Operational Tips & Tricks

Some of you may not be aware of the increased gross weight of our Cessna.

Attached are performance data as well as weight and balance for weights above 2950. Do keep in mind though that max landing weight remains at 2950.

This is just a reminder of what our Garmin GTN 750s & 650 will (and won't) do related to ILS approaches. Many (most?) of you may already know this, but it's a good reminder nonetheless. I was flying with a member in the A36 the other day and (after fulfilling my duties to look out for traffic) saw that the 750 wasn't tracking the ILS properly - after diagnosing, we recognized that the LOC freq had been automatically populated into the 750 upon activation of the approach, BUT...we hadn't made it active (manually). So just remember, when you activate an ILS in the 750, it will help you by putting the LOC freq into STANDBY, but NOT into Active - you must do that yourself. It will switch from GPS to VLOC automatically (if set up properly under Settings), but will leave the LOC freq as standby. I was readin…

Thought I would share this from my recent angel flight. Took off from KCJR (Culpepper Va) at 3550lbs. Hot day, 36C, no wind. Performance calculations indicated a takeoff roll of 1350’. Using a 50% margin gave me a roll of 2030’.

Using zero flaps and short field takeoff, we rotated right at 2000 plus feet.

It was a dog! So, if you are ever planning a heavy takeoff, I recommend a 50% margin add.

For some time I have been working on a hard number for when to get my IFR clearance on the ground vs picking it up inflight. Today, on Opposing Bases podcast (if you aren’t listening to it, you should) episode 443 they were talking about IFR clearances and release times etc. At one point the discussion centered on picking up on the ground or inflight.

ATC really needs to get you to MVA, which of course we can’t see, but typically the final approach altitude is reasonably close to MVA. They strongly recommend if you cant climb in visual conditions to at least that altitude PLEASE get your clearance on the ground! That makes a lot of sense to me and is my new “hard number.”