Lost procedure should be practiced not just read about

[spatial-case]

I was going to post this in the instruction forum but thought that more newbies may read it here... (moderator do as you see fit)

First a little background:

I am not naturally "spatially oriented". I never grew up using maps. I don't pay attention to where I am if I'm with someone and conversing with them and I'm only average at orienteering with map and compass. I follow directions best with "turn left at Mercer St, walk a couple blocks, then turn right onto Gowan Cres." as opposed to the male version which is "at the gas station go west until you see the big red sign, that's the beginning of Gowan Cres., you want to go north from there"

I'm not sure, but I think there is a rumour that women are not as spatially oriented as men.... well it hasn't been a problem for me.... until I became a pilot.

I once had an instructor who had me do "hood" work until he knew we were in an area we don't normally fly to and then have me take off the hood and find our home airport. He only did that once and realised that I needed a lot of work because I couldn't find where we were on the map and couldn't do the diversion because I didn't recognize anything on the ground on the map.

To this day I'm sure I couldn't do that exercise without feeling like CRAP !! I also only just realised that there is a "lost" procedure to follow, whereas I've always just called up on the radio and asked for a DF steer. NOTE TO ALL: The USA does not use the same phraseology for direction finding steers. They only understood me when I finally said "Request vectors to Sumspot airport".

Oxford aviation has a very nice paragraph on the lost procedure which I am posting here in hopes that it will help someone or have the knowledge sink in some more so when you are feeling a little panicky you may remember even one sentence from this paragraph:

"LOST PROCEDURE

a) Check compass/ASI to ensure you are flying planned headings/speeds

b) If meterological/airspace restrictions do not apply, climb to increase your visual/radio horizon.

c) Fix your position using all aids available, eg. VOR/DME, VDF, Radar fix, or visual fix.

d) If restricted to visual (map reading) methods, calculate a DR position (DR = 'deduced reckoning', commonly known as 'dead reckoning')

e) The DR position should be deduced using the position/time of the last known accurate fix and the track / groundspeed / time flown since that fix.

f) Then, draw a 'circle of uncertainty' around the DR position. (The circle is normally drawn with a radius of 10% of the distance flown since the last fix) Remember, that the DR position continues to move along track and the 'circle of uncertainty' gets larger with time.) Now map-read from ground-to-map. Try to identify a large visual feature and locate the aircraft on the map with reference to this feature. On most occasions the aircraft position should lie within the circle of uncertainty.

g) If still in difficulty, consider turning towards a good visual line feature outside the circle of uncertainty, eg. coastline, motorway, main railway. On reaching this line feature, turn and follow it until you find a definite visual checkpoint from which proper navigation can be resumed.

But be careful that you do not fly towards high ground in poor weather below safety altitude or that you do not fly into controlled airspace without clearance. Always keep a good lookout, monitor your fuel and aircraft systems and remember that you can use the Emergency Fixing Service on 121.5MHz (PAN call or raining Fix). If you do have to penetrate controlled airspace without clearance or are in another real emergency, squawk 7700."

excerpt from Oxford Aviation Services Limited
Chapter 8, Para 11 (page 8-8 of GNAV)

I wish I could have practiced this, I never had the pleasure to do this with an instructor.

I've only ever been 'disoriented' enough to have to use Controller services twice in day VFR but that is enough already. It would be nice to know if there is something to practice that would improve this spatial ability but now I'm into the IFR world where I just follow the radials. Maybe I'm a walking time-bomb, who knows, but I think I would feel better if I ever did happen to get 'disoriented' to use the navaids because I am now on an even playing field where no pilot can SEE where they are on a map... they must all use navaids.

Oh and another very important point:

IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN HALF TANKS
AND YOU ARE MEASURING WITH A DIP STICK...
make sure you wait until the sloshing of fuel settles before you measure the amount (that will read erroneously high then low as the fuel sways from your hopping up onto the strut)
OR USE A LADDER !!

It may sound like common sense but no one ever mentioned that to me, and finding it out by trial and error is not kosher. I dipped three times into each wing tank and thought I read a bit over half tanks but the wet fuel line was fuzzy. I was always told by the school that the fuel guages were wrong and to never trust them anyway. Two people in a C-150 with long range tanks, some baggage and a 2.3hr trip... I thought just over half tanks was well enough. Maybe I'll write that story another day...

[Medium Pimpin]

all i have to say is WOW ...
Was you airplane not equiped with any radio navigation aids?

[scm]

Let me introduce you to my best friend, Garmin

Seriously though, another good thing to do when lost is look behind you. If you recognize a prior landmark at least you'll get rid of that sinking feeling.

[Shiny Side Up]

Something that I don't think gets stressed enough is calling for help. If you get lost (and shit happens, its happened to the best of us) You might have to swallow a bit of pride to get yourself unlost before you get yourself into real trouble. Lord knows I've seen some people keep truckin' along before they admit it to themselves, but by then they start to run low on options.

That being said, if you're one of those people who get lost easily, have the common sense to place your own limits on yourself and just plain don't do stupid stuff (I've been on check rides with people who get lost in the circuit) Haven't done any navigating in a bit? Maybe do a short x-c trip before you do that trans-province business trip idea and embarrass yourself in front of your friends or coworkers, or worse, kill them with you.

[SplitS]

If you get lost so easily despite training invest a few bucks in a GPS - there really is no excuse for getting lost these days... Direct to nearest... solve all your problems...

