Wow, I can tell this is a different age now. I can remember flying IFR with none of those things. I've still never flown an airplane with XM Weather and only a very few with Spherics.
I agree.
I'm perfectly content flying IFR in IMC without any of the above. You just need to understand the margin for error and make sure you respect it.
) I see this as the same thing as instructors not wanting to use GPS years ago. Most instructors would not allow them in the plane and that was rediculous. Look where we are now, carry a GPS and an iPad and you are legal. With today's satilite weather reporting and in flight weather available it makes flying on top a lot less risky and I predict more "acceptable" as time goes on.
If you cannot hold a course in IMC to stay clear of an airspace violation with an autopilot, I have to wonder if you should be flying on an IFR flight plan in the first place.
I have to agree with you. Dan is the one that has trouble staying clear of airspace in IMC on his IFR flight plan without an a/p. Apparently the east coast has special airspace that no one else in the US has and requires special conditions and procedures to fly around it. But what they are have yet to be revealed to the rest of us who are not as tasked in our IFR flights.
That is all fine. I don't know why you did not just state that to begin with and instead went into some weird excuse about east coast airspace issues. When you say things that don't make a lot of sense, you have to expect people to question your statements.Sometimes you can be a real maroon, Scott.
My point is I prefer to fly an airplane equipped with an A/P when flying SPIFR.
That's my preference, my requirement. I've already stated I can fly without one (and usually hand fly most of the time anyway). But when you're getting vectored, keeping the speed up, and being given a sequence of unfamiliar intersections, it's very helpful to have another hand.
Get it? Or is that not clear enough?
The first line where you claim to need an autopilot to navigate east coast airspace and weather.
You had the quote in your own post a few moments ago. Are you trying to be obtuse or clueless?
That is a strange opening to make in response to David's statement. Perhaps you thought you were being cleaver or somehow insightful in way to impress all of PoA. I have no idea. But to me and a couple of other people, the statement was at best out of place and unusual and it sure reads that was the primary personal requirement for the autopilot.
The closing line seems to try and support the first. Are those so called "dangers" that you speak of the complicated east coast airspace and unique weather? Sure seems that it the case you were trying to make.
One would hope so, because it's an FAA requirement to pass an IR practical test or IPC.
I agree that it's helpful, but I wouldn't bat an eyelash about launching SPIFR without one, and I've done so hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. If your risk assessment-based choice is to make an autopilot a go/no-go item for SPIFR for other than regulatory reasons (e.g., Part 135), then that should be purely a personal choice based on convenience and comfort, and you still should maintain full no-a/p proficiency anyway.
Right -- it is the ability to fly single pilot IFR without an autopilot which is the requirement to which I was referring.
I still almost never do that.
That doesn't change my statement that if you want to go flying around cloud layers you should have an instrument rating. If you aren't able to get one - or if you don't want to - you shouldn't be flying vfr over the top. That's my opinion..and I'm sticking to it
Spherics are devices like Stormscope which sense lightning. I never heard them called spherics until a couple years ago on this board, which is the only place I've heard them called that. Granted, I haven't discussed them with anyone in real life in many years.
"Spherics" (or "sferics," as most lightning detection manufacturers call it) is the concept behind the devices, not the device name, i.e., a "sferics device" uses sferics technology to detect lightning strikes. The term itself derives from "atmospherics," but the manufacturers chose to use an "f" instead of "ph," which is why you see it spelled both ways. The two most widely sold light plane sferics devices are produced under the registered trademark names Stormscope (originally from Ryan, later BF Goodrich, and currently L-3 Communications) and Strikefinder (from Insight). The Stormscope was, I believe, first, and the term is often used generically despite its registered trademark status. Using the term "sferics device" to refer to them generically is less common, but more correct.