How to Calculate Top of Climb | XC Navlog Planning

[@DynamicEnergyExchange]

I haven't even finished watching this video yet and I already feel relief from knowing the steps I need to cover in order to figure out TOC.

[@ChristopherYounger]

Excellent content. I wish I'd seen this before my PPL checkride some time ago. I got dinged for not being able to relay this information to my DPE as efficiently as this video. In the age of the magenta line with Foreflight/Garmin, we tend to forget to understand why we need to learn the basics and be able to think through a XC navlog even when we have EFBs. Spending the time to estimate performance can clue you in to possible weather changes or problems with the aircraft early and enable you to make better decisions. Keep the content coming!

[@williamk5998]

I was expert on this when getting my PPL and commercial. Since then, more of an academic exercise. This is why God invented Fore Flight 🙂

[@aviatortrucker6285]

I was always too critical every time I did that kind of planning. I would pick a part to POH and say well if the winds aren’t exactly right or the temperature is exactly right or the interpolation wasn’t exactly right. I was told by several instructors and the DPE, this is just for planning purposes no flight is an exact science.

[@SamJoiner-o4q]

@@aviatortrucker6285 Im glad you said that lol. Im the exact same way.

[@nathanwildthorn6919]

A perfect refresher for a rusty pilot (me). Thank you so much for this video. A medical issue sidelined me years ago, but I have spent several thousand hours flying sims (X-Plane and MSFS 2020) because I missed real-world flying so much, and I look forward to the day that I get cleared by an AME. I will be using the referenced nav sheet on all of my simulated flights from here on in. This video has made my day! Thank you, thank you, _thank_ you!

[@williamk5998]

I hope you get your certificate back soon. I think the sim time is indeed valuable in the meantime, especially for IFR.

[@nathanwildthorn6919]

@williamk5998 @williamk5998, thank you so much. I've logged just under 4300 real-world hours, 1200 logged as IFR, and I _so_ miss the thrill, exhilaration, and the sense of accomplishment that flying has given me. I may not go back to multi-engine and IFR flying due to imminent costs, but right now, just being cleared to fly a Cherokee or an Arrow would be enough. Happy New Year, good sir!

[@williamk5998]

@@nathanwildthorn6919 You have me beat. I'm 2200 hours mostly VFR but I'm commercial high performance tailwheel complex and seaplane. Working on my CFII for a post retirement career. I'm currently a physician but also an AME for about 25 years. I wish you a happy future back in the left seat soon. Think of all the money you've saved as a side effect though ;-)

[@streptokokke1003]

Very nice Video again. I had an instant PPL flashback. Fortunately, this all is no longer necessary in reality.

[@chakraUK]

At 5:24 - surely the GS will be a bit lower than the TAS because you are climbing and so not travelling perpendicular to the ground? Or is that discrepancy small enough that is typically ignored?

[@trevorshuba5994]

i think that because TAS is a measure of speed relative to air, and in this case the air is not moving (no wind), the GS would be the same as the TAS. Relative to both the ground and the air, you’re moving roughly 79kts.

[@chakraUK]

@@trevorshuba5994 But surely if you're climbing vertically (to take the most extreme example), with no wind, the GS will be 0, even though you are moving through the air straight upwards at a given TAS?

[@markskawai]

@@chakraUKground speed is simply your TAS corrected for wind, so how fast you are actually traveling distance wise, not what your instruments are reading.

[@SamJoiner-o4q]

For TOC...so say we are taking off runway 18 but our course is 360. Due to this, we would expect to take off and begin our climb while flying away from our heading until we make our crosswind and downwind turn towards our desired course. During that time, we have climbed over 1000ft above field elevation before we have even passed our departure airport. So for calculations, how should we adjust, or does that matter?

[@PrestonTeska]

I have the same question. Shouldn't the first leg, from departure airport to TOC, be the expected runway's magnetic course instead of the course to our first checkpoint?

[@Chel5ea5mile97Bro]

This is why we use both pilotage and dead reckoning. If we are not matching with our time to be at a set location (like having to fly in an opposite direction for T/O), we still continue to fly to the location, but once we arrive at the location we adjust our time for arriving late, early, higher or lower than expected, using visual references to match our location. In this instance you would be relying on pilotage until you got back on track. Just like if you somehow got into a situation where you weren't able to see the ground due to cloud cover, you could still rely on dead reckoning while not being able to reference the ground to know approximately where you are at.

[@chrisbruffett3270]

How did you get that digital plotter on the sky vector screen? That’s not a sky vector option that I can find.

[@aviatortrucker6285]

I find the easiest and most efficient way to find when the top of the climb is reached, and the cruise phase starts is when the altitude reaches the preplanned altitude and you level off.

[@peterg7342]

Can you do a video about top of descend?

[@xking18]

Wondering why you did nav log using 172P POH but flew in 172S ? 🙂

[@rudyseghers6320]

Top.😀