Lost Procedures
View Time= 4:28
What happens if you get lost? Do you know how to get your bearings, get help, and get so safety? It’s probably much easier than you think, and this situation doesn’t have to be too scary. Memorize the 5 C’s and you’re set!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Chris, great episode! I had never heard of this before… thanks! Very helpful info!
Cris.,,,Brief, but the best yet. FS is great cause I can fly in areas I would never go to normally.
I love the low and slow exploration of new terrain. Occasionally due to weather changes or darkness I will get lost. Being an old school pioneer I consider the GPS cheating and use ADF and VORs to find my way. But this episode gave me a new way to challenge myself. Thank you.
You know some of my A/C only have ADF for NAV
Ok Ok I know I should learn the GPS so far I only use it for sailing.
Cannot wait for Aviator PRO and beyond.
Throttling ON,
Tom Wilson
Throttle On, Tom! I always enjoy your comments.
I will show you how a GPS can be your best friend. I really don’t think there’s any honor in NOT using. Should you know how to use the other stuff? Sure! (ADFs are useless in the States, though) But a GPS is the future, for sure. We are going to talk about it quite a bit in AviatorPro!
Hi: really good advise. Waiting for next video!
Hi Chris, nice overview once again! Well done.
Just to add a little – other reasons for climbing is to increase the range of your radios and to increase your line of site to maybe find major landmarks that might help you.
On my second solo cross country as a student, I was flying on the prairies and even though I spent most of my life in the area I got completely and utterly lost and had no idea where to find the destination airport. I was so embarrassed to admit it but I eventually “confessed.” Even after ATC directed me, I couldn’t see the airport until I was almost over it.
Some simmers ask me if it is as hard to see an airport in real life as it can be in FSX and the answer is it is harder to see them in real life… (unless it’s an international airport of course). I like to play “find the airport” with my passengers as a game and they are surprised how hard they are to see. With experience, you start to pick up the visual clues of an airport from a distance but there are still times when I’m almost on top of the airport before I see it…
Again nice job Chris…
Hi Paul,
Really interesting observations! From a passenger seat in a commercial airline I’m always trying to spot the runway while the plane is in the final turn and it’s just so hard to see it, even the bigger airports! I thought this was just me not being used to it.
By the way, a question from my days as a radio amateur: have you guys, flying real planes, ever experienced interference in communications, mostly in summer, during the so-called propagation openings?
Chris, another great episode!
Cheers,
Tome
Hi Tome,
Regarding propagation openings, I have never experienced them. I don’t fly for a living so others who do fly nearly every day might have experienced them. The main interference I get is when others “step on you” (transmit at the same time) which an extremely annoying sound. Does that occur in the amateur radio bands?
It can happen, but not so often – at least in this part of central Europe, with lots of mountains and not so many ham radios
. Basically, radio amateurs don’t have to transmit on a specific frequency to talk to each other, so they can choose any frequency within the band.
During the 80s I’ve seen some really weird propagations on those hot summer afternoons – you could pick UHF signal from Norwegian radio amateurs, some 2000km away. Funniest thing though, was when the local TV stations had strong interference from Saudi Arabian TV
.
Never.
Most airplanes have static wicks now. Not sure if that helps.
I will just cheat and look at your Garmin when you are looking the other way.
Do they have strobes or anything like that at the airport to see them from afar? Some kind of lighting system could make sense?
C.
Hi: Charles Earl
For what is know airport at night have a lighting system most of the time at the top of the ATC tower with different color pattern: i believe that for public airport is two light one white and the other green and for military is two white and one green.
For day operation i think is more visual for vfr and for ifr vor and adf.
Feel free to correct me if i am wrong.
Hi Charles – okay smarty-pants, I’ll keep the Garmin at such a high range you can’t tell which airport is which!
As for lights, they aren’t on during the day (unless it’s IMC), or if they are on they are still hard to see. In Canada at least, lighting varies from airport to airport. There can be a rotating white beacon (no other colours in Canada at least) and its not always on the tower especially if it doesn’t have a tower! This link talks about the different lighting systems… http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/publications/tp14371/aga/7-0.htm#7-2
I have a question – does FSX simulate ARCAL lighting? This is one type of airport lighting where the incoming pilot can turn on the runway lights by clicking his PTT a number of times in sequence on the appropriate radio frequency. Vulcan airport (CFX6) and where Spock is from (LOL), has it right beside the spaceport landing.
FSX does not simulate PTT lighting, unfortunately. That’d be so awesome, though!
Great points here, and I totally agree. I figure terrain and communications go hand in hand though. If you don’t have terrain to worry about, more than likely you will have acceptable radio coverage. There are exceptions, though, so it’s important to keep in mind for sure.
Thanks for the awesome thoughts! Teaches us all something.
Another GEM …
jbn