Recently in GPS Category

Instrument rated pilots... It's a new 56-day cycle today on FAA published instrument procedures.  I have the list of new procedures here at PilotQuest.Com being automatically updated weekly for California and the entire US.

In California, the big winner today is Auburn Municipal Airport, with a brand new RNAV GPS approach with WAAS and LPV.  The old " GPS RWY 07" has been superseded by "RNAV (GPS) RWY 07" (link to PDF of procedure).

Following a related discussion on the Silicon Valley General Aviation mail list, I made a list of the FAA's plans for upcoming new instrument approaches in California.  This list is from the FAA's National Aeronautical Charting Office (NACO).  It's info anyone can get - but hopefully the formatting makes it more easily accessible.

This should mainly be of interest to instrument-rated pilots who fly in California, and pilots who are or plan to get training for their instrument rating in California.

Now that I have software to generate this list from their plans, I'll update it regularly.

Here are some highlights from their current plans...

The Summer flying season is here again.  As more light aircraft are getting increasingly sophisticated panel-mounted GPS systems, pilots are freer to navigate away from airways and radio navigational aids.  One of the most obvious things to try is to just fly a straight line to the destination.  It's called "GPS direct".  But I'll show some local examples from here in Northern California why that isn't always a good idea.  A GPS is still an enormously useful navigation tool.  But it requires delving deeper into how that GPS gadget works to get the best use of it.