Pilot's tip of the week

Finding the Airport

Featuring

Subscriber question:

"I’m a student pilot and can use a GPS. But I have a terrible time finding airports visually unless I’ve been there many times. Please help." —Sophie C.

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Richard:

“A good technique to find something while flying is to offset it just slightly on one side of the nose of your airplane.

Our tendency when flying to an unknown point or a point that’s hard to find is to fly right at it. But this makes the spot go underneath the nose of the airplane sooner, and it requires us to visually scan the entire windscreen in front of us to find the target.

By offsetting by just a couple of degrees, we can isolate our search to one side of the windscreen. If in a typical light aircraft with side-by-side seating, offset the target slightly to the left of the nose since your visibility from the left seat is better down the left side of the airplane.”

Would you descend to pattern altitude for an airport you see on GPS but not yet out the window?

(NEW) VFR Mastery scenario #94 “Gulf Coast Gauntlet” is now available. You’ve been dodging showery precipitation all the way home and you’ve got one area to bypass. The catch is the only VFR you can use is the peninsula on the west side of Tampa’s Class B, about 15 miles ahead. You stop and wait, but the only good airport is behind you and still IFR in showers. You circle to consider your options: VFR under the Bravo, VFR with a clearance through the Bravo, land without permission at a private airpark where no one seems to be monitoring the radio, or continue to circle, burning gas and hoping things improve. Watch the Intro video.

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