You can't be a "freight dawg" if...

[Ian J]

... you hop into your Chieftain for the night only to find a Garmin 430 with TCAS (or whatever the official term is for it), a radar altimeter, and a digital transponder.

I was shocked. First one I've flown like that at my company.

And, the autopilot worked like a dream. How am I supposed to convince anyone how "hard' we have it?

[jtrain609]

Just as I was leaving Amflight I was out doing test flights in our first plane with a GNS430 in it. It had terrain awareness (which was the real reason we went after the 430's) and we were trying to figure out how we were going to get the FAA to certify the things under our ops specs. The ones with the latest software could do some amazing things, like GPS approaches with a glide slope down to Cat I mins.

I think I'd still generally take a GNS 430 over the FMS we've got in the plane now for navigation purposes. If the box didn't do much other crap like calculating weights, etc., I'd say it was pretty rudimentary at best.

[Ian J]

Yeah, it had the terrain thing to. I couldn't get the traffic part to shut up when I landed though. It kept screaming "TRAFFIC NOT AVAILABLE!" over and over.

[jtrain609]

yeah it's kind of annoying. Anytime you drop below radar coverage it will do that, because it gets the traffic information from the local approach control facility.

[Boris Badenov]

A couple of our moos have 430s in them. They're pretty neat looking, but the tradeoff seems to be if it has a GPS, the Autopilot doesn't work very well. Or at all. After flying one for a week, I figured out how to select "Direct to MDW". I was pretty proud of myself. But what the hell is the difference between TRK and DTRK? And BRG? These newfangled gadgets. *Pitooie*

And what is this "FMS" and "TCAS" of which you speak? Sounds like black magic to me. Burn them!

Speaking of irritating things you hear over and over again, how about the same controller clearing you direct to the same intersection your slant alpha ass has been telling them you can't go direct to night after night, time after time?

[WalterSobchak]

Originally Posted by Ian J

... you hop into your Chieftain for the night only to find a Garmin 430 with TCAS (or whatever the official term is for it), a radar altimeter, and a digital transponder.

I was shocked. First one I've flown like that at my company.

And, the autopilot worked like a dream. How am I supposed to convince anyone how "hard' we have it?

LOL Thats why I flew the Caravan the last 2 years Auto pilot, Radar, Bleed Air for heat......I'll take a plane that sucks in ice before being cold.

[JayAre]

If......... you show at 5am fly an outnback and off by 11am.


John I heard AMF should be approved for GPS by this weekend. Not having GPS has caused to many "service failures" when the FX caravan gets in and we don't. When that happens we should be getting a metro and two 99's with it.

Its always fun burning the UPS driver after they chew your arse out because FX got in but you didn't.

[jtrain609]

But then you've gotta think, how are they going to get everybody check out with the things?

When I was still at the crystal palace and working on this one with MP, the FAA was going to want a checkride to prove proficiency on the GPS units. Maybe that has changed, but that was the situation about a year ago as I remember it.

[ChristheCFII]

So you freight dawgs have 430s now, eh? The traffic on that, the G530, G100, etc is TIS: "Traffic Information System". It's not quite TCAS, but it helps a lot in busy airspace.

TRK and DTRK: Couldn't tell if you were joking or not (I can be pretty thick) but TRK is your ground track and DTRK is your desired track. When flying from Waypoint A to B, match your TRK to your DTRK and you'll stay right on that nifty pink line.

These fun little boxes will make your IFR skills go soft in no time. Enjoy!

[ackeight]

Originally Posted by Ian J

... you hop into your Chieftain for the night only to find a Garmin 430 with TCAS (or whatever the official term is for it), a radar altimeter, and a digital transponder.

I was shocked. First one I've flown like that at my company.

And, the autopilot worked like a dream. How am I supposed to convince anyone how "hard' we have it?

After that 50 HR recurrent AD I thought these things would be worthless shortly. Now they are putting $40K of avionics in them. They should put those in the Lears....

