system
“rain and low clouds”
Since there are no precision approaches for water landings, one has to question why they were proceeding down in bad visibility and low IFR conditions.
“rain and low clouds”
Since there are no precision approaches for water landings, one has to question why they were proceeding down in bad visibility and low IFR conditions.
You can fly an approach to a nearby airport and break off for the waterway when you are clear of clouds. Without a doubt, obstruction avoidance in a floatplane is serious business. Google maps satellite view can assist planning. Synthetic vision can help but it is only as good as the data it has.
Our family has an amphibious aircraft. Accidents can happen, especially in the northwest part of the country where weather can turn sour in seconds. However, there are times when you as passengers must say, “the weather is marginal, we should get a hotel tonight and sit tight until the weather clears up”. As pilots, and operators, you must have the courage to cancel a flight due to marginal weather. All the talk of technology, GPS, satellite assisted maps, etc., is SO FRUSTRATING AND TIRESOME. Technology won’t do anyone any good if you are speeding towards a mountain at 120 miles per hour in rain and fog. What a shame. Overconfidence and machismo is the first one to arrive at the funeral home.
Awesome. This would save a lot of mental calculations done under high stress with incomplete variables and likely do a better job than even an experienced pilot. Too bad the hardware is so very expensive.
One of the safety features I enjoy about my Maule, pretty much every place is an airport.
Any mention of eventual backwards compatibility with the standard GTN 750?
Soaring computers have this feature. The shape of the available landing area, with airports showing estimated arrival altitude (and safe ones marked in green) is called the amoeba since it varies by glider polar, wind, direction of flight and altitude.
Then it recites the Lords Prayer through the headset.
“Smart Glide requires at least one of Garmin’s latest GTN Xi-series navigators” - only for certified aircraft.
From Justin at Garmin: “For EAB aircraft a GTN Xi is not required. Smart Glide was developed in parallel across a few different Garmin systems, and of course for both certified and non-certified aircraft. The GTN Xi drives Smart Glide in certified installations, while it is natively driven in G3X Touch for EAB aircraft.”