Would I Survive? An Instrument Approach using only ForeFlight Synthetic Vision

[@felixtorres1895]

I think that if ForeFlight would project a center line out to infinity, it would make it a lot easier with a direct distance to the end of the threshold. It would also make it easier, even In a visual approach. Another idea would be to have the line place markers at the 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles and 4 miles out. That would make it easy for the pilot, in a glance, to know how high he or she needs to be in a 3 to 1 ratio.If the terrain permits.

[@tpspc03]

It also would have been nice to see the extended center line set up in the GPS so that you can use the CDI/Heading Indicator in Foreflight to line up with the center line. Or better yet use the geo referenced approach plate overlay on Foreflight. Then see how it goes.

[@markwylam5213]

One should load an actual approach into ForeFlight flight plan rather than trying to line up on the runway with direct to airport.

[@RightRudder]

Thanks for the comment Mark. Our test was originally to set up to see if a non-instrument rated pilot (who doesn't even know what an approach plate is) could manage their way to the airport and land just by 'seeing' the airport on synthetic vision.

[@aviatortrevor]

I'm instrument rated, and if I had a sudden total electrical failure in IMC, I wouldn't hesitate to trust the iPad.

[@therealbuster809]

Good job! A couple of comments. Looking down at the Ipad will cause some spatial disorientation. Best to mount it up near the panel where it can be brought into the cross check without a lot of head movement. Regarding the altitude on final, if you have no glidepath information, just look at the relationship of the approach end to the nose low degree mark on the SV attitude dislplay. For a 3 degree glide path, fly level until the approach end reaches the (approximate) 3 degree nose low point, then start a decent at 450 fpm. (ground speed in miles per minute x degree x 100) If you look at 7:40 on your video, you are at a 5 degree glidepath position, and assuming 90 knots ground speed, 750 fpm would hold you there. Your decent rate was more than that, around 1000 fpm, so you got shallower, as you would expect. This is a great backup to instrument failure for GA. Better than needle and ball of the old days. I always have an Iphone and a Stratus, and I practice using them for IFR backup.

[@theselimt]

The best way to do this is use the PROCEDURE button and zoom way in on the sectional and follow that line. If you're right on the line you're right on LNAV. I've done it like 10 times time building in an RV12 with a safety pilot. Kinda fun.

[@johnboylong40]

I for one appreciate your efforts and information. Tough crowd in the comments. They’re even brutal on what hits the editing floor. It’s like all this must be raw footage with zero edits. But something tells me they’d complain about that as well. Good grief. Your description spells it out very clearly. I guess your disclaimer section would need to be several paragraphs to ward off most criticism. Keep these coming guys, some of us take the clips for the topic being shown. 👍

[@tpaynemm]

Neat idea. It sure reveals how instinctive it is to look outside the cockpit to fly. A minor quibble with one of your popup comments -- VFR OVER the top is completely legal (and technically distinct from VFR ON top) and thus a VFR pilot does have the ability to fly over a cloud deck - as long as he can get down. Judgement and discretion weigh heavily on the decision to go VFR Over the Top. I'm not instrument rated (yet!) and have never exercised the privilege to go OVer the top, but it is possible to safely do so.

[@RightRudder]

+Talan Hi Talan, Overall I do agree with the point you make. But after I heard David talking about flying over the top I wanted to head off all those who would call me out and stating it's a bad idea and I shouldn't be promoting it. I myself do lean toward the side of cautiousness, feeling that it can be very risky and something to be avoided, esp for someone with no instrument training. Either way, I figured someone was going to bring this up and if I had to chose I wanted to be on the side of advocating the conservative side of the discussions. But yes, it is legal to do so.

[@supportmanagement]

Just curious why you wouldnt load an approach into the airport. I think if you were using the built in glide slope and approach features it would be so much easier then dead reckoning by the gps. Great video guys! Thank you for sharing... :)

[@TheAlf61]

Nice going guys. It would be easier if you apply some IFR parameters. Line up 10 miles out, 6 miles out be at 1500 feet or so over the runway altitude, 200 feet half a mile out and you´d be right there. Alignment was great.

[@HiTechRob]

I literally had to shoot an emergency approach in IFR and use Foreflight with Garmin GDL 52 as backup AHRS when I had major flight deck failure in IMC.

[@TacoRocket]

Why not try a direct to on the iPad and use ForeFlight HSI?

[@ronhenderson9258]

you should do this again, but use the Approach and GP in foreflight.

[@superduper1917]

Sunglasses with polarization will prevent you from being able to see the screen. Take off your singlasses and repeat.

[@andersep68]

Nice idea and thanks for sharing. EASA (European rules) allows Flying VFR without ground sight on conditions that destination airport has less than 5/8 clouds and that PIC has >150 hours cross country. And VFR on Top is actually an IFR terminology allowing an IFR aircraft to fly on VFR altitudes. Most VFR pilots (myself included) calls it VFR on TOP but it's actually VFR without ground sight :) Great to follow you.

