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Re: [RC] ATTN: Folks who don't use HRMs - heidiI think of the HRM as a tachometer, but my horses seem to be more prone to flat tires and scuffed rotors than blown engines. Yeah, something like that... And it is a good thing to learn to estimate the RPMs by listening to the hummmmm of the motor anyway--you'll find you pick up a lot of other stuff in the process that you miss when you just watch the tach. Doesn't mean you can't benefit from the tach--you can. But you should still cultivate the "ear" or the "feel" to go without. I remember when I was thinking about learning to fly, and I spent several hours traveling with a very talented pilot friend who was quite technical and had all the latest gadgets. We were out on a not-very-nice night (he was instrument-rated and fairly capable in bad conditions) and his Loran went out (this was pre-GPS days--I'm sure he has one of those now as well). We had to put down at a strange airport because the weather was closing in, and we were having a tough time finding it--and had to go back to piecing some things together from charts, when we couldn't see a fair amount of the landscape below us. Despite all his hours in the cockpit, that made him pretty sweaty! I determined then and there that I would learn to fly by the seat of my pants BEFORE I became reliant on all those terrific instruments. Y'know what? I can remember at least three different predicaments where being able to resort to the basics probably saved my butt. First one I only had 88 hours flying time and was ferrying an old Cessna 172 home to Oregon from Chicago. Took off and found out the navigation radio didn't work. To complicate matters, a storm brewed up over Moline (my first planned stop) and I was diverted north to somewhere in Iowa. In the midwest, everything is flat (relative to home), most areas are divided into rather identical-looking (from the air) one-mile squares, and it seems like all the little towns have a high school track and a water tower. I made it to the little airport in Iowa without turning a hair, and redid my flight plan. Second hair-raiser was on the same trip, trying to come over the Rockies by Jackson Hole. I had gotten the nav radio problem worked out after my third hop in the Midwest, but the VOR at Jackson Hole wasn't sending out a signal that I could pick up. After making a couple of passes around the area trying to get a fix on it, I finally resorted to identifying the highway that comes up from the south on the charts, and keeping it in sight where it branched up over the pass to the west and on to Palisaded Reservoir and Pocatello. My third one was easier because it was kind of on my home turf--my generator went out on a flight from Seattle to home, and I had to find my way home with no radios at all--couldn't even talk to Flight Service when I got there to land. Before I was able to get the generator replaced, I had to fly twice to Petaluma, CA--and flew charts both times. (At least knowing my generator was out, I charged my battery in advance and turned off all my electrical gear once I was in flight--planes thankfully run on magnetos--that way I had enough power left to switch things back on when I approached my destination so that I could talk to the airport...) Bottom line--the gadgets are wonderful, but it always pays to be able to do whatever you do without them, because you never know when your very life may depend on it. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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