Lost ppl student
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Lost ppl student
First navigation solo today, route previously flown several times with instructor. Got there ok, lost on way back having to get big airport to direct me back! Confidence knocked, embarrassed, mad at myself! The question is to myself should I give up? Being lost was one of the worse feelings in my life ever, will never forget that feeling! Happened to anyone else? Did you quit? Recommendations? Fully briefed after but still gutted! I have 33 hours under my belt thought I was doing so well :-( help!
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No need to quit. You did exactly the right thing to do in that situation...ask for help. Easier to have ATC helping you out than to plod on getting even more lost. ATC are there to help so let them know if you require their assistance.
Perhaps try to work out where you went wrong with your navigation so you can learn from your mistake on future flights
Perhaps try to work out where you went wrong with your navigation so you can learn from your mistake on future flights
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Dont give up.
It happens to everyone (even us instructors sometimes). On the plus side you kept your head and the training you've been given paid off because you asked for help and got home safely.
It happens to everyone (even us instructors sometimes). On the plus side you kept your head and the training you've been given paid off because you asked for help and got home safely.
The Original Whirly
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You ARE doing well! You got lost, as everyone does once in a while, and contacted the right people to put you back on track. Better than I did at a later stage than you, in fact soon after getting my PPL. On my first longish trip I got lost, didn't want to tell anyone, floundered around wondering what to do, and it wasn't until I saw a motorway that really shouldn't have been there that I contacted D & D. They told me I was three miles from Birmingham Airport! How embarrassing do you think that was? But I survived, and learned.....oh, and I bought a GPS, which you can do as soon as you qualify.
Recommendations... Learn from it, then put it behind you and keep going. Don't feel bad; basic navigation is hard, and I don't think I know a pilot who hasn't been lost - and I know a lot of pilots! And above all, don't give up!
Recommendations... Learn from it, then put it behind you and keep going. Don't feel bad; basic navigation is hard, and I don't think I know a pilot who hasn't been lost - and I know a lot of pilots! And above all, don't give up!
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Yeah I agree with the other posters- no need to feel embarrassed or demotivated in the slightest.
Ask yourself these questions:
- are you injured?
- is the aircraft damaged?
- is anyone else's aircraft damaged?
- did you bust controlled airspace?
- did you seriously annoy anybody?
- has anybody laughed at you or mocked you?
Betcha the answers are all "no". Lots of folk get to do some or all of the above and are still happily flying.
Ask yourself these questions:
- are you injured?
- is the aircraft damaged?
- is anyone else's aircraft damaged?
- did you bust controlled airspace?
- did you seriously annoy anybody?
- has anybody laughed at you or mocked you?
Betcha the answers are all "no". Lots of folk get to do some or all of the above and are still happily flying.
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What does your instructor advise?
Either way, as others before have suggested, you must carry on. I had a very unpleasant experience with some inadvertant IMC in my early flying days. Had it not been for the very competent ATC in Leeds Bradford I would not be typing this.
Seems you did the right thing and should benefit from the experience. BTW my foray into IMC was 36 years ago and I still learn from it today. Happy landings and many of them.
GGR
Either way, as others before have suggested, you must carry on. I had a very unpleasant experience with some inadvertant IMC in my early flying days. Had it not been for the very competent ATC in Leeds Bradford I would not be typing this.
Seems you did the right thing and should benefit from the experience. BTW my foray into IMC was 36 years ago and I still learn from it today. Happy landings and many of them.
GGR
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Yup! Been there and done that as a student PPL(H). I did a longer debrief with my instructor to isolate where I started to go wrong, then flew the same trip the following week.
Join Date: Nov 2001
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Wot Heston said, you didn't get into serious trouble and used the facilities available to you sensibly, job done.
My first trip to take my wife to Alderney after I got my PPL went beautifully right up to me being on the approach to join base, at which point they closed the airport due fuel spillage. So I am now adrift in Class A airspace with no idea what to do next.
ATC: G-XX what are your intentions?
Me: Standby
ATC: G-XX would you like to divert to Guernsey?
Me: Affirm
ATC: G-XX have you been to Guernsey before?
Me: Negative
ATC: Would you like vectors?
Me: Affirm
ATC: G-XX turn right heading xxx
Me: Right heading xxx.
Job done
My first trip to take my wife to Alderney after I got my PPL went beautifully right up to me being on the approach to join base, at which point they closed the airport due fuel spillage. So I am now adrift in Class A airspace with no idea what to do next.
ATC: G-XX what are your intentions?
Me: Standby
ATC: G-XX would you like to divert to Guernsey?
Me: Affirm
ATC: G-XX have you been to Guernsey before?
Me: Negative
ATC: Would you like vectors?
Me: Affirm
ATC: G-XX turn right heading xxx
Me: Right heading xxx.
Job done
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Your message says "Got lost, got help, got home".
It doesn't say "Got lost, infringed airspace at big airport, got snotty message from TC via Instructor upon landing, getting prosecuted"
Seems OK to me, perhaps not a good day, but plenty of learning experiences there and it all worked out fine.
It doesn't say "Got lost, infringed airspace at big airport, got snotty message from TC via Instructor upon landing, getting prosecuted"
Seems OK to me, perhaps not a good day, but plenty of learning experiences there and it all worked out fine.
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Still P/UT myself but sounds like you did the right thing and made use of the resources available.
Result : Home safe and sound
Well Done in my opinion, you encountered a problem and dealt with it
Result : Home safe and sound
Well Done in my opinion, you encountered a problem and dealt with it
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Agree with all the above.
One extra suggestion, which you have probably already done; review what happened to see where it went wrong and if possible what could you have done to avoid it.
