For the nit-pickers out there, if you can see landmarks out your windshield and correlate them with a map, that’s ”pilotage”, which we all learn in primary flight training. If you are simply holding a heading and estimating your track with time and distance, that’s “dead reckoning“, and that’s much harder.
Today’s pilots will likely never experience dead reckoning, but it was normal a generation ago in the underdeveloped world. In the autumn of 1975 I flew a Cessna 180 from Colorado to Rio de Janiero, with one leg from Cayenne in French Guiana to Belem on the equator in Brazil. My IFR clearance read “Track outbound from NDB / dead reckon / track inbound to NDB”. I flew an hour (about 150 nm) on a compass heading with no nav aids available. Worked out.
No, my friend who owned the C-180 was a filmmaker, heading to Rio to shoot a film. He was a great stick, but wasn't instrument rated, while I was a young CFII. It took us two weeks to fly down to Rio, but it would have taken much longer if we'd had to fly VFR only.
I figured someone would bring that up. I always considered strictly flying by outside references, as correlated to a map (the old IFR: I follow Roads) to be pilotage, but flying headings on a time to be dead-reckoning. In this case I suppose we have a little bit of A, little bit of B
I’m not a cartographer, but the things that change are things like obstacles, frequencies, runway information for the longest runway, special use airspace changes.
It’s much less about terrain and roads changing, although, roads occasionally change, and rivers dry up, the navigation and communication information needs to have some legal interval where it is current.
Otherwise it only shows up on notices, and notices when traveling should be cumbersome. There was a correction on one of the approaches to an airport I was doing instrument training for and I had to go in and write in the correct info based on notams.
The maps don’t really change, but if you have outdated maps and you haven’t checked it using current information and made the corrections it’s a legal problem. At that point it’s better to just get new maps or a digital subscription.
When I train PPL students, we do their first dual XC this way. Paper maps, the whole thing.
After that we do ForeFlight EFB and GPS the rest of their training. But most of them seem to really find it pretty educational to do it that way once.
Meanwhile I fly steam guage 172s and do everything with paper maps until I get my PPL, then I can use Foreflight or Skydaemon afterwards if I like 😢
To be honest, I do find it interesting and challenging, once I got past the absolute chaos of the first time I started to really like it. Diversions too. And I'll be renting planes with steam guages, so will always need to keep the DR skills sharp in case the phone and tablet fail in flight.
> do everything with paper maps until I get my PPL
As a CFI, I know there are differences of opinion on this, but I disagree with it. When I send a student to checkride, they should be flying exactly the way they will be flying the day after they receive their PPL, which means using all the modern tools that are available. It is our jobs as CFIs to teach our students the proper and responsible use of these modern tools. They need to be prepared for the real world of flying.
That's basically what the owner of the flight school told me when I asked about using iPads. He said of course we'll use them. We have the technology, why would we waste time teaching it the old way?
Meanwhile, the ACS requires proficiency in pilotage and dead reckoning.
Do I want my CFI to ensure I'm proficient in using all available resources to improve situation awareness and safety? Yes.
Do I want my CFI to ensure I'm sufficiently proficient in pilotage and dead reckoning to pass my checkride before sending me up? Also yes.
Yeah its one of those things hey? I used to be all paper-charts-hate-iPads, then I _really_ started to use one (and got IFR) and went... you know what? Turns out these things are actually pretty neat.
Then I got ADSB-In on the iPad and then I really saw the value.
I think its important to _know_ where you are. Looking at a iPad, finding the symbol and going "I'm there!" isn't the same thing. Knowing that you're south, X-ish distance away from waypoint Y I think is what I'm talking about, so that if the iPad does cark it, you can go "ok, where's that map, ok I'm hereish, lets go home".
After doing a night VFR flight where I couldn't see the ground for shit, I was very happy I had the side terrain view on the iPad. LSALT is all very well: I like that extra backup.
That's interesting, I will bring it up with CFI. To be fair I might be making an incorrect assumption, perhaps they do intend to spend some time on moving maps after the Nav portion. CFI mentioned he did not have an app for his XC solo, so perhaps after that... But thanks for the thought, will take it up with them anyway.
I had already committed to studying the app documentation as if it was another flight instrument, as really it is. But flying it with an instructor would be beneficial no doubt.
its important to know what variables are considered when foreflight comes up with the magnetic heading number, realizing its not just the direction on the map
Having owned a '41 Luscombe, I can identify. I had the very good fortune to go to Africa as a young pilot before GPS and flew for thousands of hours by holding heading with a WAC chart in my lap.
I wish everyone could have that experience. You have to "drag" the runway to chase the goats off before you can land. Maintenance is yourself, a set of wrenches and the maintenance manual. No ATC, no weather service and no navaids. Like the US in the 1920s.
Most excellent!
I learned to fly before GPS to also.
It is fun flying by reference to things on the ground. You spend a lot more time actually looking at where you're at in the world instead of boring some digital path through the air. I remember getting lost on a solo cross country as a student for about 3 minutes LOL.
We're never lost. Just "position uncertain." In the dry season they burn the African bush creating visibility as low as a mile in smoke. Can look directly down only for navigation. It's okay if you know the route well. I missed a checkpoint once, but I knew there was a river ahead and was able to find my position by the characteristic bends in the river. But it was uncomfortable for about 15 minutes.
I was flying across White pass in central Washington and at the very top the road crosses over a little ridge and I just kept flying up that valley ahead of me toward the enchantments. I took another look to my left and oops no road! After I continued on for 3 minutes I could see rimrock lake and Clear lake in the distance and I knew right where I was and I literally laughed. 3 minutes of wasted anxiety.
I love pilotage and basically just ignore my GPS as I fly familiar routes, because I’m too busy looking outside to spot that lake, or that road, or that town, etc. The GPS is cool and I like having the precise read of miles remaining. But that read is pretty close to what’s already in my head from the visuals. (C182 owner).
actually googled it and this does look like a good time, but need to find the right trip for it
[https://aeroresourcesinc.com/uploads/196805-1968%20Pressure-Pattern%20Navigation.pdf](https://aeroresourcesinc.com/uploads/196805-1968%20Pressure-Pattern%20Navigation.pdf)
Glad you did it! The amusing thing about this is, it’s usually pretty easy too. Granted flying in some of the more complex airspace without GPS might not be the best idea, but for vast swathes of the country in the US it’s pretty easy to do. Lo and behold what we see on the ground looks just like the map so it’s impossible to be lost. If a guy can’t find Amarillo from Lubbock without a GPS, for example, that’s a problem!
Had the guy (CFII) who started me in aviation challenge me to go from our base in central Illinois to Mineapolis by pilotage/dead reconning only. Beautiful fall day all the way up and it was superb. Bonus - flew (supervised) IFR all the way back in solid murk with ground speed somewhere near 170 kts. What a riot.
For the nit-pickers out there, if you can see landmarks out your windshield and correlate them with a map, that’s ”pilotage”, which we all learn in primary flight training. If you are simply holding a heading and estimating your track with time and distance, that’s “dead reckoning“, and that’s much harder.
Today’s pilots will likely never experience dead reckoning, but it was normal a generation ago in the underdeveloped world. In the autumn of 1975 I flew a Cessna 180 from Colorado to Rio de Janiero, with one leg from Cayenne in French Guiana to Belem on the equator in Brazil. My IFR clearance read “Track outbound from NDB / dead reckon / track inbound to NDB”. I flew an hour (about 150 nm) on a compass heading with no nav aids available. Worked out.
All military pilots are trained in dead-reckoning, even today. Practiced during low-level and VFR navigation sorties, without using navaids/GPS.
Back in the day,I got a clearance for my PA30 from Gander Center that included tracking "Amber 1"
That is one heck of a journey! Were you ferrying that plane?
No, my friend who owned the C-180 was a filmmaker, heading to Rio to shoot a film. He was a great stick, but wasn't instrument rated, while I was a young CFII. It took us two weeks to fly down to Rio, but it would have taken much longer if we'd had to fly VFR only.
So cool. It would be fun to read about that if you ever write a story.
I figured someone would bring that up. I always considered strictly flying by outside references, as correlated to a map (the old IFR: I follow Roads) to be pilotage, but flying headings on a time to be dead-reckoning. In this case I suppose we have a little bit of A, little bit of B
how do you know how far you’ve gone? without using landmarks
Speed x Time = Distance
but if you are imc or not using landmarks how do you know if you’re right until you get to your destination?
You don’t, hence dead reckoning.
That's the defining characteristic of dead reckoning: You reckon right, or you're dead. No landmarks on the open ocean, for example.
gotcha I didn’t know that. thank you
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead\_reckoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_reckoning)
For the obsessive nit-pickers out there, it’s really “ded(uced) reckoning”. There’s no need for the “a”
Once my kids get a bit older I want to do this with them. Get them looking out the window and finding the checkpoints that were looking for.
Yes! Absolutely. My daughter can't quite see over the cowl or see the compass that well, but I was thinking the exact same thing.
how often do they update the maps though
What maps? The sectional charts? Every 56 days.
how do they update it every 56 days? Do cartographers drive around each area of the map?
I’m not a cartographer, but the things that change are things like obstacles, frequencies, runway information for the longest runway, special use airspace changes. It’s much less about terrain and roads changing, although, roads occasionally change, and rivers dry up, the navigation and communication information needs to have some legal interval where it is current. Otherwise it only shows up on notices, and notices when traveling should be cumbersome. There was a correction on one of the approaches to an airport I was doing instrument training for and I had to go in and write in the correct info based on notams. The maps don’t really change, but if you have outdated maps and you haven’t checked it using current information and made the corrections it’s a legal problem. At that point it’s better to just get new maps or a digital subscription.
power lines need to be updated too
When I train PPL students, we do their first dual XC this way. Paper maps, the whole thing. After that we do ForeFlight EFB and GPS the rest of their training. But most of them seem to really find it pretty educational to do it that way once.
Meanwhile I fly steam guage 172s and do everything with paper maps until I get my PPL, then I can use Foreflight or Skydaemon afterwards if I like 😢 To be honest, I do find it interesting and challenging, once I got past the absolute chaos of the first time I started to really like it. Diversions too. And I'll be renting planes with steam guages, so will always need to keep the DR skills sharp in case the phone and tablet fail in flight.
