Aviator90 Episode 43

Speaker: [0:31] Welcome to another episode of Aviator 90 from Angle of
Attack.
[0:35] What happens if you get lost? What are some things you can
do as an aviator to assist you in this particular situation? It
turns out that there is a very simple way to get found when you are
lost. This can be done in five simple steps called the five C’s.
So, let’s talk about each of these C’s in order of when they should
be done. Here we go.

[1:04] Confess. It’s hard to confess to your self that you’ve
screwed up and the situation has gotten beyond your control. Rather
than continuing on, making things worse and looking for answers
that aren’t there, confess to yourself that you are, in fact, lost
and you need to take the necessary steps to get back on track and
to safety.

[1:28] Climb. Climbing can be an important step because if we are
lost, then we don’t know what the terrain is in the area. This
means that we must climb to a safe altitude. Now, it could also be
argued that you can’t know your safe altitude if you’re lost, but
chances are you’re pretty close to where your original route was
that you can make a pretty good guess. So, guess on the side of
caution and climb higher, if needed.

[1:59] Conserve. Conserve is one of the biggest ones here. If
you’re lost and you don’t know where you are, then all of your fuel
calculations just went out the window. So you won’t be completing
your flight unless you were already close to your destination.
Chances are you have some fuel to use. A few great ways to conserve
fuel is to slow down, which means a reduction in engine power
making sure the mixture is set correctly for your new altitude and
anything else that comes to mind.

[2:34] This should be a number one concern throughout your lost
procedures as everything you will affects this. For example, if you
don’t confess early enough, you burn more fuel. If you climb and
you don’t really need to, you’ve just burned fuel unnecessarily. Be
on your toes on this one, and in every decision you make think
about fuel and conserving fuel.

[3:03] Communicate. Air traffic control can help you out a ton. If
you don’t know their frequency in your area, usually you can call
something called Flight Watch which basically has a flight service
station or other radio operators tuned in. Although this frequency
may be different in other countries, it is 122.0 here in the United
States. These people can assist you in getting in touch with ATC
where you can then hopefully get a radar ping so they know where
you are and they can help you get out of there with a radar vector
or something of that nature.

[3:42] So, the last C is comply. Once you are done with the first
four C’s, it’s important to comply with what ATC says as long as
fuel permits and then tackle that plan of action. That does it for
the five C’s. Basically, what you want to do is go through that
progression, get found, conserve fuel, climb, do what you need to
do and then get to safety. And get your bearings and get all set
for the next flight where I’m sure you would be more prepared.

[4:14] That is it for this episode. I will talk to you guys next
time. Until then, throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords