Quote:


That's probably the best use of A/P I can imagine..  As much as I agree with Rotty, in that a student shouldn't know that things like A/Ps and GPSs are even in a cockpit.. the inexperienced pilot, on his first, solo cross-country, can get overwhelmed if things go wrong. I think the give/take here favors not getting utterly lost.. or straying into busy airspace while trying to get get a VOR/NBD fix (unless you're using flight following (which can sometimes be less reliable than old A/P when you keep getting dropped..  You can spend 1/2 of your 50nm leg switching frequencies and transponder codes if the ATC guys are too busy (and they normally are when you ask for FF to an airport that near you)))

GPSs are another mixed blessing. As far as finding your way from point A to boint B.. I still prefer VOR to VOR, because that's how I trained and I'm comfy with it. And chances are, any pilot you encounter twixt VORs will be at the proper altitude. I've noticed that pilots who get off the ground and immediately punch their destination into a GPS, are the same pilots who will go buzzing along VFR, at an IFR (or the wrong VFR) altitude.  But, as far as avoiding airspace, man do they come in handy.

As an instructor; if I had to see a student use either of these tools; it'd be an auto/pilot. If I had to take a long flight and had to choose twixt the two.. I'd leave the GPS on the ground.

First time you have to fly 1,000nm or more, alone.. and for good chunks of that trip, find yourself VFR on top, without a GPS...  trust me.. You'll love VOR to VOR navigation (and the auto-pilot)...

If you've got VOR navigating down pat; and can fly a hold that's referenced by the intersection of two radials.. then you're 1/2-way through the skills you'll need to be a good instrument pilot. Makes me excited to here that stuff.

As for VOR to VOR.. nine times out of ten, you're on one radial until you intersect another and so on.. Rarely flying to a VOR and then away from it... unless they line up nicely..

Straight-line navigation, for distances in the hundreds of miles, at cruising altitude, over unfamiliar territory, is very VERY tough when you're just referencing radials at certain points, with a sectional in one hand and the yoke in the other (enter A/P)..  It can be done for the shorter trips that student would be taking when legs rarely exceed 100nm and you really can't stray too far off course anyway.

Throw in some clouds between you and the ground (man is THAT something to see) and, sans GPS, there's really no other way to accurately navigate hundreds of miles, VFR.

Quote:

Estimating my GS has never come up in my training.  If my ATEs are shorter than my ETEs, than I'm going faster, etc.  It's all I've ever needed to know.  Suppose I could whip out the whiz wheel...