We’re just back from a fly-out to Brittany. It didn’t go according to plan due to incoming bad weather. So we were improvising our routes. This led me to jot down some tips for using SkyDemon away from home.
Before you go….
- Invest in a ‘chunky battery’ – a 20,000mAh pack costs around £25, and guarantees power all day, probably several days, on the greediest smartphone
- Find a way of securing your SD device in the cockpit, out of direct sun – with this week’s temperatures most devices will overheat and shutdown
- Make sure all routes and relevant aircraft profiles are saved to Cloud, so they are accessible on your mobile device
- Print airfield plates from original source before leaving. Generally the AIP plate contain more info than SD plates. Alternatively save airfield plates from SD to your device as PDF’s
- For planned routes, pre-print PLOGs with no wind, GS, heading, time
And while away…
- Fill out the pre-printed PLOG with the heading, GS and time for the day’s conditions
- Don’t rely solely on SD just on your mobile device – it could fail, overheat etc
While flying, put the mobile device in flight safe mode – the GPS still works and it saves power.- For new routes, copy the SD PLOG onto a standard blank PLOG – Pooley’s or whatever brand you prefer
- On a group fly-out, appoint one person to prepare new routes , and share them by email, WhatsApp etc