VFR Nav log or Pilotage

FrankieFlyCRQ

FrankieFlyCRQ

Well-Known Member
Hey my fellow JC'ers quick question for ya,
when flying a short x country VFR, for example like 50 -60nm, would you rather fly by reference of a nav log or pilotage, assuming you are familiar with the area? I know a nav log is more organized flying but if you can avoid all the calculations and are familiar with the area, than why not? I dont know, what do you guys think?
 
Berkut said:
I don't bother with the nav log if I'm familiar with the area.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

If familiar with the area, I will not use a nav log. Once I venture outside of that though a nav log is a must. There is of course the option of going IFR, but a log would still be beneficial.

Even though I a familiar with the route/area I still have my VFR charts out. Especially if you are near any busy airspace. Many of the airports I trained at are under the MSP Class 'B' so it helps to know where that is at all times.
 
if I don't know the area, i honestly just fly VORs, or fly with the chart on the go. makes it more interesting to me.
 
Yea I'm more of a pilotage guy myself. I like to reference to my VFR charts and just make sure all my headings make sense. I'm taking a short hop tomarrow and I will have to either dodge charlie airspace or get cleared through it. By the way, if on flight following and charlie is along your route, will ATC automaticly clear you through the airspace? I would think so but if I dont here the magic words " clear" , than I'll ask them.
 
Short X-C in an area I am familiar with, definitely pilotage, but probably backed up with some sort of NAV. Then again, if I am back home where I grew up and learned to fly, I tend to only fly IFR...I Follow Roads:D ...stop signs and sudden turns get tricky though...
 
Yea I think I'm going to do the same thing. Fly my trip by pilotage and have a skimmpy nav log as a back up. Skimmpy meaning mag headings, freq, check points, and wind info. I wish I had my Instrument rating, I would go IFR everywhere lol! Working on it, should have it by summer 08.
 
FrankiegPilot said:
Yea I'm more of a pilotage guy myself. I like to reference to my VFR charts and just make sure all my headings make sense. I'm taking a short hop tomarrow and I will have to either dodge charlie airspace or get cleared through it. By the way, if on flight following and charlie is along your route, will ATC automaticly clear you through the airspace? I would think so but if I dont here the magic words " clear" , than I'll ask them.
Click to expand...

Remember, you don't need a clearance into class C - just two-way radio communication. If you are recieving flight following, you have two way radio communication.
 
There is something super cool about flying by looking out the window instead of worrying about tracking a VOR or tracking where you are by looking at a piece of paper every two minutes!
 
FrankiegPilot said:
and I will have to either dodge charlie airspace or get cleared through it. By the way, if on flight following and charlie is along your route, will ATC automaticly clear you through the airspace? I would think so but if I dont here the magic words " clear" , than I'll ask them.
Click to expand...
As Ian said, there are no "magic words" for Class C (there are for Class B). All you need is 2-way radio communication and, if you're on flight following, you already have that.
 
FrankiegPilot said:
Hey my fellow JC'ers quick question for ya,
when flying a short x country VFR, for example like 50 -60nm, would you rather fly by reference of a nav log or pilotage, assuming you are familiar with the area? I know a nav log is more organized flying but if you can avoid all the calculations and are familiar with the area, than why not? I dont know, what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

as a teacher, the only substantial reason i can supply is that i am trying to give a student as many tools as possible to get from one place to another which includes:

pilotage
deduced reckoning
vor use
gps use

for a private pilot i want to see that they can just get me somewhere using any means possible and then take that primary means of navigation away from them (if they are gps dependent, turn it off)

that way if one system fails they at least have one other way to get there.

if you are familiar with the area and fuel is not a factor, then just fly me there. if you are cutting fuel short, then a nav log calculation is a must.
 
I don't bother with a nav log unless I am going outside of my comfort area. Every now and then I create one myself for practice, but most often I just get an electronic one from DUATS or FltPlan.com.

If I am headed somewhere familiar, I just get in the plane and go, after checking the weather on the Garmin 396. Usually fly by GPS but ALWAYS have a VFR sectional with me as well, keeping an eye on where I am, should my two GPS's fail.
 
I use the same method, GPS with a sectional on my lap hitting Xs every 15 minutes. This is for terrain I don't know very well. Learned this one the hard way halfway across the country with a complete electrical failure. Bye bye VORs, GPS, etc.

-Jason
 
For my relatively short flying experience I've always used the nav log along with pilotage even on routes I'm familiar with. I mainly do it to keep it fresh in my mind. Plus the geek in me gets excited when I pass a checkpoint at a certain ETE and it's close or right on time. I haven't really flown far enough yet to worry about fuel consumption but it's nice to know that my dead reckoning skills are accurate for the day when I take a long trip. Again I'm new so maybe I'll tire of it but I don't have an of them newfangled gadgets in the planes I fly either.
 
Berkut said:
I don't bother with the nav log if I'm familiar with the area.
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:

My basic qualifications for going without the nav log are:

I know the name of the towns, roads, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc.. that I will be flying over.

For me that makes most of the state of Utah. I know the area and I am comfortable with that.

However going somewhere new I always do all the homework on the flight plan then maintain the Navlog as we go.
 
MidlifeFlyer said:
As Ian said, there are no "magic words" for Class C (there are for Class B). All you need is 2-way radio communication and, if you're on flight following, you already have that.
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Actually there are some "magic words". In order to have 2 way radio communications the AIM (section 3-2-4 Paragraph 3. Note 3) says that, "it is important to understand that if the controller responds to the initial radio call without using the aircraft identification, radio communications have not been established and the pilot may not enter the Class C airspace. "

Also, note 1 from that same section says, "If the controller responds to a radio call with, '(aircraft callsign) standby,' radio communications have been established and the pilot can enter the Class C airspace."

So the magic words that you are listening for is your callsign. If the controller uses that you can enter the Class C. If instead he says, "aircraft calling", or "last calling" or whatever then you haven't yet established 2-way radio communications and you can't enter the Class C yet. The exact same requirement exists for Class D airspace.
 
Midlife flyer was exactly right, though. If you've already got flight following, you've already got 2-way radio communications.
 
I use Jeppesen flightstar for every flight. Click, click, click, print, go. I really do like the program. All of my comm frequencies are on the top and I don't have to fumble with an AFD or sectional to find them.

You can do the same with DUATS or fltplan.com

So I'd recommend both. Use the Nav Log and look out the window too, but you don't need checkpoints 8 miles apart if you're flying 50 miles. Just 1 or 2 should be plenty, if even that. But, the choice is yours...just make sure you know where you're at on the map all the time.

-mini
 
FrankiegPilot said:
I'm taking a short hop tomarrow and I will have to either dodge charlie airspace or get cleared through it.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you are a fairly new private pilot right? Of course there will always be times when an alternate route around, above or below certain airspace will be advisable, however in your case, i'd recommend you fly through as much class C and B airspace as you can...If you are going for a career in aviation, learning about and becoming comfortable in very congested airspace early on is only going to be a plus in your training.

A guy that my old CFI taught out of Bridgeport, never made a flight to the south west until about his 220 hour mark when he needed to ger serious about building his CC time for his commercial rating because he was scared of NY's Class Bravo. sad right?

Once you are comfortable and know what to do, take advantage of as much congested and special airspace as you can. It will make you a better pilot.
 
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