Piper PA46 Maintenance Shops

Reading Weather Prog Charts

ByHank Gibson January 27, 2015July 14, 2026

There are a multitude of weather products out there today to assist pilots in preparing for a flight.  Aviationweather.gov is the best source for getting all the information a pilot needs for planning a flight.  Aviationweather.gov is the National Weather Service’s source for all aviation related weather products.  When I teach about weather and weather briefings, I recommend to my students to utilize Aviationweather.gov in the planning stages, but still call the Flight Service Station to get a full fledged weather briefing before takeoff.

When preflight weather planning, one of the best ways to get a picture of what is happening over a broad area is utilizing the Low Level Significant Weather Prog charts.  The Prog chart gives a forecasted 12 and 24 hour picture of what type of weather to expect over the US.  The Prog chart gives the expected flight rules, areas of turbulence, and where the freezing level is located.  If you’re looking at the 4 panel view, the Surface Prog chart shows fronts, pressure areas, and areas of expected precipitation.  That covers just about everything, doesn’t it?

I believe the Prog charts are underutilized in planning.  Foreflight and Garmin Pilot have given easy access to radar pictures, satellite pictures, METARs, TAFs, and several other sources of weather information.  But, a lot of the easy access data you can get from those apps is current data (with the exception of the TAF) while a lot of the forecast data takes some hunting around.  So, products like Prog charts aren’t often utilized.

The other problem arises when pilots know about Prog charts, but don’t know how to read them, then don’t know how to find the legend to decipher the chart, the chart is often set aside and quickly forgotten about just because of a lack of knowledge.  Have no fear, though, as now we will use an example 4 panel Prog chart to decipher the lines and colorations.

Just looking at the Low Level Significant Weather Prog Chart above, it can be a little confusing.  That’s why they make a legend!

Coupling the legend with the chart above, we can determine some things.  First, California, parts of the Pacific Northwest, a small part of southern Arizona, and a good portion of the Midwest and East coast are going to have marginal VFR conditions in the next 12 hours.  Wisconsin, Illinois, a good portion of the Northeast, and a small portion of the Pacific Northwest will suffer IFR from IFR conditions.  There are going to be a good amount of low level turbulence in the northern and eastern parts of the country.  Finally, the freezing level starts at the surface running in a jagged line across the midwest states and curling up into the Northeast.

That’s a good bit of information, isn’t it?  If a pilot is planning a VFR flight into the Northeast tonight, it would probably be best to wait for another day, according to this chart.

Now, to see what is causing the conditions above, we need to look at the Surface Prog Chart.

The green circular areas above show that some form of precipitation is in that area.  The circular dots with the triangle located in Mexico and Baja California are depicting moderate rain showers.  If the triangle was gone, it would just be moderate rain.  In the northeast, all those symbols are showing moderate to heavy snow showers.  Across the plains, we see a lot of high pressure, meaning visibility and nice flying weather.

These charts are invaluable when it comes to flight planning, especially over long distances when the weather could be changing a lot over the period of your flight.  Put them to use the next time you are planning a trip and you’ll learn you have a much better picture of what the weather is doing.

Garmin 430 Guide By Pilot Workshops

ByHank Gibson June 25, 2016July 8, 2016

Are you still trying to master the Garmin 430 in your airplane?  Is it giving you fits because you keep twisting the big knob instead of the small knob?  Would you like a step-by-step guide to each and every part of the Garmin 430?

Pilot proficiency website PilotWorkshops.com has published a very thorough, step-by-step manual on how to use the Garmin 430.  Want to load a flight plan?  There’s a section for that.  Want to load an approach?  There is a section for that as well.

The Pilot-friendly Garmin 430 manual is a great reference to have for Garmin pilots.  Pilot Workshops offers a guide for the Garmin 430 and the Garmin 430W, depending on if you have WAAS or not.

The hard copy guides are $44.95, but you can also download the PDF version of each for $19.95.

