Familiarity and the Unplanned
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Chris,
Really enjoyed the last few lessons. Sometimes I think that it is just too easy to load up a flight in impossible conditions and just soldier on. As you say there is no real consequence for any action in the sim. You can even turn failures off so that the aeroplane works perfectly all the time.
In real life the only mishap I have had happen to me was a radio faliure outside of controlled airspace. Ther radio was receiving transmissions throughout the flight but for some reason decided not to transmit. I had about 40 hours experience, mostly in a simililar C150, but this was the first time I had flown this particular plane. Anyway, as we headed back to the airport I tried to contact tower to enter their airspace and there was no response. Tried several times to contact them, but still no response. by this time I had turned 180 away from the airspace boundary, and was beginning to get quite concerned. On that day I didn’t have my mobile phone with me and completely forgot to ask my passenger if he had his. After about 15 minutes of orbiting one of the local landmarks and messing with fuses and connections, the radio came good and I was able to contact the tower, get clearance and get the plane back to the Aeroclub for someone else to use.
During the process I forgot to ask about the phone and only briefly considered diverting to another airfield (this would have breached the conditions of my license at the time – GFPT regs in Australia). Otherwise I was definately fixated on getting the radio working. Fortunately I knew I had enough fuel to fly for about 3 hours so there were no issues there. While I never stopped flying the plane I was certainly distracted by the problem and my inexperience flying and in that aircraft was quite evident at that point. After I landed they grounded the aircraft and it took them almost a day to isolate the problem which had become an almost total transmission failure.
The good things were that my mate the passenger thought I was cool and calm during the flight and I didn’t violate controlled airspace. The aeroclub also published a procedure and inserted it into the POH for dealing with similar problems. I also learned a hell of a lot about being an aviator and about my own limitations and reactions under stress. Now when I fly I try to think aboout as many “what ifs” as I can and am always looking out for emergency landing spots.
Anyway , keep up the great work. Looking forward to the next installment…….throttle on!
Wow, it sounds like you handled that situation perfectly. I had a lot of radio issues as well, none were that persistent or severe (an in and out type of thing). It’s super important not to panic and just manage what is going on, and you did exactly that. Yes, there may be more focus somewhere at one time, but you never stopped flying the airplane and you actually got it to work which is really impressive! It is things like that which put hair on our chest, isn’t it?
Throttle on!
Great episodes Chris and thanks for the Real Environment X and Active Sky “shout outs”
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Had a lunchtime flight today between KARB and KJXN. Very pertinent episode. Planning and knowing your performance is super important. I followed a GPS waypoint from KJXN to KARB today. Fortunately I planned for plenty of fuel even though it was a short flight.
I was carrying 2 passengers and was within 50 pounds of max weight on takeoff from KARB to KJXN. This gave me 20 gallons of fuel (or 2.4 hours). I expected to use only 1.0 hours of fuel given the distance, winds, and performance data from the POH, but gave myself .5 hours extra just in case we got to exploring, and then 45 minutes extra on top of that. Thank God I did. I was expecting 111 knots (according to POH, but was only getting 90) . Then, after lunch at KJXN, I expected GPS direct back to KARB but boy was I surprised.
After leaving KJXN class D space I tracked to the 100 degree radial from KJXN toward KARB. As a back up I tuned in KARB on the GPS. As I saw the courses begin to line up I switched CDI to GPS to track the Garmin all the way home. I noticed a slight deviation from my planned CH, but figured my math must have been slightly off. When within 15 miles of KARB I was looking for Pleasant Lake (a nice landmark), but didn’t see it. The GPS said I was close though so I got the weather and then within 10 nautical miles I called in.
My next hint should have been when they asked me to ident. “They cant see me” I thought, and was a bit uneasy because I couldn’t see them or any familiar land marks. But I idented. They didn’t observe or say anything to me. “Crap they can’t see me” I thought again.
They directed some other traffic and then asked again “Cessna 12345, state your position again”.
“Cessna 12345 is now 8 miles W at 3000″, I replied.
No response. “Crap, they still can’t see me” I thought as I searched the horizon and side-to-side for something familiar.
They directed other traffic and then again, “Cessna 12345, state your position again.”
“Cessna 12345 is 3 miles west of the airport?” I said, no longer believing my GPS; it should have been super easy to see KARB at this point.
“Cessna 12345, please ident again.”
“Crap”, I thought and idented.
A pause… “Cessna 12345 ident observed. We have you 15 miles south west of the field” they stated.
“, then my GPS is lying to me. Would you please provide me vectors to the airport?” I responded.
The friendly tower vectored me to KARB and I saw the field by the time I reached my familiar landmark, Pleasant Lake. “Ann Arbor tower, Cessna 12345 has the airport in site at 12 o’clock and 10 miles.”
