Tim Dawson (11/5/2014)
It would certainly be possible, yes, though I'm curious how many others would want to remove these.The SkyDemon PLOG was originally designed as a replacement for a paper PLOG, in which you'd do your wind calculations. Therefore the GS column would be the result of that calculation. True track over the ground is a pretty fundamental property of a leg, though, isn't it? But you're saying you'd like to remove it?
Hi Tim,
I definitely see the SD PLOG as a paper one replacement. I know it can sounds strange but in France, you won't find GS on any paper log. I've never seen this info on any paper PLOG in the last 20 years. I was having a meeting with some fellow pilots on yesterday evening and I got the same answer from them too: they do not remember seeing this information on a paper PLOG, except on the foreign visitors's ones
There's a reason for that: in France, GS is not used for any wind/related calculation. It certainly sounds weird but it's true
Instead of GS, we use a "base factor". The base factor is 60/TAS and considered as a persistent value for each plane we fly. e.g: Fb is 0.6 for a Cessna 172 or a DR 400/120, it is 0.5 for a PA28, ...
We use this value because it plugs straight into lots of mental calcs (You won't find any E6B or equivalent in a French pilot case).
- Max Driftº=windspeed X Fb
- Time (without wind) = distance X Fb
Of course the result is not 100% accurate, but it's good enough and very fast to calculate. A malicious gossip would ever say that it is still more accurate that the drift correction a typical pilot is able to maintain
I don't wan't to pollute this topic too much but, in short, what is fundamental for a pilot in a specific country can be peripheral in another one