To get more information on the guide or to order one, you can visit the Pilot Workshops website. (Have another Garmin or King GPS unit?  Pilot Workshops has guides for a variety of different GPS units)

PIREP: Austin Executive Opens a Control Tower

ByHank Gibson February 26, 2018

Austin Executive Airport opened a control tower on Friday, February 23rd 2018.  The airport is now officially Class D airspace.  The charts and A/FD are not updated yet to reflect the tower, but there is a NOTAM with the tower and ground frequency information.  The tower hours are from 6am to 10pm.  The weather frequency remains the same.

Make sure you check those NOTAMs if you are headed to KEDC anytime soon!

KEDC Tower Frequency:  120.3

KEDC Ground:  119.45

The Piper Saratoga Turbo

ByHank Gibson June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Recently, I assisted with the delivery of a 2007 Piper Saratoga Turbo from San Antonio to New York City.  It was a very nicely equipped airplane, complete with a Garmin G1000 panel, an STEC 55x autopilot, and air conditioning.  The owner joined me on the flight back to get trained in the airplane, getting him comfortable in it over our 2 day excursion back to NYC.  Total flight time was 12 hours, though that did include several stops along the way and landing practice at the airports we stopped at.

The 6 seat Turbo Saratoga is a very comfortable, very capable flying machine.  It is made for hauling, with a gross weight of 3,600 pounds, but that’s not to say it isn’t lacking in comfort, either.  The rear cabin has 4 seats, 2 facing forward and 2 facing rear.  It would be a little tight for 4 full size adults in the back seat.  To avoid knee knocking, the plane is an excellent 4 person and bags aircraft (or 4 adults and 2 kids).

The really nice part about the Piper Saratoga is the baggage door.  Unlike the Bonanza, the Piper Saratoga has a baggage door that opens to the baggage compartment, creating a much easier way to load and unload baggage.  The nose baggage compartment, which holds an additional 100 pounds, is a very nice feature, allowing the bag load to be spread out.

We typically saw cruise speeds of 155-165 KTAS depending on altitude.  The highest we went was only about 9,000 feet, so we didn’t get up real high to see what the single turbo could do.  Even though the Lycoming TIO-540 engine burns about 20 gallons an hour, with 102 gallons of gas on board, the fuel consistently outlasted our desire to continue flying.

Being equipped with the G1000 was a very nice feature of this particular Piper Saratoga.  The screens are nice and big, larger than the displays on a high wing Cessna or a Corvalis.  That allows for easier viewing of approach plates, NEXRAD, and the engine gauges.

There are always downsides to an airplane, and the Saratoga is no exception.  The STEC Autopilot leaves some to be desired as I felt it hampered the capability of the G1000 when shooting approaches because the 12 knot crosswind limitation on the autopilot. You can still use the autopilot on an approach with higher than 12 knot crosswinds, but the autopilot tends to search around for the final approach course.

The air conditioning works very nicely, though it did have a tendency to freeze up at altitude.  We discovered that quickly and just decided to turn it off and leave the blower on, since it was cool enough up high anyway.

Overall, the Turbo Saratoga is a very nice airplane.  The speed leaves a little to be desired (you can get 10 KTAS more out of a Bonanza with a Continental engine, about 20 knots more if it is a Turbo Bonanza), but it is very high on comfort.  The Piper Saratoga makes for a good family airplane or as a hauler.  I liked the airplane a lot and thoroughly enjoyed my time in it.

Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates

ByHank Gibson August 19, 2014

There are a number of airplanes out there equipped with the Avidyne Entegra PFD and MFD system, most notably the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 models from the early 2000s and the Columbia 350 and 400 from the same era.  The Entegra is pretty simple and easy to learn, but doesn’t have the capability that it’s Garmin glass panel counterparts do (I have not, however, tried the R9, which could prove much more capable than it’s predecessor).  I have found that pilots master the Entegra a lot quicker because of the reduced functionality.