[minitour]

Love Handles?

I did my transition in that plane (if that's the one), it has the panther conversion too...t'was a pretty nice airplane. Everything worked but no Gross increase.

With the new AD, I have a feeling the hoe's may go bye-bye.

Back to your topic...let's see.

If...the boots on your caravan actually shed the ice this time.

-mini

[JayAre]

There was a Salmon pilot who's GPS quit on him last summer. Couldn't figure out where he was and called center for directions. Guess he slept through VOR, Dead Reck, and Pilotage during training.

[surreal1221]

The 430/530's are one heck of a GPS system.

[minitour]

Originally Posted by JayAre

There was a Salmon pilot who's GPS quit on him last summer. Couldn't figure out where he was and called center for directions. Guess he slept through VOR, Dead Reck, and Pilotage during training.

Kudos to him for admitting that he was lost. By far a more professional move than not saying anything and running into a mountain or out of gas looking for a place to land.

Nothing wrong with saying "hey Center, the GPS just quit so we're /A(U) now. How about a vector direct?"

-mini

[Queboat]

no moving map here in these lovely falcon 20 cargo birds i'm in. guess there are still a few (freightdogs) out here.

[JayAre]

Originally Posted by minitour

Kudos to him for admitting that he was lost. By far a more professional move than not saying anything and running into a mountain or out of gas looking for a place to land.

Nothing wrong with saying "hey Center, the GPS just quit so we're /A(U) now. How about a vector direct?"

-mini

Maybe I need to make it more clear. Day VFR with flight following. And being a 135 IFR captian should have better sit/aware, and knowing how to tune, identify, cross check radials and read a VFR sect.

[minitour]

Originally Posted by JayAre

Maybe I need to make it more clear. Day VFR with flight following. And being a 135 IFR captian should have better sit/aware, and knowing how to tune, identify, cross check radials and read a VFR sect.

The professional thing to do if you don't know where you are, don't understand an instruction or clearance or can't figure out what the needles are telling you is........................ ask. I've done it when I wasn't 100% sure. "Hey center...you showing me over ___ intersection?" "Uh...yeah." "Just checking..."

Remember the 5 C's? They apply in all of aviation, not just a 172 during private pilot training...
Climb, Conserve, Communicate, Confess, Comply

-mini

[mikecweb]

We got three or so lears with moving maps.
Two with 430s.
All 28 are /W.

[mninstructor]

Entire airnet fleet is supposed to have 430/400's in them before 09. Recurrent now includeds a slide show on the garmin and how to use it.

Highly doubt the 50 hour ad is going to change anything on the cheiftan though. It takes very little time to do. Only a few minutes I'm told. Its a slight hassel but they could even do the ad during the city meet or other short stay in maintenance base.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by mninstructor

Recurrent now includes a slide show on the garmin and how to use it.

That's good to know.

I really hate the Trimble GPS, and will often not really use it in aircraft with them. Finding the GPS/NAV button is pretty simple.

When I got into the 430 aircraft though, I was really happy I was familiar with the unit. There is no NAV/GPS button, and you have to know enough to press the CDI button if you want to use your NAVs. For people who don't know how do use it, it could make for a pretty dangerous situation f you are trying to do an ILS in LIFR and can't figure out how to make the HSI receive the NAV radio.

[mikecweb]

I'm all for getting 400s in the Lears, however it will need to be placed in the pedestal and that is something I dislike. Not having any track information infront of you is a pain. Looking down on a GPS approach is not something I'm looking forward to.

[Ian J]

Think we'll get approved for GPS approaches?

[BajtheJino]

Originally Posted by Ian J

Think we'll get approved for GPS approaches?

I'd be curious about that too (not that I work with the same company). Most people don't opt for that as it's too much training and too much paper work.

[Ian J]

True - and doesn't the training have to be done on the specific GPS system? If the fleet is standardized, that's one thing. But when you have 4 different models, that could be a huge pain.

[N8389P]

Whats the AD on the 31s