(E.g. there was a report of an infringement by somebody who confused two similar roads, towns, etc. due to a relatively small heading error. It is easily done.)
Chris N
One extra suggestion, which you have probably already done; review what happened to see where it went wrong and if possible what could you have done to avoid it.
(E.g. there was a report of an infringement by somebody who confused two similar roads, towns, etc. due to a relatively small heading error. It is easily done.)
Chris N
The point is (as I understand it) you recovered the situation. Hopefully without nearly bumping into anyone else.
I have done some deeply stupid and embarrassing things over the years ... mostly involving women ... but sometimes aeroplanes. Move on and don't do it again.
Bill
I have done some deeply stupid and embarrassing things over the years ... mostly involving women ... but sometimes aeroplanes. Move on and don't do it again.
Bill
PPL student myself , currently doing the X Country Training bit , well done to you I say ....... you learn from your mistakes , how many people wouldn't own up to getting a little lost now and again ..... you did the right thing , got home , safe and sound , and you were in control , probably make an excellent pilot at the end of your training 
One to tell the grand kids in the future .......
One to tell the grand kids in the future .......
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Navigating as a UK PPL student under VFR is some of the hardest navigating that a typical pilot will have to engage with and it's all done at a stage when 33hrs seems like a lot!
Your location indicates that you are still floating around somewhere but if you were anywhere near the midlands to the south of England then you can factor substantial quantities of airspace into the mix - which to your credit you seem to have avoided.
The reluctance of the UK authorities to embrace GPS (a restriction they only apply to private pilots incidentally - commercially we make use of every tool in the box) just adds to the general stress levels and reduces pilots to taking VOR crosscuts and drawing a line in felt-tip whilst wobbling over a landmark in a non-autopilot light aircraft.
This stuff is tough. VFR flying is tough. The equipment is manually operated and it can be tricky to do it all.
ATC do seem a bit god-like when you're not actually paying for them, but one of the great eye-openers for a commercial pilot is that ATC truly are there to help you - and are almost always willing to oblige. They really don't want you wandering all over their controlled airspace and delaying their inbounds and outbounds.
Asking for help is the smartest thing to do and by doing so you avoid making the sort of mistake that you wake-up in the night thinking about. Asking for help is not making a mistake it's avoiding making a mistake.
One final thing: Michael Jordan - “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
I always think of this when I am berating myself or listening to some 'Ace' beat themselves up for making a mistake.
Aviation is full of trite aphorisms I know - but the only bad mistake is one you don't learn from.
Don't under any circumstance let this stop you.
Your location indicates that you are still floating around somewhere but if you were anywhere near the midlands to the south of England then you can factor substantial quantities of airspace into the mix - which to your credit you seem to have avoided.
The reluctance of the UK authorities to embrace GPS (a restriction they only apply to private pilots incidentally - commercially we make use of every tool in the box) just adds to the general stress levels and reduces pilots to taking VOR crosscuts and drawing a line in felt-tip whilst wobbling over a landmark in a non-autopilot light aircraft.
This stuff is tough. VFR flying is tough. The equipment is manually operated and it can be tricky to do it all.
ATC do seem a bit god-like when you're not actually paying for them, but one of the great eye-openers for a commercial pilot is that ATC truly are there to help you - and are almost always willing to oblige. They really don't want you wandering all over their controlled airspace and delaying their inbounds and outbounds.
Asking for help is the smartest thing to do and by doing so you avoid making the sort of mistake that you wake-up in the night thinking about. Asking for help is not making a mistake it's avoiding making a mistake.
One final thing: Michael Jordan - “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
I always think of this when I am berating myself or listening to some 'Ace' beat themselves up for making a mistake.
Aviation is full of trite aphorisms I know - but the only bad mistake is one you don't learn from.
Don't under any circumstance let this stop you.
Join Date: May 2011
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As my instructor used to say - you don't know the meaning of lost until you're lost at Mach 2.5...
You talked to somebody and you got home without bumping into anyone / anything. You've now used D&D for what they're good at (my practice pans / "unsure of positions" were only to an instructor) which is a good learning experience anyway.
You managed to pull yourself together to handle the situation so you did an awful lot better than someone who was prosecuted recently for getting lost, not talking to anyone then infringing the airspace of two major airports (his licence had expired too...).
Take it as a learning experience and get rid of that embarrassment. You should try to take positives from it - that you got back in one piece on your own without D&D needing to get someone up after you to escort you home (which happened in Glasgow not that long ago too).
As others have said here - Well Done and Keep Flying!
You talked to somebody and you got home without bumping into anyone / anything. You've now used D&D for what they're good at (my practice pans / "unsure of positions" were only to an instructor) which is a good learning experience anyway.
You managed to pull yourself together to handle the situation so you did an awful lot better than someone who was prosecuted recently for getting lost, not talking to anyone then infringing the airspace of two major airports (his licence had expired too...).
Take it as a learning experience and get rid of that embarrassment. You should try to take positives from it - that you got back in one piece on your own without D&D needing to get someone up after you to escort you home (which happened in Glasgow not that long ago too).
As others have said here - Well Done and Keep Flying!
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lost
I got lost on my first flight since gaining my PPL.
It was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Getting lost and working out how to get back on track gave me confidence to plan longer cross country's.
I'm sure if I hadn't got lost a majority of my hour building would have been in the circuit at my home field.
It was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Getting lost and working out how to get back on track gave me confidence to plan longer cross country's.
I'm sure if I hadn't got lost a majority of my hour building would have been in the circuit at my home field.
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I have thought i was lost plenty of times and later realised that i was infact on track, But that was just my walk home from the pub!
Anyone who brags they havn't should be watched carefully because they are either about too, Liars or both
Anyone who brags they havn't should be watched carefully because they are either about too, Liars or both