Cable Rollers

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Jimflyw
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Cable Rollers

Post by Jimflyw »

Hi First time here,

I'm a rusty pilot that has gotten back into flying and have been flying for the last few months. I had never flown a Diamond before but have been spending most of my time in a D 40. I've made a decision to go for my Instrument Rating and want to do it all in my own plane. I've decided on the Diamond and have made an offer on an older one. I want to know and ask every ones opinion other then a pre- buy inspection, is there or are there certain things I should be concerned about other then obvious engine and instrument issues. Thanks JimFlyw
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Boatguy
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Boatguy »

If you’re working your instrument rating, be sure you buy a plane with WAAS GPS. Some older DA40s cannot be upgraded to WAAS which means no RNAV (GPS) approaches.
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Rich
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Rich »

Boatguy wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 5:36 am If you’re working your instrument rating, be sure you buy a plane with WAAS GPS. Some older DA40s cannot be upgraded to WAAS which means no RNAV (GPS) approaches.
You can still do RNAV approaches, you just don't get WAAS-approach features (primarily glideslope guidance) and minimums.
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AndrewM
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by AndrewM »

For the instrument rating, unless you have a particular need/mission for GPS "Precision" approaches which have vertical guidance as well, WAAS is purely a nice to have. The main advantages of WAAS (in my view!) is that you can (a) have fully coupled approaches to the autopilot pretty much all the way to the ground, and (b) precision GPS approaches have similar very low minimums to ILS approaches.

Do the airports you will use most frequently only have GPS approaches, or ILS as well? This should factor into your thinking... If they have ILS, then that is something to think about, and similarly if they only have GPS approaches, and you intend to be doing real world IFR, then WAAS makes a lot of sense.

Assuming you get a G1000 with GFC700 autopilot, (but non-WAAS) on an ILS approach you will similarly be able to have the full autopilot coupled approach and just have to focus on your airspeed. And your non-precision GPS approaches will be a few hundred feet or so higher than GPS precision approaches which require WAAS.

So as in all thing aviation... depends on your mission, budget and what you want!
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by YCCA »

WASS is overrated.. the only approach you won’t be able to do is an LPV. Don’t even worry about that, you will be able to do all the rest and all the rest are plenty
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Rich
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Rich »

YCCA wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:05 pm WASS is overrated.. the only approach you won’t be able to do is an LPV. Don’t even worry about that, you will be able to do all the rest and all the rest are plenty
Or LP approaches. And with WAAS you now get vertical guidance on virtually every RNAV approach. Plus no RAIM requirement and certain other more subtle regulatory benefits.
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Boatguy »

Attached is the FAA's documentation of what guidance and minimums are provided with and without WAAS. While the document itself is about six years old, it is on the FAA's web site as of today. Looking forward, here is what the FAA has to say about ILS vs RNAV (GPS) with WAAS, emphasis added.

https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/general_avi ... rocedures/

Approach Procedures Ahead

During Fiscal Year 2018, the FAA plans to publish approximately 150 WAAS LPV and LP procedures. The widespread and growing availability of LPV and LP procedures, and the high equipage rate in the general aviation fleet, are enabling the FAA to retire some ground-based navigation aids.

...

As part of NextGen, the FAA plans to meet any new requests for Category 1 approach procedures, those with ground-based localizer and glideslope guidance, with RNAV (GPS) approaches that have LPV minima. The FAA will also maintain an existing network of ILS approaches to provide complementary approach and landing capabilities. Once this process is completed, RNAV, using satellite positioning from WAAS-enhanced GPS, will be available everywhere in the National Airspace System.

RNAV quick facts.pdf
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Rich
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Rich »

Another useful thing about WAAS approaches has to do with practice/training. For example, there is exactly one ILS within a hundred miles of me. And in good weather it's not uncommon for the glideslope to be declared out of service (I've also seen this elsewhere). And sometimes traffic demands make it sub-optimal for training. You can use an LPV approach as an ILS simulator. It's not exactly the same, but you can work on your hand-flying techniques and power management close enough. LPV approaches generally have a GS angle right where an ILS GS would be. (This isn't necessarily true for the other RNAV approaches.)
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Colin »

(In good weather I understand they just turn the glideslope transmitter OFF. I don't understand that, it seems like it would be a small energy savings. It was only in the past couple years that I learned that the transmitters at airports with ILS approaches in both directions are only transmitting in one direction at a time. So in calm air approaching IND at night I mentioned to the controller, who was letting me fly in to the "wrong" runway since I was coming from the south west, that I had no glideslope (I like to backup my visual approach at night). There was a click and he said, "How 'bout now?")
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Rich
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Re: Cable Rollers

Post by Rich »

Colin wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:04 pm (In good weather I understand they just turn the glideslope transmitter OFF. I don't understand that, it seems like it would be a small energy savings. It was only in the past couple years that I learned that the transmitters at airports with ILS approaches in both directions are only transmitting in one direction at a time. So in calm air approaching IND at night I mentioned to the controller, who was letting me fly in to the "wrong" runway since I was coming from the south west, that I had no glideslope (I like to backup my visual approach at night). There was a click and he said, "How 'bout now?")
I think it's got to do with things other than "energy savings", to which we are not privy. Worth mentioning, in my situation:

1. A couple of years back KRDM (with the aforementioned only ILS in 100 miles) was closed altogether for 3 solid weeks for runway work.
2. From time to time the only ILS runway is closed for unknown reasons - the most recently that I noticed was last week.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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