Learning to Fly: Getting Lost (Part 2)

Good lesson, don't panic and keep thinking. Also don't be afraid to ask for help. And things are not always what they seem to be.

Thanks for sharing!

Hi Tinypilot18

Two bits from an old African bush pilot. If you just started flying, welcome to a wonderful world of freedom only you and other pilots will understand, don't try to explain it to non flyers, just enjoy. I learned to fly when I was 16 and stopped at 52 for health reasons. All small planes and a bunch of gliding (Try gliding, it could save your life, because you learn good procedures.) Today I love all the cool nav-aids like an electric calculator, GPS, and all the beacons and controllers, radar, transponders, emergency locator beacons....

Not having much back when I learned to fly (specially in Africa) meant that you were taught how to get from a to be without them. Here fuel management was crucial, there were non many fields around, so don't get into trouble. Most of my flying was in the sticks and the Instructors I had worked on the skills I needed for the bush. There were a few things that still ring out to me today.

1. FLY THE PLANE + Always check for at least 3 nav points before changing coarse. Maps get out of date, developers throw up whole towns in a couple of months, fires destroy whole landscapes.
2. FLY THE PLANE + Learn to visualise the topography from the map of your coarse. Today you can go onto Google Earth and "fly" the entire route and get a good feel for it. BUT FIRST do it with your map and the go to Google Earth. Cartographers put things on maps we a/ need to know about b/can find with instruments c/ can see. Make a point of "flying the map" Identifying landmarks and relating them to the map. See mapped point and finding them on the ground.
3. FLY THE PLANE +Use a pencil and mark the actual time you cross a feature on the map and the actual posi your are on the map. This will give you a rolling record you can use to check wind speed and direction, errors in your met forecasts, fuel calcs ....
4. FLY THE PLANE + I know most schools still teach this stuff, but students are overloaded with the no. of new things to learn and as a gadget fan I am also quick to go to the gismo's instead of ALSO practising the BASIC ESSENTIALS.
5. FLY THE PLANE + you can run out of fuel, run out of height, run out of light, just never run out of ideas.

I was privileged to have had my final hours of instruction on my PPL by a remarkable man, Fred Slagman, who had been Chief instructor for the Dutch Air Force. He had survived three ditchings in the English Channel and who knows what else in the war. He spent an afternoon showing me what not to do, putting the little Piper 140's design to the limits and scaring the living kr*# out of me......I never went there again! His demand that I understood and knew my check-lists set a base for flying all these years without ever putting myself or my family and friends in jeopardy.

The most important thing he taught me was: If you cant afford to fly regularly, every week or two, DO NOT FLY. Rather get hold of a young instructor to go with you. Pay for his hotel room and get home safely after a weekend away. Check the records, they will show that the majority of accidents involve pilots whose hours are erratic. Sadly they often take whole families with them.

Go down to the flying club and find the oldest, knarliest pilot. Buy him a beer and ask him to go along on your next flight. Ask him to show you how he stayed alive so long......

The old FAA examiner I took my check ride with said "This is a license to learn, never stop learning." when he handed me my temporary certificate.

Bushdriver, excellent advise! I am currently an inactive pilot due to family and budget issues, but am plotting an attempt to get active and current within the next year. Your advise to deal with the oldest, crabbiest instructor is worth its weight in gold. Aviation will kill you if you don't do things right! But when you do it right, the internal satisfaction is tremendous.