Aviation Forum / General / IFR / April 2005

I was doing some practice IFR at home last night with my simulator, and
set up for random failures.  First thing that happened was complete
electrical shut down - no radios, no VOR, no Xponder, and it suddenly
occurred to me that I'd never thought through what I would do.  I do

Storm over weather service initiatives
Santorum bill would protect private forecast firms
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette National Bureau

The AUG VOR/DME 8 profile shows a fix at AUG 1.9, just before the MAP at AUG
0.5. But there no separate altitude designations are shown for the segment
just before or just after AUG 1.9. The profile shows a transition from a
diagonally-downward flight path to a horizontal flight ...

Here a couple of alarming stories about the pilots who went down at HPN
last weekend:
First:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050426/NEWS02

Thanks to all who replied to my in-flight weather questions.
I think that I've narrowed my selection down to a PDA solution using the
iPaq 4700, along with packages for XM weather an moving map from either
Control Vision (AnywhereWx) or AirGator (NavAirWx).

I have a Garmin 340 panel and the installer put a music input jack for
it.  So, I tried plugging my portable MP3 player output into the music
jack.  At maximum volume on the MP3 player, the music was almost
completely inaudible.  Does the signal need to be pre amplified in some

I flew with somebody recently who just got their instrument rating a few
months ago, in a GPS-equipped airplane.  His GPS and BAI skills were fine,
but when I suggested we fly one leg without the GPS, just using VORs and a
chart for en-route navigation, he said he had never done ...

As I was coming into Grand Rapids (KGRR) yesterday, the controller
announced that there was a "level 5" return (or perhaps she said "cell")
on final to runway 8, so I was vectored to 35 where there were mostly
"just level 4" stuff.  So, forgive my ignorance, but where are these

Can ATC clear an aircraft for a contact approach to an airport which has no
weather reporting?

Yesterday, I was vectored for nearly 30 minutes around/through the
Cleveland Class B airspace.  The controller ended up taking me directly
over the airport and north to the lake and then west.  As I was doing
this, I wondered what the lost comms procedure would be when you are on ...

I'm a new IFR pilot, having gotten my ticket end of January.
One thing I've quickly picked up on is that ATC pretty much expects
everybody to be able to navigate direct.  If you tell them you've got a
VFR GPS (in your remarks), they'll happily give you direct clearances

For several weeks now I have been flying to the Dunkirk airport (KDKK, NY
State, US) for business.  Most weeks, the weather was VFR for my departure.
However, the last two weeks the weather was IFR and adherence to this
airport's obstacle departure procedure was required.

I could use a clarification if you have a moment:
On the rear of the Chicago VFR Terminal Area Chart, several "VFR Flyways"
are depicted.
AIM 3-5-5 a. 1. states: "An ATC clearance is NOT required to fly these

Some approaches have a note, "Procedure NA at night except by prior
arrangement for runway lights".  Let's say I make this prior arrangement
(presumably by talking to the airport manager and having him leave the
lights on for me), how do I deal with ATC?

Can they close an airport to all VFR traffic?  This is what they're
doing at Friedman Memorial Airport at Hailey, Idaho [HLE].
Link to the article:
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=04-20-2005&ID=2005102705