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06-17-2017, 08:03 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Ridgecrest, CA
Posts: 432
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An iPad Gotcha
Three hours into a late afternoon flight from Sullivan, MO (UUV) to Rostraver, PA (FWQ) VFR at 9.5 on autopilot. Perfect weather but with a rapidly developing line of showers ahead (they weren't there when I took off). Descended to 3.5 to get beneath broken clouds. Thought I hit altitude hold with Nav and Track already selected on the AP. Started playing with Foreflight on the iPad kneeboard on my left leg to figure a way around the precip. Foreflight weather was intermittent, so I was heads down way too long. Finally looked around and I was passing through 2.1K in a slight descent. Still 1000 ft. agl, but was surprised and angry that I had lost situation awareness so badly that I was 1500 ft. below where I thought I was.
Lesson learned - our modern gadgets provide amazingly useful information, but getting and interpreting that info always must be secondary to flying the airplane and ALWAYS being aware of where you are.
Certainly an F grade for my pilot performance. And for those of you reading this who may be thinking new guy mistake - I've been flying accident-free since 1964 with over 8,000 hours, 870 in my RV-8A. Might as well try to learn from the mistakes of others - you can't live long enough to survive them all first hand.
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06-17-2017, 08:14 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Omaha, NE (KMLE)
Posts: 2,247
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Thanks for sharing that. As a guy close to the other end of the flight experience spectrum (five years, under 200 hours) it just re-affirms the lessons drummed into me by flight instructors and a couple of mistakes of my own. It certainly removes the temptation to think, "Well, I'd never do something like that".
__________________
Dale
Omaha, NE
RV-12 # 222 N980KM "Screamin' Canary" (bought flying)
Fisher Celebrity (under construction)
Previous RV-7 project (sold)
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06-17-2017, 12:45 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Stuart, FL /Hartford, CT/Virgin Gorda,BVI
Posts: 3,122
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sounds like a case of electro hypnosis.  
__________________
TURBO YES =VAF= Payed Jan2019
Ed D'Arcy
RV6-A 5,200+ hrs, R-44 1,600 hrs, Helicycle 320 hrs, gyro sold,35,000 miles flown in 2015 
Stuart, Fl / S WINDSOR,Ct / Virgin Gorda, BVI - under major repair from hurricane damage
VAF #840 EAA AOPA FAC FABA QB SPA
addicted pickle ball player
https://i.postimg.cc/tn3h4svg/IMG-3101.jpg
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06-17-2017, 03:48 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Utah
Posts: 8,151
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pvalovich
...
Lesson learned - our modern gadgets provide amazingly useful information, but getting and interpreting that info always must be secondary to flying the airplane and ALWAYS being aware of where you are.
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Good post thanks for reminding. iPad is my primary EFB and sometimes I do stare at it longer then I should.
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06-17-2017, 11:47 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: New York City
Posts: 223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vlad
Good post thanks for reminding. iPad is my primary EFB and sometimes I do stare at it longer then I should.
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Vlad , Do you remember that day over The Gulf of Maine, when we tried to cross over to Nova Scotia ?
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06-18-2017, 04:33 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Utah
Posts: 8,151
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sibirsky
Vlad , Do you remember that day over The Gulf of Maine, when we tried to cross over to Nova Scotia ?
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I do remember that May 27th. Surely not the day to brag about. 
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06-18-2017, 08:16 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 615
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We can all learn from others experiences, good & bad. With nearly 40 yrs of driving planes I still fly first, then navigate & communicate, was drummed in to me all those years ago .What I do now re an electronic device like an iPad is include it in my scan & like all other instruments I never fixate on just one.
That's a good story, a valuable lesson learned am sure 
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06-18-2017, 10:42 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 16
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A good reminder for all of us! Thank you for sharing!
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06-19-2017, 01:17 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: SF East Bay
Posts: 852
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Work flying rule is one guy does the box or whatever, the other guy's only job is to fly the airplane. That becomes a bit harder single pilot as you learned. I have a personal rule when flying single pilot that when I am inside fiddling with electronics that I need to look up every ten seconds or so. Doesn't sound like very long but count off ten seconds with your watch. You should be able to get a couple letters of an identifier or most of a freq tuned, take a peek and then finish. As you found out it is very easy to get fixated on a single problem to the exclusion of other duties. All this wonderful cockpit technology is sometimes a case of "more" not necessarily being "better". Don't get me wrong. I think having the technology is a good thing but you have to be disciplined on how to manage it.
I see this all the time giving flight instruction and it is an example of innocent "better" info dragging your head into the cockpit. Think about when most of us learned way back when tachometers were sweep pointers on a round dial, if we were within the needle width of the desired RPM that was close enough. Now how many times have you watched somebody with a digital tach fiddle with the engine controls to get exactly (or within 5 or so RPM) the RPM they wanted. How long did that take and where were they looking? Not outside. It is so easy to sucked in to playing with the cockpit toys that we forget the main job is to fly the airplane.
Good for you for fessing up and using it as a teaching moment for both yourself and others.
__________________
Sam
RV-8 with the Showplanes Fastback conversion
Emp completed except for glass work
Wings completed except for bottom skin and glass work
Fuselage underway
N18451 reserved
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06-19-2017, 09:34 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Littleton, Colorado
Posts: 269
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+1
Quote:
Originally Posted by xblueh2o
Work flying rule is one guy does the box or whatever, the other guy's only job is to fly the airplane. That becomes a bit harder single pilot as you learned. I have a personal rule when flying single pilot that when I am inside fiddling with electronics that I need to look up every ten seconds or so. Doesn't sound like very long but count off ten seconds with your watch. You should be able to get a couple letters of an identifier or most of a freq tuned, take a peek and then finish. As you found out it is very easy to get fixated on a single problem to the exclusion of other duties. All this wonderful cockpit technology is sometimes a case of "more" not necessarily being "better". Don't get me wrong. I think having the technology is a good thing but you have to be disciplined on how to manage it.
I see this all the time giving flight instruction and it is an example of innocent "better" info dragging your head into the cockpit. Think about when most of us learned way back when tachometers were sweep pointers on a round dial, if we were within the needle width of the desired RPM that was close enough. Now how many times have you watched somebody with a digital tach fiddle with the engine controls to get exactly (or within 5 or so RPM) the RPM they wanted. How long did that take and where were they looking? Not outside. It is so easy to sucked in to playing with the cockpit toys that we forget the main job is to fly the airplane.
Good for you for fessing up and using it as a teaching moment for both yourself and others.
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I recently gave a flight review to the owner of an RV-10 equipped with dual Garmin G3x's. My main focus during the flight portion of the review was to observe how much "head down" time occurred throughout the flight. He was obviously quite familiar with the G3X, and incorporated both of them in his flight regimen, but I noted that there was a rather significant amount of head down time involved while doing this.
I also found it interesting that his "method" for searching for and locating nearby traffic was to look at the G3X screen first (primary traffic search), and then looking outside to locate the aircraft (secondary search). ADSB traffic can be a great tool for situational awareness, but I was a little concerned about the amount of time being spent looking at the screen instead of directly outside the plane.
Technology always has its good traits. However, it still requires the "human element" to figure out how and when to use it so that it does not become a detriment. I totally support the 10 second rule, and would probably even reduce that timing just a bit more.
__________________
Bryan Raley
http://bryansrv8project.blogspot.com/
Building RV8
EAA Chapter 301
CFII/MEI, ATP
SportAir Workshop Graduate x 4: Sheet Metal, RV Building, Electrical, and Composite classes.
Tail Wheel Endorsement Completed
Empennage done, Wings in progress, N462AK reserved.
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