Show Notes
Your instructor covers the GPS mid-flight and says, "Track the radial." If that makes you sweat, this one's for you. Most of us learned to fly with ForeFlight on our knee, so the VOR became the gauge we tolerate. Then it shows up on the checkride, and it comes back hard in instrument training. This episode breaks down what that needle is actually telling you, why reverse sensing makes it feel like it's lying, and the one habit that fixes it. In This Episode: The day my CFI covered the GPS in a no-AC Cessna 150 and made me track a radial Why the CDI needle is a course pointer, not a steering wheel Reverse sensing and the reciprocal-OBS trap that flips everything TIM (Tune, Identify, Monitor) so you never track a dead or wrong station• Why VOR is still on your checkride, and why instrument training runs on it Key Takeaways: Don't chase the needle. Fly the heading, then trim with the needle Set the course you want to fly into the OBS, not the radial you're sitting on, and check the TO/FROM flag Run TIM every time: Tune, Identify the Morse, Monitor the flags. No ident, no using it Practice with your own GPS covered, so it's a habit before an examiner does it for you Resources: Private Pilot Made Easy. Ground School (Pilot Institute)
Your Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. New episodes drop weekly. Got a question or a topic you want us to cover? Leave a comment!
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A controller called traffic at my two o'clock, three miles. I was already scanning, and I still found it late. That was on a long trip from Fayetteville, North Carolina up to Flint, Michigan, with flight following on for most of it. This is part two on radio work, what flight following really gives you, how to ask for it, and the order of operations at a towered field once the initial call stops being the hard part. Also: radio work is a depreciating skill. It builds fast with use and fades just as fast without it, and that changes how you should think about practice. In This Episode: • What flight following is in FAA terms — Radar Traffic Information Service, AIM 4-1-15 • The four basic radar services VFR aircraft get, and why separation is off that list • How to make the request, word for word, and what ATC sends back • Setting it up with ground control before you taxi instead of building it in the climb • The three habits that keep the service running once you are in the system • The kneeboard method that cuts down say-agains • The four readbacks the FAA requires at a towered field • Why every runway crossing needs its own clearance, one at a time • What rusty radio work sounds like, and how quickly it comes back Key Takeaways: • Ask for radar traffic information on your initial call to ground or clearance delivery, along with your direction of flight • Write every frequency down in order before engine start, so ATC is confirming your page rather than filling it • Read back the runway assignment, any clearance onto a runway, any hold short, and any line up and wait — every time • Hold at the line until a controller clears you across; crossings are issued one runway at a time • Tell the controller before you leave the frequency, then squawk twelve hundred • If it has been more than a month since you talked to a controller, plan one flight with radio work in it on purpose Resources: Free VFR Radio Call Sheet (Student Pilot Kneeboard) https://pilotinstitute.com/radio-comm-for-beginners/ Your Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. New episodes drop weekly. Got a question or a topic you want us to cover? Reach out in the comments.