Even in my day VFR flights I do not have this level of routine! (I comfort myself with thinking I am still young :D )
At about 10 minutes in the video he is heading calmly straight into an area of v dark cloud with heavy precip shown on screen. He waits for ATC to suggest right vectors. I would have been DEMANDING them long before that.
I happily fly night IFR, but the opportunity to do so in Europe, where most GA accessible airfields close before sunset, makes it difficult. I only fly night IFR if I KNOW the weather is benign. Just think about how much we rely on being able to see TX during day IFR. No way in hell I am going to fly in pitch black with TX enroute.
BTW, the video is not really “night IFR”. There is good visual reference at all times (except when he happily ploughs straight into the big black cloud) , and it is just after sunset. Try flying over the Med with no moon, no horizon, no lights anywhere. That is spooky.
Anyway, the lad clearly has great ability to multitask and fast. But I question his judgement. But then when I was 17 I had no judgement whatsoever!
gallois wrote:
The 4 course range, never heard of it.
That was once a standard method for navigation – at least in the USA. The term VOR – “VHF Omindirectional Range” – refers to the the fact that a VOR can provide a course to/from the beacon in any direction, not just in four directions. (And of course, that it operates using the VHF band and not LF/MF.)
All you ever wanted to know of Radio Ranges on Wikipedia.
Getting back to the topic,
this young lad seems well trained and confident. Maybe a little lack of caution but his youth gives him a lot of mental skills.
I am most amazed how a teenager has time to learn to fly to this degree, work out seriously and carry on his school work, even with unlimited $$. I had little time off at his age.
I wish him a lot of safe flying but first to find fufilment in pursuing his vocation.
I did my IR when GPS had just arrived but were much less sophisticated than the Garmin 430.
I re did it later and at the same time got my PBN attestion on a G1000 equipped aircraft.
So I learnt about radio ranges, limitations etc and how to fly NDB and VOR approaches.. i learnt to navigate by them during PPL training.
I had just never heard of the term “4 course range”.
gallois wrote:
So I learnt about radio ranges, limitations etc and how to fly NDB and VOR approaches..
When was that? I first got the IR in 1987 and by then radio ranges were nowhere to be found in the TK syllabus. (At least not in Sweden.)
That was back in the early 1990’s but I think they might still be in the tk today.
They were certainly in the Mermoz CBIR theory books a few years ago.
They were certainly in the Mermoz CBIR theory books a few years ago.
OMG. No wonder we get stuff like AF447.
gallois wrote:
That was back in the early 1990’s but I think they might still be in the tk today.
Certainly not in the EASA TK!
I am most amazed how a teenager has time to learn to fly to this degree, work out seriously and carry on his school work, even with unlimited $$. I had little time off at his age.
Based on observation of other people like him, I imagine it’s his dad’s plane and that he’s been flying it to one degree or another since he was twelve or so.
A friend who flies a P-51, Epsilon, Lancair IV etc was like that. His dad was broke but had a little FBO with a C152 Aerobat, leading him to flying airshows with his low level aerobatic waiver by age 18. Prior to that he was mis-diagnosed with a learning disability but subsequently made enough money in engineering & manufacturing to buy & fly all of the above. Go figure. His daughter at age 11 now thinks aerobatics with daddy are a perfectly normal part of life, perhaps repeating the cycle. Her aunt is an airline pilot.
I would agree with others that the kid in the video likely doesn’t have an understanding of the implications of the system checks he is rushing through very quickly. That’s the exuberance of youth, eh? He’ll slow down after he’s been scared a couple of times, but learning early is otherwise really good.
