swatson999
Well-Known Member
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- Oct 6, 2010
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You can set MDA on the Skyview and it will announce approaching and reaching minimums. It's in the User's Manual.
autopilot -- stick shaker?
- Thread starter bbtapb
- Start date
You can set MDA on the Skyview and it will announce approaching and reaching minimums. It's in the User's Manual.
mmarien
Murray M.
I gave the MDA a try. It's useful as you can set it to whatever minimums you want, but a couple squawks. It's not automatic. You have to set it up every time you use it. The Garmin 500' warning happens automatically on approach to any airport. The MDA setting also is forgotten at shutdown.
What would be useful is to set the MDA to automatically set itself to whatever you have setup at any approach to an airport. The airports and elevations are in the database. So anytime you are within a couple of miles of an airport it could automatically setup the MDA for the airport. If you just fly by it would remove the MDA after a couple of miles - no harm done.
You could also leave it in manual mode.
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The main purpose of the MDA bug is for the specific use in IFR approaches. Since there's no way for SkyView to know what approach you are on, we can't set the MDA to the correct value (which is different for each approach type), and in IFR it would be dangerous for us to change it on the user. That's also why it resets all the time- thinking you have an MDA set is dangerous so unless you explicitly set it, we don't show it and don't remember it across boots.
If there's a desire for a VFR altitude warning, we can absolutely consider this, but I don't think we'll co-opt the very specific MDA bug for VFR purposes.
So, you're in VFR, looking out the window. What's the use case for the xxx' above the nearest airport warning? Do you want it for any airport or just the one programmed as the destination? What does this message cause you to do differently as a pilot when all is going as planned? In what situations does it warn you things are going wrong? Should it be blocked in cases were you are at good speeds and angles to the runway so it's more of a warning than something you get every approach? What about two airports close to one another (we have water/land airports on top of one another here in Seattle)
If there's a desire for a VFR altitude warning, we can absolutely consider this, but I don't think we'll co-opt the very specific MDA bug for VFR purposes.
So, you're in VFR, looking out the window. What's the use case for the xxx' above the nearest airport warning? Do you want it for any airport or just the one programmed as the destination? What does this message cause you to do differently as a pilot when all is going as planned? In what situations does it warn you things are going wrong? Should it be blocked in cases were you are at good speeds and angles to the runway so it's more of a warning than something you get every approach? What about two airports close to one another (we have water/land airports on top of one another here in Seattle)
jakej
Well-Known Member
"So, you're in VFR, looking out the window." -- says it all IMO 
mmarien
Murray M.
Good point DS and Jake. I do a lot of xcountry. On approach to my home airport the sight picture is familiar. An unfamiliar 3000' x 75' runway looks about the same as a 6000' x 150' runway from half the distance. On approach the 500' audio annunciation is a nice reminder of how I'm doing, especially at night. On approach I might glance at my airspeed, but I don't take the time to do any calculations about my altitude. I rely on the sight picture and the fact that I'm descending from pattern altitude. The same reason I had no idea what my AOA gauge was doing. I never looked at it on approach. The AOA audio chirping is a nice reminder I'm at the right air speed providing I'm touching down on a runway. I either having it working better now or my landings are getting better.
I appreciate the function of the MDA and can see it needs to be purposely set for IFR operations. There are two mode for the AP. I was thinking that the MDA also could have two modes, automatic (VFR) and manual (IFR). If that's not an option, a separate VFR function that can be turned on or off would do.
The 500' audio annunciation is probably not a warning. Think of it as an alert, the same type of alert as approaching a waypoint. If I'm within X miles of an airport and descending thru 500' or XXX feet above the airport elevation I'll get the alert. I don't always follow my flight plan so any airport would trigger the alert. It's pretty failsafe. When am I ever descending thru 500' near an airport if I'm not landing. If I wasn't landing would it be considered a warning rather than an alert :-?
I was just looking through the messages and alerts. The gear warning is already programmed. Just make it a VFR fixed gear altitude alert option.
I appreciate the function of the MDA and can see it needs to be purposely set for IFR operations. There are two mode for the AP. I was thinking that the MDA also could have two modes, automatic (VFR) and manual (IFR). If that's not an option, a separate VFR function that can be turned on or off would do.
The 500' audio annunciation is probably not a warning. Think of it as an alert, the same type of alert as approaching a waypoint. If I'm within X miles of an airport and descending thru 500' or XXX feet above the airport elevation I'll get the alert. I don't always follow my flight plan so any airport would trigger the alert. It's pretty failsafe. When am I ever descending thru 500' near an airport if I'm not landing. If I wasn't landing would it be considered a warning rather than an alert :-?
I was just looking through the messages and alerts. The gear warning is already programmed. Just make it a VFR fixed gear altitude alert option.