[@RightRudder]

+Per Andersen It's interesting to hear how the European standards and regulations compare to those here in the US. In general, from what I've heard it seems that in Europe regulations are a little more conservative than here. And glad you're enjoying my videos! :)

[@srvafool]

I have Foreflight and Flight Cheetah. Flight Cheetah has the same approach look, but when get on final, it has boxes to fly through to keep you on the glideslope. Far better than trying to "guess" your approach altitude. If you fly through the boxes, you maintain runway centerline and glideslope. Pretty cool. It also has instrument approach procedures.

[@RightRudder]

There is also an application for iPads called XAvion that we're planning on trying. It does Highway In The Sky boxes too.

[@cageordie]

Isn't that another Austin Meyer package? Like X-Plane? It is interesting seeing the flight simulator folding back into the real world.

[@RightRudder]

Flight Cheetah is Hardware. What Austin wrote is software called XAvion. We're going to be trying that one out too, to see if highway-in-the-sky on an iPad makes it any easier to find the airport and fly it down to the runway in an IMC emergency

[@srvafool]

When Trueflight software runs on any windows device it is an end product called Flight Cheetah. I run it on a Winbook tablet and on a Helm X650 computer. It has vertical guidance and is much easier to fly an approach with the HITS than the Foreflight without..

[@RightRudder]

Thanks for the clarification Alan! I looked them up, and here are a couple of links to that product for anyone interested in checking it out. The screen-shots of the display do look nice. aviationsafety.com/ aviationsafety.com/MiniCheetahFlightPad.html

[@curtisbrown5728]

great video, I would just suggest that u get a prop filter for ur cam. they're cheap & makes the prop invisible.

[@fhuber7507]

If you have 0 visibility and no other options... you use the best you have available.

[@felixtorres1895]

There is really no reason not have a numerical reading that always tells you how far you are from the end of the runway and how high you should be.😮😮😮😮😮If the terrain permits.

[@N9710A]

Great video but my largest concern about this experiment has nothing to do with the synthetic vision question. My concern is that I saw and heard NO (ZERO) communications on the CTAF about your position, intentions, and actions. That is troublesome.

[@RightRudder]

Between the two of us, David and I usually on the side of Over announcing, but maybe we were so focused we blew the call-outs. I need to go back and watch the raw footage of the video of the full flight again, to see if possibly those moments simply ended up on the cutting room floor. But then again, maybe in our excitement it was our oversight. I definitely don't want to give the impression that radio calls aren't needed! Once I review the full camera footage of the flight, I'll post a follow-up as to what I found. Either way, thanks for pointing this out.

[@RightRudder]

N9910A - I finally got a chance to go back to the hour+ worth of raw footage and dig around some. Sorry it took me so long to get this done! To My Relief, what I found were 7 occurrences of radio calls while doing those three synthetic view approaches. Here's a KZbin link showing those 7 outtakes that I found (maybe there were more that I didn't see) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGnUfqptq8p8bac Thanks for keeping me honest! Gene

[@mikefairbanks]

Exactly what I was thinking... even if calls were cut from the video, there were calls by other pilots, it was noted, but no response given. We saw 3 approaches from several miles out right down to the runway with no calls at all!

[@crasher9131]

Invest in a Yoke mount that helps

[@c208driver6]

one problem is this.....That whole system is dependent on an AHRS that is mounted. I you mount it using a suction cup mount and that thing pops off (which it always does at the worst possible moment) you're screwed. However as a backup to partial panel, it could make the difference.

[@BoomerangRCJets]

Excellent experiment, hopefully you'll never have to test it in actual flight. . Syntetic vision / AHARS as a last resort back up is an option that I never had in all my prior years of flying. Anytime we can increase the chance of a safe outcome to a bad situation then I'm all for it. But We all need to remain CURRENT with our old school instrument skills. The only thing I might add to this experiment is to overlay an approach plate onto the chart. It could help with runway alignment.

[@DanFrederiksen]

I could do that easy. You have to check if there are planes on the runway though. The only issue is how precise the GPS is in the ipad. GPS comes in many precisions. default is like +-10m out in the open. DGPS which is quite common in phones and such is +-1meter and that's actually plenty to land by. Altitude is a bit more sloppy but then you just let it sink until you touch the runway. Easy if the runway has more length than you need. RTK GPS can be precise to a few millimeters but that's not in the ipad. Better graphics in the synthetic vision can help a lot too. Try to realize that MS flight sim is synthetic vision. The next realization is then that the autopilot could easily land the plane as well.

[@fengzhang3776]

Great video! I was thinking to purchase a Stratus 2 because of Synthetic Version and back-up altitude. After watch the video, i think it will not be a good investment.

