turning en route to Cambridge.
Having it on my lap gave me the piece of mind that should I not know where I am I can always look at the Sky Demon.
I had my half mil chart with track over the Ground with half way points and drift lines marked.. One thing I noticed when comparing both SD PLOG and my Manual PLOG was that in my Manual planning - I didn't "interpolate" the Wind at 2000ft for each leg according to Lat/Long - and used the 2000ft wind at my home airfield for the whole journey.
I found that the headings from SkyDemon/Wind was different to my "Manual Calculations".. only by +/- 1 to +/- 3 degrees. I still got to Cambridge flying my manual PLOG and then experienced "flying only GPS" for the journey back to base. Again I noticed how my much mental capacity was released to fly the plane - when doing things by GPS only.
However, I would always like to know where I am visually also - by reference to towns/rivers/railways etc.
How "accurate" is the PLOG on SD and if using such navigational tools, should one also do everything manually or just print off the PLOG from SkyDemon?
Also when doing a manual plan - vs - skydemon PLOG - I normally only use the 2000ft wind at my base destination... but SD 'interpolates' the wind across the flying zone.
Should this be done manually also? If so how?
I am just thinking time wise - I could have saved myself the planning time but of course I am trying to do everything the way I was taught manually. Though the arguments by some instructors are also - we teach you to fly manually but wouldn't blame you if you were to fly via using a GPS later due to controlled airspace restrictions.
Ta!
Scoobster