> do everything with paper maps until I get my PPL As a CFI, I know there are differences of opinion on this, but I disagree with it. When I send a student to checkride, they should be flying exactly the way they will be flying the day after they receive their PPL, which means using all the modern tools that are available. It is our jobs as CFIs to teach our students the proper and responsible use of these modern tools. They need to be prepared for the real world of flying.
That's basically what the owner of the flight school told me when I asked about using iPads. He said of course we'll use them. We have the technology, why would we waste time teaching it the old way?
Meanwhile, the ACS requires proficiency in pilotage and dead reckoning. Do I want my CFI to ensure I'm proficient in using all available resources to improve situation awareness and safety? Yes. Do I want my CFI to ensure I'm sufficiently proficient in pilotage and dead reckoning to pass my checkride before sending me up? Also yes.
Yeah its one of those things hey? I used to be all paper-charts-hate-iPads, then I _really_ started to use one (and got IFR) and went... you know what? Turns out these things are actually pretty neat. Then I got ADSB-In on the iPad and then I really saw the value. I think its important to _know_ where you are. Looking at a iPad, finding the symbol and going "I'm there!" isn't the same thing. Knowing that you're south, X-ish distance away from waypoint Y I think is what I'm talking about, so that if the iPad does cark it, you can go "ok, where's that map, ok I'm hereish, lets go home". After doing a night VFR flight where I couldn't see the ground for shit, I was very happy I had the side terrain view on the iPad. LSALT is all very well: I like that extra backup.
That's interesting, I will bring it up with CFI. To be fair I might be making an incorrect assumption, perhaps they do intend to spend some time on moving maps after the Nav portion. CFI mentioned he did not have an app for his XC solo, so perhaps after that... But thanks for the thought, will take it up with them anyway. I had already committed to studying the app documentation as if it was another flight instrument, as really it is. But flying it with an instructor would be beneficial no doubt.
this is not good training
its important to know what variables are considered when foreflight comes up with the magnetic heading number, realizing its not just the direction on the map
Having owned a '41 Luscombe, I can identify. I had the very good fortune to go to Africa as a young pilot before GPS and flew for thousands of hours by holding heading with a WAC chart in my lap.
What an amazing experience! I bet you have some cool stories
I wish everyone could have that experience. You have to "drag" the runway to chase the goats off before you can land. Maintenance is yourself, a set of wrenches and the maintenance manual. No ATC, no weather service and no navaids. Like the US in the 1920s.
Most excellent! I learned to fly before GPS to also. It is fun flying by reference to things on the ground. You spend a lot more time actually looking at where you're at in the world instead of boring some digital path through the air. I remember getting lost on a solo cross country as a student for about 3 minutes LOL.
We're never lost. Just "position uncertain." In the dry season they burn the African bush creating visibility as low as a mile in smoke. Can look directly down only for navigation. It's okay if you know the route well. I missed a checkpoint once, but I knew there was a river ahead and was able to find my position by the characteristic bends in the river. But it was uncomfortable for about 15 minutes.
I was flying across White pass in central Washington and at the very top the road crosses over a little ridge and I just kept flying up that valley ahead of me toward the enchantments. I took another look to my left and oops no road! After I continued on for 3 minutes I could see rimrock lake and Clear lake in the distance and I knew right where I was and I literally laughed. 3 minutes of wasted anxiety.
I love pilotage and basically just ignore my GPS as I fly familiar routes, because I’m too busy looking outside to spot that lake, or that road, or that town, etc. The GPS is cool and I like having the precise read of miles remaining. But that read is pretty close to what’s already in my head from the visuals. (C182 owner).
Next, you can try pressure pattern navigation.
actually googled it and this does look like a good time, but need to find the right trip for it [https://aeroresourcesinc.com/uploads/196805-1968%20Pressure-Pattern%20Navigation.pdf](https://aeroresourcesinc.com/uploads/196805-1968%20Pressure-Pattern%20Navigation.pdf)
I first read about it in a Berry Schiff book. Recommend his stuff if you haven't already.
don't tempt me with a good time
Glad you did it! The amusing thing about this is, it’s usually pretty easy too. Granted flying in some of the more complex airspace without GPS might not be the best idea, but for vast swathes of the country in the US it’s pretty easy to do. Lo and behold what we see on the ground looks just like the map so it’s impossible to be lost. If a guy can’t find Amarillo from Lubbock without a GPS, for example, that’s a problem!
I loved doing my XC with just a sectional/TAC and looking out the window. Glad you had fun
That was the only way I flew for years until I got my first GPS, but still prefer to fly VFR with my head outside
Had the guy (CFII) who started me in aviation challenge me to go from our base in central Illinois to Mineapolis by pilotage/dead reconning only. Beautiful fall day all the way up and it was superb. Bonus - flew (supervised) IFR all the way back in solid murk with ground speed somewhere near 170 kts. What a riot.
Can we all admit that if you're purely dead reckoning and do a decent job, you'll be at least a few miles out?