How about GS x 5 = descent rate for a three degree and 300 ft per NM approach?
Alexis wrote:
How about GS x 5 = descent rate for a three degree and 300 ft per NM approach?
How about GS divided by 2 and add a zero. (easier maths). :)
Just as good … and both simple ;-)
Understanding the basics is useful – possibly essential – but to be honest I could never see me pulling out the wiz wheel in flight.
During training I really could not see the sense in working out headings to the nearest degree when winds are forecast and aircraft instrument error is a bit of an unknown.
A few rules of thumb are helpful but a look up table on my knee board would be more practical than a wiz wheel if I needed to work out something in flight.
The old tech training time would be better spent teaching how to navigate around and through CAS – most of which was not there when dead reckoning was a necessity!!!
I wrote:
(Groundspeed)/2 and add a nought = RoD for 3° slope
Alexis wrote:
How about GS x 5 = descent rate for a three degree and 300 ft per NM approach?
Dave_Phillips wrote:
How about GS divided by 2 and add a zero. (easier maths). :)
um….
When I did my PPL in 1964, I used a borrowed Dalton computer, from the flying school. I then bought a “whiz wheel”.
My license lapsed, and I had to repeat most of the course in 1987.
I say the Nav exam using my non-programmable scientific electronic calculator, which I was familiar with, and familiar trig.
But even in the early 70s there were still mechanical calculators in University use.
Peter wrote:
Rules of thumb
IMO most rules of thumb are only excuses to not understand the math/physics. The most important (and probably only) physical aspect to remember today is to keep the pad charged.
I still have two slide rules operative and very occasionally I do a few calculations on them for fun – amazed by the theories from some bright (British) minds that created these logarythmic scales for complex calculations.
Vic
IMO most rules of thumb are only excuses to not understand the math/physics.
I assume that that is a joke, or do you really mean it?
Aviation lives on rules of thumb, and always has. To some extent fancy cockpits reduce the need, but they remain a core skill.
