Tomas Vykruta Data Daily

I want to understand thunderstorms better. I stared learning about limitations of storm scopes which led me to more insights. Before  you attempt to fly close to, or through a front, learn about your front. Some fronts you can safely fly through, some you cannot. Thunder cheat sheet Preflight Tools Radar - locate active fronts, size, and direction of movement Sigmets - If your front is in a convective sigmet, you probably cannot fly through it. Airmets you generally can. Lightning - Look at  lightningmaps.org  to see how much "in past hour" and 'current" lightning there is. If there are no strikes or few strikes, even if you see heavy or severe precip, it's just lots of water, not much turbulence, likely not a powerful storm. Infrared Satellite  -  wunderground.com  see how cold the reflection is. If temperature is -70, it's a very vertical storm, probably cannot fly through it. NOAA soundings - http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/  to le...

I brief the approach in the order I will fly it. First the “check and forget” items Avionics setup Next I highlight important bits on the plate Next look at the step-down fixes Study final segment and runway “sight picture”, determine VDP Review airplane configurations needed One-time verify and forget (2 items) Verify Plate accuracy (airport, runway, published date) Verify minimums and notes (can you even fly it?) Avionics Setup (instrument panel flow clockwise) Correct altimeter settings on all altimeters Check all Garmin waypoints agree with plate Tower frequency & navaid frequency Approach course Set Highlight high alert items on plate (foreflight has highlighter built in) (4 items) Final approach course on plate MAP on diagram First segment of Missed Approach procedure (ie: climbing right to 3000') MDA/DH of category (B for SR22) *Localizer / navaid frequency on plate (*ILS ONLY) Brief the flight i...

I believe non-precision approaches are the most difficult and dangerous segment of a flight, especially at night to an untowered airport with a short runway.  I will talk about A/P (autopilot) coupled approaches only here, we already know how to hand fly them.   For example look at   KHTO RNAV 10 . The final segment is just 2.4nm from threshold and starts 805' agl. If weather is to minimums as is frequent (evening ocean haze) you must dive aggressively at LAZYE to the MDA or you quickly find yourself looking straight down at runway lights, still 500' agl. Hand-flying vs autopilot coupled non-precision approaches I believe autopilot coupled approaches are more difficult than hand flown approaches because you should not start using automation until you've mastered hand flying. For this reason, they are also more professional and safer if done correctly . And for the same reason, they can be extremely dangerous if used by inexperienced pilot as a crutch . Only use a...