A useful trick that I found to add some challenge to these trips is to put the MFD (the screen on the right side) on the weather radar screen and leave it in standby, and then set the CDI on the PFD to VOR mode. This takes away all visual reference to your course on the screens without deleting the flightplan, forcing you to rely more on dead-reckoning and pilotage while at the same time giving you a safety net. It also allows you to use the autopilot, which I use to lighten workload (I fly by hand until I’m established on my course then use the AP to keep the plane straight and level while I read the Navlog, look around for landmarks, etc). Turning off your avionics master disables the autopilot system entirely, so I came up with this solution to keep that option open for use where needed. I also keep a VFR map from Navigraph or Skyvector open on my MacBook (with Moving Maps turned OFF). That way I have the same reference material available that I’d have if I were doing the flight for real.
If you DO get lost you can just swap the CDI back to GPS mode, and since it works much like a VOR it still feels somewhat challenging/immersive (and it’s literally just a couple clicks of one softkey to go back to hard mode).
I did notice in doing this that the magenta numbers for DTRK, TRK, ETE and BRG (bearing direct to waypoint) are still shown on their respective screens, but they’re much more difficult to see (and MUCH easier to ignore) if you’re using a proper camera view that focuses primarily out the front of the plane. While flying I keep my camera as high and as forward in the cockpit as I can (keeping the PFD screen just in view so I can read my attitude) so I can see over the dash, and fairly zoomed out for a wider field of view. This makes the smaller text on the screen harder to read without zooming back in a bit. But the numbers ARE still there and since I can’t turn them off (maybe I can idk) I figured out a way use them to sort of evaluate myself in-flight while doing the Appalachian trip:
Staying on the charted course.
Cross-check the Navlog heading for each waypoint with the magenta BRG displayed in the top right of the PFD. The closer together those numbers are, the better you’re doing. If they’re way off each other then you’ve gone pretty far off the charted course. Example; if my navlog tells me to turn from hdg 125 to hdg 090 and I do so, but then a minute or so later I check the BRG and it says 067 this tells me I’ve either overshot the course severely to the south or I haven’t compensated enough for a heavy wind out of the north. If it reads, say 093, then I’ve only slightly undershot the turn and am still pretty much on course. From this you can deduce what you may have done wrong while still in flight and make improvements to your flying skills, literally, on the fly. This does you no good unless you’ve switched the CDI to VOR so you can’t see the magenta bar on your rose, though, as the bar will clue you in that you’re going off course so your brain won’t let you make the mistake to begin with. Hence, no potential for improvement.
Timing and Identifying landmarks/cities without a map.
Using the Navlog and the DTRK (desired track or direct track) also helps identify which leg you are on and if you’ve gone past the waypoint you’re aiming for or not. If you’ve flown a 090 hdg following a river towards Randomville for what feels like way too long, or you’re not sure if Randomville is the one you’re passing over or the one 5 miles up ahead, check the DTRK against the Navlog and you can quickly see if you’ve passed your target already. This can be less precise when waypoints are laid out close together, or in a nearly straight line, though. Maybe this is a bit of a cheat, but if you’re using it to retroactively double-check your flying rather than to actively navigate, then I’d argue it’s not.
If you turn on your wind info panel on the PFD, using the TRK will help you better understand how wind affects your course in different scenarios. Over time and with experience you’ll begin to remember how much to compensate for different levels/directions of wind and you won’t need to reference this anyway unless you’re flying into a hurricane or heavy thunderstorm (which you won’t on a bush trip since they’re VFR).
ETE isn’t really very helpful in this sense because the only thing it could help with is improving your mental procedure for course changes; i.e. are you starting/stopping/resetting your stopwatch at the right times. Otherwise it’s a minor cheat so I ignore it and try to either stick with the flightplan and stopwatch or focus on following landmarks like the roads and rivers, only referencing the ETE if I know I’m off course since being off-course changes the Navlog timings anyway.
So basically, with this method you have the numbers there for reference if you’re not sure if you’re lost or not, and you can find your own way back on-course if you ARE lost without using the Back on Track feature, but you also DON’T have the cheat codes (the map and pointer) staring you in the face either. It’s been helping me to understand where I need to improve my flying quite effectively by challenging myself to keep my eyes outside the cockpit more and only use the numbers to assess my performance. If you do this enough you will learn from your mistakes and eventually improve to the point where you can confidently take on some of the more difficult bush trips in planes that only have analog instrumentation.
If anybody else tries this technique, let me know how it works out for you and if it helped you as well. Fly safe!