Originally Posted by
KRviator
Without wanting to sound like a smartasre, could you explain why you feel this way?
I think it comes down to ensuring that pilots have the confidence to know they can cope when things go wrong.
By handing more and more of the pilot load over to automated systems we make flying easier and more convenient and free up our mental horsepower to deal with decision making which is good.
However if the pilot does not have fallback understandings and training they are at a disadvantage when the technology doesn't operate as it should.
Originally Posted by
KRviator
I am on the opposite end of the spectrum, and consider things like the whiz-wheel and paper charts a legacy-style of navigation that doesn't really have a place in the modern cockpit. Can I use them? Certainly. Could I use them if all that fancy tech goes dark Certainly.
which says to me you have a good understanding of the underpinning knowledge of navigation and management of an aircraft in flight that you were taught and is a good backstop when things go wrong.
Originally Posted by
KRviator
Do I? Not at all.
which is fine by me. You make a decision based on your equipment, training and experience. Pilot judgement is needed not prescription. So long as it is based on good foundations.
Originally Posted by
KRviator
The use of a sextant and tables are long gone, because technology overtook them, the same can be said of paper charts and DR-style navigation.
If a pilot pulled out a sextant to navigate on a proficiency check I would both be *very* impressed and would also take the sextant off them saying it just dropped on the floor and was now broken...
DR is not a technology. It is a process and in its most basic form relies on the simplest of technology - some paper, your eyes, brain and fingers. In a pinch you don't need a pencil and you certainly don't need a whizzwheel or protractor or ruler, just a chart. Charts are not infallible and can tear, get blown away or go missing but the failure modes and rates of a paper chart are low.
If you have accurate systems that constantly give you positive fixes and give command indications to direct you in the flight that is great. Providing you understand why they do what they do, that you can determine if there may be an issue with that technology and are not so totally reliant on it to the point that should it fail you will be left in a nasty situation.
Originally Posted by
KRviator
But I feel too many people worry about the sky falling if you lose GPS reception. The chance of that happening on multiple devices simultaneously is extremely remote.
If the equipment is certified their reliability is high and if it has appropriate backup systems I would agree.
If it is handhold consumer grade devices bought at your local electronics shop I am not so much worried about the GPS signal as about the reliability and durability of the device.
On a recent remote flight I have had a tablet simply shut down and then refuse to properly boot. Due to my own stupidity I had a mobile phone drop in the cockpit recently and crack the screen. They are not designed to be that resilient. They are designed to be cheap and need replacing on a short cycle as consumer items.
Is this scenario too far fetched? I would say no.
A pilot is heading back from Goulburn to Bankstown in the afternoon and she has an EFB and uses her phone as a back up. She is conscientous and safety minded so everything is downloaded on both, both fully charged and she also carries a spare 'brick battery' and cable because she is prudent and knows from experience sometimes batteries on these things go downhill suddenly.
She has done this flight many times and is now familiar with the area. In fact she is finding she barely even looks at the devices these days because she knows the route and land layout so well. Basically you can almost just follow the highway. Easy peasy.
Forecast is not great with some low cloud but still quite legal and looking north seems OK.
Heavy showers of rain and worsening wx are predicted to move up from the south after the pilot's planned flight so she doesn't want to hang around or she will be stuck in Goulburn overnight and she needs to get to work tomorrow.
She has done it in worse looking weather without pushing VFR conditions so is not overly concerned providing she gets away on time.
Then just prior to departing, while refueling, her phone drops out of her pocket and smashes the screen
Bugga. Need to get that fixed in Sydney. She has her EFB on the yoke and knows the route well and needs to keep moving or will risk nasty weather (in which case it means missing work tomorrow).
Not long after departing Goulburn heavy rain and mist behind her appears making return to Goulburn a no go. She was not expecting that so soon but it is behind her so still good.
Then in front the weather deteriorates. Heavy showers directly in front like a black wall. The Hume Highway just disappears into clag a few miles in front.
To the east the cloud base is dropping and vis reducing in rain. The west looks fairly OK though base is lowering but she can still see blue sky under the cloud near the horizon. The pilot sensibly decides to head that way and bites the bullet - she will try Crookwell and either stop there or see what the weather does. Looks like she will have to call work tonight and cancel the meetings she was chairing
Oh well. Better to to be prudent than push her luck in the clag.
She finds Crookwell on the EFB and hits 'go direct'. At which point the screen freezes with the dialog box right over the bits of the map that she wants to see. She tries rebooting. That doesn't work. Now just a black screen with a funny spinning wheel icon. She realises she has had her head down in the cockpit for a minute or two trying to get the EFB to work. She has lost sight of the highway. Still looks reasonably OK to the west but she doesn't recognise what she is seeing on the ground anymore so not 100% sure exactly where she is. She has no chart. No phone, no EFB, no instrument rating, no GPS and no radio nav aids.
She aims in a rough direction that looks clear hoping to find Crookwell and this is no longer a pleasant situation.
She makes a radio call and eventually with assistance and is guided to a safe haven where she spends the night and decides to give flying away and feels scared, embarrassed and that she is useless.
Or she pulls a coffee stained old WAC chart out of the seat pocket, makes an estimate of her last location, estimates a track to Crookwell and time estimate, works out when she sees a distinctive shaped dam she is slightly left of track and calculates a heading and revised estimate for Crookwell, revises her sar time, lands and spends a fun night at the Criterion Hotel feeling confident in her ability, proud of herself but also wiser and grateful she had crusty old farts who forced her to do her nav training using antiquated techniques that modern technology has overatken and made redundant.
Or she panics and all bets are off as the outcome...
Nothing wrong with EFBs providing people have a sound background in DR techniques. I use one. I also have a WAC(or two) or VNC on my knee. I still have the plastic folder and bit of string I used when flying with charts in an open cockpit.