I haven't read much of this thread so far so apologies if what follows is totally irrelevant.
I have no GPS and use DR and following features to navigate. Last Sunday I flew from Stapleford to Bourn and then from Bourn to overhead Ely. Nav was a piece of cake.
Different story when I turned south to head back home. The sun was in my eyes. I missed the A10. I had changed my planned route due to advice from the "Captain" at Bourn but had not worked out a heading. I suddenly felt horribly confused.
I decided to head 200 - 210 degrees as I knew the instrument approach to Cambridge was to the East and that I wanted to be west abeam of Cambridge. I came upon a built up area but Cambridge has two "horns" heading out NE and NW - so which bit was I flying over?
I few minutes later I thought I must now be west of the city but where are the Backs? A minute or so later I spotted the Kings College Chapel.
One is seldom as lost as one thinks one is!
More trouble ahead though. I reckoned I should see Duxford or my left. Yes indeed but should I be so close to the ATZ at 2000 feet? Better gain some height.
Not a good idea! Essex Radar demanded to know who was squawking 0013 and did they know they were in Controlled airspace! Make a right turn immediately!
I did as requested and gave my details. How the hell did I get so close to Stansted? (thinking I was in the SFC-3500 feet zone). After flying west for a while I turned again south only to have ATC on my back again. Of course I was in 2500 - 3500 class D which in my panic I had forgotten about! I still didn't cotton on, thinking I was still too far east at the same time knowing that I couldn't possibly be. Where was I?
ATC confirmed that my flying at 2000 feet was now fine by them so I carried on south-south-eastish, feeling bewildered but thinking that at least I would spot the M25 if nothing else.
Just then I saw the A10 and Buntingford out the left window. I was 100% on track! I descended to 1300 feet as there's the stub near Ware but tricky to spot the actual start.
Lessons to learn
- Always work out DR headings in advance even though I probably won't need
them
- Organise charts, plogs, circuit instructions etc in a logical order
- I print out charts from Memory-Map. If blowing these up might be a good idea to print them a known scale (say 1:250000 to double the size of a 1:500000 chart) so that estimating distances is straight-forward
- Take into account the fact that looking a charts etc may be difficult due to poor visibility (low sun straight ahead obscuring the horizon) and turbulence.
- Underline vertical airspace restrictions and add notes to my plog.
and finally
- don't panic if you think you are lost - you probably aren't!