Pilots’ world is full of acronyms and sayings to help memorizing critical facts, procedures and flows. Some of them are neutral and even make sense in the usage context like IMSAFE self check:
Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, External Pressure
Some lack much sense, like pre landing check list:
Brakes off
Undercarriage (down and locked)
Mixture rich
Propeller pitch
Fuel pump on and sufficient
Instruments (D.I, altimeter)
Switches (carb heat, landing light, etc.)
Harnesses and hatches secure
Some are just funny, like TOMATO FLAMES (required VFR equipment list):
Tachometer for each engine
Oil Temperature for each air-cooled engine
Magnetic Compass with Deviation Card
Airspeed Indicator
Temperature gauge
Oil Pressure gauge
Fuel gauge for each fuel tank
Landing gear position indicator
Altimeter
Manifold pressure gauge
ELT, if required
Safety belts and harnesses
While preparing for the FAA written exam I found it’s difficult to remember VFR weather minimums. See yourself, this table is not memory friendly http://www.faa.gov/ATPubs/AIM/Chap3/aim0301.html#tbB190ROBE. So I decided to come up with the way to memorize all those numbers by classifying and creating a smaller table.
First, we have three levels of visibility and three levels of clouds clearance.
Visibility (odd numbers):
- Low: 1 mile
- Medium: 3 miles (Low + 2)
- High: 5 miles (Medium + 2)
Clouds clearance:
- Low: Clear of Clouds
- Medium: 500, 1000, 2000 (progression: 500, 500*2, 500*2*2)
- High: 1000, 1000, 1 mile (three ones)
There are total 5 different combinations of these requirements:
|
Level |
Visibility |
Cloud
Clearance |
Airspace |
|
Weak |
Low |
Low |
Low G (0-1,200AGL) day |
|
Relaxed 1 |
Low |
Medium |
Middle G (1,200AGL-10,000MSL) day |
|
Relaxed 2 |
Medium |
Low |
B |
|
Medium |
Medium |
Medium |
C, D, low E(<10,000MSL), G night |
|
Strict |
High |
High |
High E (>10,000MSL), high G(>10,000MSL) |
Essentially, we have four levels of weather minimums with two variations of Relaxed. To avoid confusion with “Relaxed” levels think that it’s important to see the traffic and ground in Bravo airspace (medium visibility over the low cloud clearance) as it is more congested than Golf (low visibility and medium cloud clearance).
Although it does not look as simple as GUMPS after making this table I remembered those numbers well. I guess working on your own mnemonic system (even a lousy one) is the best way to memorize things. J