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As a flight instructor who specializes in Advanced avionics I keep seeing the same bad practice over and over again. Pilots who use GPS direct to as their primary form of navigation. But wait you say, it's the most efficient form of getting there right? Yes as long as you don't fly through that bad weather, the TFR, or the mountain you never knew was there... The main problem with Direct to Navigation is not the tool, but the laziness it builds in. It seems to lead to an entire new attitude of flying. Direct to the plane with no formal planning or weather brief. Direct to the runway with no use of checklists or a real preflight. Direct to the skies without any preparation at all. Let's look at a former private pilot student who came to me after training with another instructor. To finish up his private pilot, I needed to see him do a night cross country flight. I gave him a short flight from our home airport to the PDZ VOR then to HDF VOR and then to the destination airport. He said no problem but, "What's a VOR?" I asked how his previous instructor had done the XC flights. He said the instructor gave him a handheld GPS and said no one ever uses a VOR anymore just go, you guessed it, DIRECT TO! This student, like many, was always in a rush to finish his training and this idea worked great for him. It's not just students, I work with a lot of pilots who own high performance aircraft with advanced avionics. A big percentage of pilots, who install the best avionics they can buy, have no idea how to use it beyond direct to. They are perfectly happy to spend $10,000-50,000 on a new GPS but never hire a pro to teach them how to use it. How about the owner's manual you say? Want to take a guess how many I've found still sealed in plastic? Now I want to be clear on three things. First, as a professional turbine pilot I use direct to and love it, but I always have a formal flight plan and complete weather brief hours before I go. Secondly, the capabilities of the new Garmin and other products are amazing and absolutely make you safer. Everyone who can, should use them. Third and most importantly, the pilots who buy these products are buying them to be safer. The third thing is, if you are willing to buy it you should take the time to get trained in how to make the best use of it. You need to work with an experienced professional pilot who specialized in advanced avionics. A low time instructor or someone with less than 300 hours of time with that specific equipment will not be a good choice for you. Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened to that private pilot student... He's one of my best friends and now owns his own flight school where he loves teaching XC flight planning....
Gary Reeves is an ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI with over 3800 hours with over 2000 hours dual given on advanced avionics, high performance, and turbine aircraft. Please send any comments or questions to him at gary@sunsetflying.com Gary Reeves, ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI --Owner of a flight school Long Beach, CA. - Assistant director & trainer of SoCalBNI. To contact the author visit http://www.SunsetFlying.com
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