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N6399A

N6399A

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
259
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Display Name
N6399A
Home Airfield
KDVT
Finally bit the bullet and took my PPL written today. Passed it, but I did miss one of the ADF questions. Never really got the ADF thing. :dunno: ........... but I'll take a 98% any day. :yes:
 
N6399A said:
Finally bit the bullet and took my PPL written today. Passed it, but I did miss one of the ADF questions. Never really got the ADF thing. :dunno: ........... but I'll take a 98% any day. :yes:
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Congratulations!

I've been a pilot 32 years and I never used an ADF - reckon you'll do fine without it....
 
Bah... ADF. Congrats again.

It's only good for listening into to baseball games when you're flying. :)
 
Awesome score!

ADF? I'll have to look that one up. None of our planes have one! :D
 
congrats! You beat my PPL wrtten by about 10%.

You's gonna be a good pilot!
 
I feel sorry for all you ADF impaired pilots. Without a GPS its a pretty critical piece of equipment around here. Most of the small airports have NDBs on the field in iowa.
 
tonycondon said:
I feel sorry for all you ADF impaired pilots. Without a GPS its a pretty critical piece of equipment around here. Most of the small airports have NDBs on the field in iowa.
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That's the way it is in parts of MO, too. Our nearest airport has only an NDB approach (if you don't have a GPS) and I spent many, many hours shooting NDB approaches at the airport. It's what I had, and what I learned to use. I like them better than VOR approaches. :)
 
Congrats :drink:

1. ADF is very important - it's very convenient if you want to listen to music during long flights :D

2. You're lucky ! We must pass a total of 7 different written exams (70 questions each) and go through 2 practical exams...
I've never felt that knowing how to use the Morse code or knowing how to compute an adiabatic lapse rate made a better pilot...In fact I must have forgotten around 80% of all that useless theoretical stuff...

Cheers:)
 
ADF/NDB 's are easy

they are non directional

the needle always points to the beacon.

Fly to the beacon.
Fly out bound, on a mag heading
Do a procedure turn
Fly inbound, on the recipracal heading
Drop to min altitude
Look for airport.
circle to land (if needed)
 
conga_rats.gif


Conga-rats! :D

That's a great score.

Am I the only one that rents from an FBO run by old school folks that have working ADFs in every single airplane on the line? And that use them? Ok, I'm not sure of that, but I know they have 'em in both the 172s and I'm pretty sure in the Cutlass 172RG as well.

Actually I kind of like it. For one thing, there are far more NDBs than VORs around here. Tune in two and take a bearing, draw two lines on the chart and "you are here."

Far, far more important and cooler for me, though, is the fact there's an AM broadcast station on 610 khz right off my home airport, maybe a mile, probably less. We don't have a VOR on field, though, so tuning that thing points me home easier than anything else in the airplane.
 
Great score Sheri!

I've got to take my written in the next two weeks.

Where did you take it?
 
Woody said:
Great score Sheri!

I've got to take my written in the next two weeks.

Where did you take it?
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I just ran over to Glendale. They have the CATS thing, and it was a piece of cake. Nice folks over there too. :yes: I didn't realize that they send the individual tests by satellite. Pretty cool.
 
PostTenebrasLux said:
Actually I kind of like it. For one thing, there are far more NDBs than VORs around here. Tune in two and take a bearing, draw two lines on the chart and "you are here."
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I'd probably like it too, had I ever seen it. But I don't have one, and none of the stuff I've flown in has one. And sadly, everyone I asked for help with it, pretty much told me "don't worry about it you're never going to need it." Guess I should have asked for help here. You guys are great at splainin stuff..........;)
 
That's lots better than I did. I think I missed 4 questions including the dumb: "An airplane, a cement mixer and a bird or whatever are converging. Which has the right-of-way?"

Seriously, ya done good!
 
Just think of an NDB as a electronic light house. Your eyes can't see it but your ADF can and points to it. As some one else said, if you don't have an approach certified GPS, at many airports, the NDB is the only approach aid there is. For VFR flying, if you have a hand held GPS, it is better than an ADF/NDB combination.
 
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Undoubtedly, GPS is better. So is VOR/DME in most cases, if the VOR stations are convenient. In my case, I've never used the ADF to take two bearings and find my position except to practice. For the area I fly, I keep the Athens, GA VOR tuned on the VOR and DME (both the 172s I fly also have DME.) I can twist the VOR knob to find the bearing from the station, lay my shirt pocket plotter on the compass rose around it on the chart and read my distance right off the mileage scale. What IS really handy, though, is that broadcast station so close to the home field which doesn't have a VOR. :yes:

I just like knowing how to use everything in the airplane, belt AND suspenders, as it were.
 
If you learn to interpret the ADF at a glance, it can be used just like a VOR, especially in RMI form. ADF doesn't provide DME, but in a jam you can even calculate your distance.

It surprises me that so few people use them.

N6399A said:
Finally bit the bullet and took my PPL written today. Passed it, but I did miss one of the ADF questions. Never really got the ADF thing. :dunno: ........... but I'll take a 98% any day. :yes:
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Great job! I'm jealous. I can't wait to start lessons.
 
bqmassey said:
It surprises me that so few people use them.
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While they are not useless, they aren't all that precise. It is just the old technology. For me, it would just be more useless weight in the plane. That is, like Bob said, until the ball season starts. :D
 
Sheri, congrats! That's a fantastic score!

