I just had to mention that gross navigational errors are as old as aviation!
Anyone heard of "Wrong-way Corrigan"?
Quote:
Douglas Corrigan became a legendary aviator, not because of his accomplishments as a pilot but rather because of a supposed navigational error. In 1938, Corrigan "mistakenly" flew from New York to Ireland--when he was supposed to be flying from New York to California--because he seemingly misread his compass. For Americans, who were caught in the midst of the Great Depression, Corrigan's antic provided a great deal of humor and uplift and he became a national folk hero. To this day, Corrigan's nickname, "'Wrong Way' Corrigan," remains a stock colloquial phrase in popular culture. People use it to describe anyone who blunders and goes the wrong way, particularly in sporting events. Nevertheless, as much fun as Corrigan's incident provides, many people do not understand all the complexities of his story, nor do they appreciate the fact that he was a sound and accomplished pilot.
Now that's one gross navigational error
SD
SD,
That's only half the story.....and the gross navigational error should probably be in inverta commas
Apparently he wasnted to fly from the UK to Ireland, but he needed permission from the US authorities to do it. They refused permission a number of times, saying that it was too dangerous, and nothing would be achieved by it, as it had already been done a number of times.
So he decided to do NY to LA "instead". Fueled up in NY and took off. He claimed to have "entered fog shortly after take off, got disorientated and made the most basic of navigational errors, and flew a heading of E instead of W.
No one believed him. The US authorities took away his licence, but gave it back once he was back in the US. Apparently they were afraid that he was going to try flying back across the Atlantic
fff
One particularly interesting one, though:
Quote:
nobody would plan to fly a 72 mile leg on dead reckoning
Why not? I'm shocked to read a comment like this from two experienced pilots (although it doesn't surprise me to read this from IO540!) I've done so, many times, and I teach my students to do it regularly.
Depends on what you mean by a 72 mile leg I suppose. I've no problem with a student flying 72 miles on the one heading, if that's what you think. But I think it should be split up into 3 legs. This give them a formal check every 12 minutes or so, where they must make a positive fix (on something obvious that they planned already). They are forced to do this, as they must fill in the ATA on their plog.
A 72 mile staight leg, just making casual fixes along the way is likely to leave a student making what he sees match up to where they think they are. One feature is a little to early, the next is a little too late. Now they start to worry are they exactly where they thought they were. Then they start to get paniced, the work load goes up, and it make be 20 minutes before they reach somewhere that they have a proper ETA for.
Sorter legs, with more frequent ETA's and positive position fixes are much better in my experience. I wouldn't have been allowed to use a 72 mile leg as a student, and I certainly wouldn't use it today. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't fly hundreds of nm in the one direction (if I could get through the airspace), but my ETA's wouldn't be 72 nm appart.
If you are teaching students to have eta's and positive fixes for shorter distances, then perhaps we are talking about the same thing.
In any case, the students you are teaching today not more experienced, and are being thought radio navigation along side DR?
dp