One of the nice features of the Avidyne Entegra is the CMAX Chartview option.  With a yearly subscription, you can get all the Jeppesen approach plates and airport diagrams for the entire US on your MFD.  Just like your GPS, though, you have to update the charts monthly to keep them legal.  After a period of time when you don’t keep up with the updates (I believe it is 90 days), then the charts disappear.

The update process is a little tricky if you don’t have someone to explain it to you.  Once you go through it a few times, you’ll have it down pat.  Here’s the process for the Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates.

Jeppesen Subscription

The first step in performing your Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates is to create an account with Jeppesen, who handles all the GPS NavData and MFD Chart updates for both Garmin and Avidyne.  If you already have a Jeppesen subscription, you can skip down to the next section.  To do that, simply go to jeppdirect.jeppesen.com, and then do the following:

• Click on Avionics Data on the upper left hand side
• Click “Purchase Avionics Subscription”
• Then, click on “Create Account” in the new users section
• Once you’ve created an account, login, then put in your aircraft information and select 1 update for the Avidyne Entegra EX500 EX 5000
• Click Continue at the bottom and you can put in your payment information

Software Needed

There are two different programs depending on if you have a PC or a Mac.  If you have a PC, you need the Jeppesen Services Update Manager (JSUM).  If you have a Mac, you need the Jeppesen Distribution Manager (JDM).  Download whichever one you need, then login, and your updates will show up.

Downloading the Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates

First, we’ll go through the process of performing the Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates process for a Windows computer, using JSUM.    You’ll need two 2 GB USB drives formatted to FAT 16.  Here’s how to format to FAT 16.

• Go to My Computer after inserting the USB drive
• Right click on the drive
• Click on Format, then select FAT and press OK

Once the USB drive is formatted to FAT16, open up the JSUM program.  Login and your updates will be displayed on the screen

• You’ll need to set the Avidyne CMAX Key Code
  • Right click the Avidyne Electronic Charts Service and click Set Avidyne Key
  • To get the key code, visit MyAvidyne.com and create an account using your JeppView subscription number and your serial number for your Avidyne MFD (found on the AUX page) and your PFD serial number (displayed on startup when the PFD is warming up)
  • Once you get the Key Code, copy and paste it in the window and click OK
• Click on the service and click Start
• The program should automatically detect the drive (if it doesn’t, click browse and select the drive)
• Click Continue and the charts will start downloading and automatically programmed to the USB drive
• If you are updating NavData on the MFD as well, follow the same steps as listed above in order to update the NavData

Next, we’ll go through the Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates process on a Mac, using the JDM program.  You’ll need two 2 GB USB flash drives formatted to FAT 16 (the easiest way to format to FAT 16 is on a Windows computer, using the process above).

• Open the JDM program and login
• Insert the first USB drive
• You’ll need to set your Avidyne CMAX Key Code
  • Click Service Details under the Electronic Charts Service
  • Click Set Avidyne CMAX Key Code
  • Program automatically detects the USB drive
• Click and drag the Electronic Charts service over to the USB and release
• The service is downloaded and copied to the USB drive automatically
• Eject the USB drive
• Insert the second USB drive (or plug the USB drive in to your MFD, do the update, then reformat the drive) and follow the same steps for the NavData

Updated the MFD with the Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates

Once everything is programmed the your USB drives, the rest of the process is simple.  Just go out to your airplane, plug in the first USB drive with the Electronic Charts on it, turn your battery on and the avionics master, and the system will upload the information automatically.  Once it’s finished, turn everything off, pull the USB drive out, then insert the second USB drive and do the same thing.

Now, you’re all updated!

If you’d like to see a video on the process, Jeppesen has some very good videos on the updating procedure.  The links are below.  If you have questions, please contact Texas Top Aviation and an expert will help you through the process.

JSUM USB Programming Procedure

JDM USB Programming Procedure

Avidyne Entegra Chart Updates Upload