[@wvpolekat]

Seems to be the gentleman in the left seat didn't know how to read the synthetic vision. he kept asking his altitude when it is right on the display. He also kept turning left when the airport was to the right. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because my gut sure feels like this wasn't a genuine test and had the intent from the beginning to establish that these new tools isn't a replacement for instruments and not actually evaluate it.

[@RightRudder]

At the time my friend David was in about his 50th hour of hood-time in pursuit of his instrument rating. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that this caused looking to be so ingrained in his brain to look at the gauges he couldn't help himself. His confidence in the gauges had been honed, but not his confidence in something he hadn't tried before. (btw - a couple months later David passed his Instrument Check Ride! : )

[@cnypilot]

I would guess that it just isn't natural to be staring at your lap. He most likely would have faired better if it was yoke mounted.

[@mhoover]

Would it have helped to assume a ceiling of, say, 200 feet and then go visual?

[@deankaras8359]

Fascinating video

[@JulioBailon]

Sorry guys, but this is a little annoying that if you are planning to just use the iPad you keep on looking up. If you do something do it right please. Also, it is probably better to keep the map in the mode where it is not always pointing north.

[@Mrsmith42e]

I noticed that too, they should have had the map on track up.

[@industrieundtechnik1761]

Both low brainers

[@k2bump]

Is this his first time using foreflight?

[@ormandhunter3546]

Good job guys

[@Dodgerfan8627]

I would get dizzy with my head straight down like you guys have it. I usually have my iPad mounted on the yoke. once flew unknowingly in a busted plane in IMC where I had the iPad on my lap and I needed the iPad cuz the planes VORs didn't work and the heading indicator was busted too

[@kentshook3840]

Yeah, any yaw would really mess with your head in that situation because your head would be interpreting it as roll. Doing the FAA Spatial Disorientation Simulator is a real eye-opener for that sort of thing!

[@cnypilot]

Agreed. While I am instrument rated... I think I would have gotten sick with my head against my chest, staring down. It seems to me that it would be setting you up for spatial disorientation. Side note : I do not think this a great simulation of actual usage where pilots typically have it on a yoke mount.

[@kentshook3840]

It looked to me like, at least early in the video, you really needed to calibrate the AHRS. Hit the gear on the lower left of the synthetic vision display when you're straight and level and then "Zero Pitch and Bank." If you have at least the 2.0 firmware on your Stratus, it should be able to save your calibration between flights as well.

[@RightRudder]

Good eye Kent. What had happened was that the iPad that was being used to record the video off of and the one in our laps that we were flying by were to separate ipads. The one we were looking at was calibrated, but I missed doing the one that the camera was looking at.

[@jemand8462]

why would you even try it if you can't stop looking? Just don't upload it and try it again :D

[@psblad2667]

If you have a PPL then you have at least some training with the hood and should know how to read the airplanes instruments. With your level of knowledge you would probably not survive an IMC encounter. I have been flying for 50 years, APL, and know the importance of constant training and to be prepared for instrument failures, dubbel checking all analog instruments against each other including the electronic aids. You can probably teach a chimp to fly VFR but IFR is something quite different,

[@Mrsmith42e]

Alot of head bobbing on the first guy, really good way to get super disoriented.

[@Boston_Pilot]

Learn to trust you "instruments" 👍

[@genelee7869]

Bill, Always good advice!

[@NETBotic]

Turn ICS volume down, headphone volume up. Happens to me all the time.

[@RightRudder]

Yea Jon, you're right. And I've told myself to do that do that on many of my videos but then forget. This particular 172's ICS had a crazy amount of distortion in it, which didn't help either.

[@johnkeith8023]

Dear HD pilot. What were you using during the video for traffic showing up on your iPad??? Thank you very much

[@RightRudder]

Hi John, the traffic shows up on ForeFlight Because I also have a Stratus 2s. It receives both traffic and weather conditions via ADS-B. Hope that answers your question. Gene

[@ihelpsed8em]

+The HD Pilot thanks so much Just purchased the Stratus 2s. Awesome videos. Thanks and safe flying

[@RightRudder]

You'll love seeing how much other aircraft traffic is out there that you'd never noticed before

[@bruceking8291]

I TRIED 3 TIMES TO DONATE BUT COULD NOT DO SO. CONTACT ME IF POSSIBLE.

[@RightRudder]

+Bruce King Hello Bruce. First, Thank You so much for wanting to contribute to my videos at TheHDPilot! Sorry to hear though that it's not allowing you to sign up on Patreon. Please send me an email at "[e-mail]" and we can start an email dialog to figure out why. Gene

[@lawpilot8526]

2/15/2019 When you record a video, first state the date like this: “Today is 3/12/2019” Turn the music off, it is annoying.

[@johncarr123]

He would be dead if it was real life IFR