“Roger Cessna 12345, make right base runway 24 number two following….”, they continued
What a relief. I landed having used 1.6 hours of fuel (so barely tapped into my reserves). Next time I will trust my flight planning over GPS vectors. I knew the environment looked unfamiliar, but I kept telling myself I was simply unfamiliar with the ground at this time of year and from this direction and that the GPS just couldn’t be lying to me. In speaking to the flight school as I paid up and reported my “squawk”, I was informed that indeed someone had programmed a KARB waypoint and they had been trying to clear it for a while.
In my personal rule book now: GPS is strictly a back up. Trust your dead reckoning and pilotage first. If things don’t add up. Trust a controller before you trust your GPS. I had plenty of fuel like I said, but we got back to the office very late. The good part is, I learned something and got a tale out of it too.
Wow, yeah. This episode certainly rings true for you, then. You said a few things that I’d like to discuss further, however.
Personally, I trust my GPS more than any other type of navigation. It’s more accurate, more reliable and easier to use than any other navigation instrument I have, including a calculator.
But, that isn’t what really matters here I guess. Even a GPS can screw up. ANYTHING can screw up. Again, the unplanned.
You did the perfect thing. You knew something wasn’t quite right. I’m not sure if it was this episode where I talked about that ‘feeling’ where something just doesn’t fit right. Might be in one of the next episodes.
You knew something was out of the norm, and you took the course of action to correct it. In my experience ATC is so awesome in assisting in my time of need. Sounds like the did the exact same for you.
You are exhibiting some awesome decision making and aviator skills here.
You’re totally on the right path, man. Keep it up.
Chris, another thanks for these free lessons. I’ve been following closely and taking notes. I picked up FSX about 3 weeks ago on a whim, and have been consumed with it ever since. I’m a visual learner by nature so your lessons are perfect for me. I really like the highlighting and animations used to augment the audio instruction.
In the past 3 weeks, I’ve gone from flying on “easy” mode to full realism, albeit in smaller craft like the Cub and Cessna 172, Mooney Bravo, etc.
I’ll be following closely the future episode releases. Keep up the great work. When I get to the big birds, I’ll definitely purchase AoA’s PDMG 747 tutorial DVD’s!
Thanks again for your work and the free lessons!
A new comer! Very cool! I had flight simulator for a year or two before I found out that there was such thing as ‘addons’ for it. As funny as that sounds, it was the case at that time. But, that was back in the day when this whole thing was just barely getting momentum.
This isn’t meant to toot my own horn, but something like Aviator90 didn’t exist then, and it doesn’t exist now. We are pretty groundbreaking with this free series.
Welcome to the community, Jeff. I’m so glad you can across our stuff and you’re enjoying it.
Throttle On!
Good point. The GPS has served me well too. I guess what I really should take away from it is: if your gut and planning and pilotage tell you one thing and your GPS (or other aid) tells you another, don’t be afraid to have doubt and ask for help/confirmation from those friendly people with the radar dishes.
Amen to that! There’s no problem with investigating to making sure everything is hunky-dorie. Cross verification is not a bad thing with aviation.
Hi Chris! I found your tutorials through a thread on vatsims forums and i’d just like to say that you are doing an awesome job, I’ve learned more on these than anywhere else. Thanks!
I’d also like to say that i disagree with some of the negative posters on that certain thread (you might remember which one im talking about as you replied on it) especially the abusive ones, don’t waste your energy on people that are going to critize you no matter what. You got a supporter in me atleast.
William
Yeah. I was initially pretty upset about that post just because it really irks me when people are like that. I don’t know how a person becomes that negative and mean. Even Simon Cowell isn’t that bad!
Anyway, I got out of dodge when I saw there was no hope. I actually don’t like forums for that reason. I choose to do the blog, offer really great content, and then have a conversation about it. I feel like that works really well for me.
I’m glad you ran across our stuff and that you are enjoying what you are watching and learning. Aviator90 has become quite special for us and we quite proud of how it is shaping up. We know that it’ll only get better over time as more and more people find out about it.
It’s way easier to criticize than it is to produce. No one is infallible. In aviation, if you believe you are you are probably not that far from an uneven number of takeoffs and landings. Keep up the good work Chris!
Words from a wise and safe pilot; Louis. Totally accurate. Thanks man!
Forget those that have nothing positive to add. Constructive is one thing but plain rude and synical comments help no one and only expose jerks for who they really are. I value what you are doing here. As a simmer for years and planning on getting my license some day before I reach retirement age, there has been far too little content of this caliber for us in the community. I was VERY happy to find this blog after all this time. Thank you for your effort and enthusiasm! Honestly. I recently had a real pilot friend of mine look over some of your episodes and chat with me about some of the theory and so on and he immediately expressed admiration for what you are doing. He had nothing but great things to say about your material and quality. Material of this kind for free and high quality from a qualified pilot all for us “sim” pilots is really great.
Throttle on and keep up the great work you do here.
Charles.
Thanks a ton, Charles. I’ve become pretty good at sniffing out constructive criticism vs. someone that just wants to look cool. Funny thing is, they end up looking stupid.
Thanks for all the comments. Not sure I deserve all that. It’s great to hear you put in words how much you like this series. It really does keep me going. It really is all downhill from here.
Thanks again!