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18 • TWIN & TURBINE DECEMBER 2015From the Flight Deck Guide My Sleighfrequency of an in-range FBO for fuel information. With the touch of a finger, we can see current METARS and fuel prices. Although normally involving self-serve stations, the fuel cost icons on electronic charts help us locate less-expensive fuel at out- of-the-way fields.Wet Head and Wet PantsHave you noticed, though, that the self-serve fuel pumps are typically nowhere near the public restrooms? Or any shelter for that matter. Picture progressive taxi instructions to a remote, wind-swept ramp out near the landfill. And sometimes the pumps require a checkride, sign-off and training-completion code before they‘ll work. While WAAS may help us to get into more airports with bad weather and cheap fuel, the fact that you needed LPV minimums in the first place indicates that the METAR likely includes OBSCD, FG, BR, RA, TSRA or SN – sometimes with a plus sign in front of them. These visibility restrictions dampen my bald head on that unsheltered, wind-swept ramp out by the landfill. We must now consider not only the approach available, the distance/cost of going off-course for the cheaper fuel, but the wet-head component. We must also consider how urgently we and our pax need the public restroom. After remote fueling, we sometimes need to restart the motors and taxi back to civilization and the indoor potty.by Kevin R. DingmanThis past fall, I made several trips in the Duke that needed the WAAS GPS discussed in the September T&T article “Old- School”: a Garmin 430W coupled to a Century IV autopilot and flight director. In fact, one leg would turn out to be critical – more on this in a bit. The trips were right around the time when a weather system coming off the Atlantic produced strong winds along the Eastern U.S. As explained by the weather channel, some of us learned an additional application for the word “fetch” – other than the ones involving a tossed stick or a spousal request. Apparently, fetch can also be used to describe the effect of strong, sustained winds traveling a long distance over a large body of water. The phenomenon created hefty surf, flooding and plenty of low IMC.Unless we’re taking someone to a major airport to use the airlines, our final destination can normally be reached more efficiently by landing at one of the thousands of GA airports around the country. During the weather systems’ influence, WAAS GPS allowed me to fly the Duke into airports in the Carolinas previously served only by traditional non-precision approach procedures. Looking back at those approaches, we can shake our heads and reflect as we compare not only the inaccuracy of their lateral and vertical guidance, but the stability of the procedure, the navaid and the avionics displaying the information. GPS, modern avionics and NextGen procedures have turned another page in aviation history. GPS approaches with LPV minimums, to thousands of airports that were previously accessible only through VOR, NDB or circling approaches, offer a substantial increase in utility and safety.Biblically SpeakingAnd since we celebrate a pivotal and culturally-momentous event in December, I can seasonally and politically correctly add that the increases in safety and utility are of Biblical proportions. With cooperative terrain, we can descend as much as three or four hundred feet lower than before– usually to a DH of 200-250 feet AGL. And, with proper approach or runway lighting, to visibilities in the 3⁄4 mile range. These minimums are pretty much what you get on the average ILS. This significantly increases our options. And when your back is up against The Red Sea, options are a good thing – biblically speaking. Another momentous feature provided by modern electronic gadgetry is current weather and fuel prices at airports along our route. That’s immensely more efficient than asking center to dig up the weather or locating the