[CLguy]

The first thing to do is admit you are lost. Once you admit it to yourself things will fall into place a lot better and your decision making will also be better. I know experienced pilots who have landed by boats and had to ask what lake they were fishing on so they could figure out where they were. Pretty humbling at the time, but it sure is good for a laugh later in life. It is all about situational awareness and this doesn't only appy to aviation.

Here's a little trick that may also save your life, especially in a Cessana. If you are lost and not sure of your fuel remaining, switch from both to either the left or right tank. Check the time and fly on that tank until the engine starts to sputter, then switch tanks, check the time and you can assume that you will have about that much time again before you are out of fuel. Hopefully you will have formulated a plan long before this but at least you will know roughly how much fuel you have remaining.

Actually you are never lost, just temporarily disorientated!!!!

[TG]

If you get lost so easily despite training invest a few bucks in a GPS -

SplitS is right.
But you can still run out of batteries, forgot your spares. Forgot the cable, or run into electrical's troubles if you can plug it or if installed in the dash. loose for some reason sat's signals, etc...
If it doesn't motive you to use your clock and compass correctly !?

Whatever, I would still go with the portable GPS. The fuel saved next time you'll get lost will pay for it.

[Hedley]

Here's a trick (pretty obvious, actually) so that you never, ever have to worry about batteries, or RAIM, or whatever else makes your GPS crap out.

Assuming you're flying direct to: after levelling off, and setting your cruise power/airspeed, push on the rudder pedals until the "bearing to dest" and "track made good" numbers are the same.

Note your heading. Write it down, or set the bug if you've got one. Let's says it's 278 degrees.

The GPS will tell you the ETA (say 11:30) or ETE (it's 1:30 enroute, and it's 10 o'clock now). Write down your ETA of 11:30.

Now, who cares if the GPS craps out. Hold the heading of 278 degrees and look down at 11:30.

This works really really really well, but is guarded like the crown jewels for some reason.

[spatial-case]

Thank you for your very good advice. Some really good tips.

I better tell Santa what I need this Christmas

I do have another check ride coming up and I'm pretty sure the aircraft doesn't have a GPS.

Anyway, I hope I'm not the only one who learned something from this thread.

Ciao for now.

[monkeyspankmasterflex]

Wow, I can't believe they named a cresent after Larry Gowan. In any event, learn to read a map, it'll come with time and you'll come to realize that you're not lost, you're just not where you want to be.

You're a strange animal, that's what I know....yeah!

[spatial-case]

Actually, I just made those street names up... although they may exist in real life, who knows.

You made me laugh, thanks.

[NorthernDuck]

Some good advice there.

Far too many people are relying on a GPS as their only source of navigation, and as posted above, when the batteries go dead, or the cable was forgotten, they can get themselves into big trouble. More and more students are even investing in a GPS to do their X-country flight during their training, which is not the point of that exercise.

I heard of one guy flying through a remote area when he had an electrical failure and thus lost power to the GPS. Ended up setting down on a lake and activating the ELT to wait for someone to come a tell him where he was. The result, a costly search.

Keeping up map reading skills can give you an easier way out of some "disorientated" situations.

[LostinRotation]

As part of student pilot's training I always take a student out...sometimes pretty far, get them to do a few spins, stalls...draw their attention away from where they are and where they are going....get them good and lost and say "ok, where are we and how do we get home"

I saw the original post mention VOR..... using two VOR stations will generally do the trick in anwsering the "where am I question"

Also it was mentioned to climb up and look around for landmarks etc....another good option

One I didn't see has to be one of the best.....fly lower and LOOK AT THE WATER TOWERS ! Who needs a bloody GPS when most towns of over 2000 people have a water tower with the name of the town painted right on it. I can't believe after 12 posts it wasn't mentioned, but GPS came up numerous times. Why get students hooked on GPS right off the bat ? Let them learn the basics before you make them lazy and reliant on instrumentation. Chances are they aren't going to get that first job working for JAZZ or A/C...give them a few methods they can use when lost in a 172 or a beaver.


-=0=LIR=0=-

[scm]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that a GPS should replace proper training - however if one is prone to getting lost, then why not have some sort of back up.

There are so many advantages in having a GPS - to name a few

-obstacle warnings
-DCT to nearest
-precise navigation to keep on flight planned track (in case of a ditching)
-terrain awareness in some models could save your life.

When i did my time building flight to the great slave the GPS was an asset. the batteries died on me, and the compass froze, but i still had myself positively identified on the VNC the entire time. The most complex instrument the aircraft had was a faulty turn coordinator...

cheers
scm

[w squared]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned here (specifically when you talked about ground-to-map reading) is the concept of orienting your map to the terrain. It's one of the basic precepts of land-based orienteering and navigation. If you try to transpose "The river is on my left for real, but it's on my right on the map, and the map says I should turn right, so I really should turn..." you're going to end up in worse shape than you were before.

Ok, I know you don't know what terrain you're looking at. However, take a look at the compass, and then line up the map so that it's oriented in roughly the same way as the earth is relative to the aircraft. This means that if you see a grouping of landmarks (a grouping of non-specific landmarks can be just as distinctive as a single specific landmark), you can estimate your position relative to them with a far smaller chance of serious error.

As far as GPS goes...use the tools that you have. However, don't let them become a crutch for you. When I was teaching land navigation for the military, I refused to let students use GPS until they had already demonstrated that the could effectively navigate using just the topo map and compass. Part of this was to prevent the GPS from becoming a crutch, but the other reason was that a GPS can be used far more effectively once you understand the other aspects of navigation.

[2R]

Your not lost, you just don't know where you are.