New pilots/owners - allocation of resources
 

I can still remember being a starry eyed new pilot (yes, I can remember 40 year back still). A decade later, I was a new owner. At both times, and many times in between, I was lured by the tech and gadgets, and they were nothing then like they are now! In the midst of this, though not really recognized at the time, I was being well mentored, both on growing my piloting skills and disciplines, and the "stuff" I really did not need.

More recently, as I accept clients for advanced type training, I'm seeing this again. Eager owners lured by "stuff" which is a good deal (like that low cost second nav/comm - low cost 'cause it's a 360 channel mechanical). Yet, these pilots will cringe at the hourly cost of training, which they really should have.

So I recently talked the eager owner out of the 360 nav/comm, buy pointing out that it's asking price would set him back 6 hours of training time. Which would benefit him more? A second nav/comm, which might not work anyway, had low use at the best of times, and was uneeded in a very low airspace VFR only environment (the plane has no TXP). Or, something he would learn during six hours of training. I think he got the point, and declined the offer of the nav/comm. But, I suspect I have not heard the last of this...

New owners/pilots: I flew the first 200 hours in a C150 with one nav/comm, and amazingly a TXP. Otherwise, no intercom, no headsets, no LORAN (I bought one of those later in life), and GPS was unheard of. I did outfit myself with charts, which in the '70's, were $1 each! And I survived flying! So, consider dialing back the tech gadgets (by the way, a quality headset is not a gadget, its a hearing saver, buy one of those!), in favour of investing more in your training, it will save your life faster!

Totally agree.

But watch this thread become a debate about "navigating" by use of gps vs retaining some compass and stopwatch skills.

What's LORAN? (Only kidding, I know really)

I think that it is all fine and dandy to advise new pilots to dial back on the tech gadgets, from a comparatively undemanding airspace environment in Canada; this is less sensible advice when taken in the context of the south-east of England, where the airspace is complex and the consequences of errors are dire. There were recent figures produced by NATS analysing the infringements by GA aircraft around London, which proved that the vast, vast majority were NOT using GPS. If this continues, we can look forward to GA being trodden on very hard.

Philosophically, I agree with you - racking up my first 300 hrs without GPS did me good as a pilot, but there are places to do this and places not to.

Oh, c'mon!
I don't wanna use my head and think! I want the latest, fanciest gizmo to tell me what to do and where to go! I'm lazy!
Why should I use my brain when a black box can do all the work for me? Pretty pleeeez??

Just kidding (sort of).

Yeah, you see this sort of thing with a lot of homebuilts these days. Glass panels with every bell and whistle, every engine parameter, every imaginable comms and traffic device. Probably got their email and social media connection in there too! :rolleyes:

I like to fly for the clear cut simplicity of the experience, but that's me. It might very well be an age thing.

My new car was delivered without a starting handle. It also has something called SatNav. No sign of the Road Atlas they promised me. Should I complain?

That didn't take long, did it?

You can have the DM version Want to keep your brain in gear? Switch off your satnav | Daily Mail Online
or the Guardian version https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...av-greg-milner

This is not about telling a pilot/owner that they should not buy a GPS if the airspace they fly in warrants it, if you need a tool, for sure, get it and use it well.

But, if your flight is adequately equipped for the flying you typically do, consider investing in more training/recurrent training before you invest a fortune in equipment which is redundant, or simply not needed. Do not claim to be too poor to afford good training, with a cockpit full of stuff you really don't need, nor know how to use well anyway....

Agree with Step….I recently had to do my one hour of dual for my SEP revalidation, so asked the instructor if we could practice various approaches to short landings. Turned out to be the best hour of instruction ever spent, we duly practiced the short field approaches and then he started throwing in all sorts of emergencies, power cuts in awkward places etc. I came down feeling slightly wrung out, but it made me realise the importance of the occasional 'lesson', which frankly is not always a high priority for most share/sole owners. It made me think that I should be doing this more often, perhaps once every three months or so just to stretch and improve my skills, definitely better value than a new 'shiny toy'

Had an Agusta 139 crew who transited from Norwich to Humberside walk in carrying an AA road atlas!!!! After various comments about the company saving money and maintenance being unable to keep the state of the art avionics system serviceable the crew admitted that they carried the atlas so that when they flew over something interesting they could work out where it was located.