The examiners won't smell too much blood on you with that kind of score, meaning they'll leave you alone and let you do a normal checkride.

PS: An owner friend of mine placarded his ADF "inop" just before a checkride. Seemed to work. ... not that I'd recommend that sort of thing, as a CFI.
 
AirBaker said:
While they are not useless, they aren't all that precise. It is just the old technology. For me, it would just be more useless weight in the plane. That is, like Bob said, until the ball season starts. :D
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What makes them not as precise? Are the ADF antennas prone to more error than a VOR? If so, is it enough to be significant? It must not be that bad, as NDBs can be relied upon for instrument approaches.

From much reading and simulator time, it appears to me than an ADF gives you just as much information as a VOR head. They both tell you your bearing to/from a station, no more no less. Better yet, NDBs don't require line-of-sight reception, like VOR stations do.

You all should know better than I; I'm not even a pilot yet. I won't understand the pure practicality of the technology until I've experienced it myself. It just appears as though ADF's primary flaw is that it isn't as idiot-proof as VOR. It's not set-and-forget.

Thoughts?
 
AuntPeggy said:
Wonderful!
I knew there had to be a use for the adf.
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When I was first starting training, after every touch and go, my instructor would reach over and turn a knob on some gizmo in front of him, and being a new pilot, I thought it was some piece of equipment that needed to be twiddled, but he was doing it while I learned.

He got a good laugh when a few lessons later I figured out he was using the ADF freq knobs to count my touches. :D
 
bqmassey said:
What makes them not as precise? Are the ADF antennas prone to more error than a VOR? If so, is it enough to be significant? It must not be that bad, as NDBs can be relied upon for instrument approaches.

From much reading and simulator time, it appears to me than an ADF gives you just as much information as a VOR head. They both tell you your bearing to/from a station, no more no less. Better yet, NDBs don't require line-of-sight reception, like VOR stations do.

You all should know better than I; I'm not even a pilot yet. I won't understand the pure practicality of the technology until I've experienced it myself. It just appears as though ADF's primary flaw is that it isn't as idiot-proof as VOR. It's not set-and-forget.

Thoughts?
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Mostly due to the lower frequency range the NDB signals use. Its not that they are particularly difficult to use, but shoot an NDB approach and you can still be way off.

Would I still use NDB? If that's all I had. It works, but I feel it is more for bragging rights now that you know how to shoot an NDB approach. :)
 
AirBaker said:
Mostly due to the lower frequency range the NDB signals use. Its not that they are particularly difficult to use, but shoot an NDB approach and you can still be way off.

Would I still use NDB? If that's all I had. It works, but I feel it is more for bragging rights now that you know how to shoot an NDB approach. :)
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The problem is after years of shooting ILS's and now GPS approaches, you have the preconcived notion that an instrument approach is supposed to line you up perfectly with the runway. This is blashpemy. An NDB (and VOR) approach is NON precision. think of it as getting shot out of a shotgun barrel. No you wont come straight out, but you'll be within an acceptable range. Really its just to get you low enough to get out of the clouds, and generally headed towards the airport, you figure the rest out.
 
tonycondon said:
The problem is after years of shooting ILS's and now GPS approaches, you have the preconcived notion that an instrument approach is supposed to line you up perfectly with the runway. This is blashpemy. An NDB (and VOR) approach is NON precision. think of it as getting shot out of a shotgun barrel.
Click to expand...

My instructor said an ILS approach is like getting directions right to the street address of where you're going.

A VOR approach gets you to the town.

An NDB approach gets you to the county.
 
tonycondon said:
The problem is after years of shooting ILS's and now GPS approaches, you have the preconcived notion that an instrument approach is supposed to line you up perfectly with the runway. This is blashpemy. An NDB (and VOR) approach is NON precision. think of it as getting shot out of a shotgun barrel. No you wont come straight out, but you'll be within an acceptable range. Really its just to get you low enough to get out of the clouds, and generally headed towards the airport, you figure the rest out.
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I've got GPS and no ADF. I agree though. I just have no intention of going back... :)
 
Bill Jennings said:
My instructor said an ILS approach is like getting directions right to the street address of where you're going.

A VOR approach gets you to the town.

An NDB approach gets you to the county.
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sometimes even a VOR approach is a get you into the right county type of ordeal. The one here is based off the Newton VOR which is 26 nm away. Being within 1 mile of the runway at MAP is considered doing well, IMO. 1 dot is 2 degrees, 1 degree off in 30 miles is 1/2 mile. so being only 1 dot off is 1 mile deviation. Make sure you set that OBS exactly right!
 
N6399A said:
Finally bit the bullet and took my PPL written today. Passed it, but I did miss one of the ADF questions. Never really got the ADF thing. :dunno: ........... but I'll take a 98% any day. :yes:
Click to expand...

Congratulations! I just passed mine 9 days ago (but, who's counting). Didn't do quite as well as you, but for an old gal, I'm pretty happy about it! I too share your ADF handicap! :dunno:
 
N6399A said:
Finally bit the bullet and took my PPL written today. Passed it, but I did miss one of the ADF questions. Never really got the ADF thing. :dunno: ........... but I'll take a 98% any day. :yes:
Click to expand...

CONGRATS!

Hope to hear you in the pattern or practice areas (122.75) at DVT soon (with passengers aboard, after passing that checkride!). :)

-----

EDIT: Jeez, I hope this isn't a sign of old age, but I just realized that I already replied to this message a while back. Darn! I hate that I am over 30.
 
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