Operations
Nav Data and Charts continued...
Usually I take the Navigraph airport charts and print them on A5 paper format. Enroute charts are more
problematic because it is
difficult to print them. The paper format A4 is not
suitable, A3 would probably be ok, but most of you,
like me, certainly would not have an appropriate printer.
Sometimes you can find enroute charts on ebay or buy a set of
new charts (very expensive).
Best thing would be to have an electronic flight
bag to get rid of the paper work. I'm waiting
for a good solution which works together with the
FS9 flight simulator. My dream is to have a webpad
in my cockpit with all relevant data on it.
The Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) from AivlaSoft is
very close to my wishes and expectations, but unfortunately only
available for the FSX.
Links:
IVAO:
http://www.ivao.de/
VATSIM:
http://www.vacc-sag.org/?PAGE=airport_overview (for
Germany)
EAD:
www.ead.eurocontrol.int/
Navigraph:
http://www.navigraph.com/www/default.asp
Recently Lufthansa System has made the LIDO charts available for the iPad. For the time being charts are available for 40 airports only. Much too few to switch over to their solution.
Links:
LH Systems mobil:
http://mobility.lhsystems.com/
Aviation Weather
Aviation has come a long way since the Wright
brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk.
Even after a century of flight, weather is still the
factor most likely to result in accidents with
fatalities. Therefore the current and the expected
weather plays an important role during flight preparation
and inflight decisions.
Due to the fact that the simulator weather is based
on real weather conditions its always important not
only to check the weather condition of the departure
airport, but also the forecast (TAF) for the
destination airport, prior take-off. It happened on a
flight from Istanbul - Atatürk Airport (LTBA)
to Bukarest Henri Coandă (LROP) when I did not
carefully check the TAF of LROP. Arriving in LROP
the runway visibility range (RVR) was almost zero
and no time left to divert to an alternate, because
of other private obligations.
The weather report for that particular day
(02-Nov-2010) at LROP:
022030Z 04002KT 0150 R08R/0500N R26L/0450N FG VV000
06/05 Q1020 580///95 NOSIG=
Decoded:
Visibility | 150m |
Runway visibility |
Runway 08 Right, 0500 meters 26 Left, 0450 meters |
Vertical visibility | 0 feet |
Actually a CAT II ILS DME approach on Rwy 08R/L
should have been possible, but the weather
synthesis of ASE did make the conditions even
worse. The result was an accident during deceleration
after landing. Well, it happened in the simulator, so
nothing serious happened, but it didn't increase my
self-confidence regarding my personal pilot skills.
ATIS
Flying online the actual observed weather conditions
are part of the departure airport ATIS. The
example below demonstrates the IVAO ATIS for
Hannover, EDDV, 25-Sep-2011, 1520z.
ATIS snapshot taken from
Dolomynum
Decoded weather information from ATIS:
Location | EDDV |
Day of month | 25 |
Time | 15:20 UTC |
Wind | true direction = 290 degrees; speed = 4 knots |
CAVOK conditions | Ceiling And Visibility OK |
Temperature | 23 degrees Celsius |
Dewpoint | 11 degrees Celsius |
QNH (msl pressure) | 1019 hPa |