Just a reminder as per my post 6641 , page 333 , the only relevant met.information available to the crew apon which to base a choice of route were the TAF and METAR for Machrihanish , ten nautical miles north of the lighthouse . There was no mention of the Mull itself ,(which is specifically the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsular ) , and anything you read here to suggest otherwise is an interpretation made by others after the event from observations made later in the day . Effectively an aftercast......
............whether or not you think they were using waypoint A at all , as represented by the guidance of the GPS , they were certainly flying towards it , without any turns , and passed East abeam of it shortly before the major impact .......
..some quotes from Walter...
Flt Lt Tapper was well aware of the potential inaccuracy of the STANS of the time - I have argued for a long time that they would not have relied upon it as close in as waypoint change.........
and of the CPLS.......
(you got an approximate bearing)
...slight conflict there.....even you do not think the CPLS is better..???..
I cannot believe that anyone would stop using a GPS guidance in favour of a simple DME ........Trying to overfly any point via DME alone is impossible in a fixed wing a/c , as the correction needed increases as you approach closer....and you have to mentally judge he rate of change of distance/eta.....in a helicopter it is hard but you can cheat by going to a hover and moving sideways to see if the range changes . Using a VOR/DME or GPS it is still hard as you still do not have the time to react to the needle or display , I try this almost every time go flying , looking down to see where the VOR really is . I have to challenge Walter to ask if he has ever tried this.??.....the only practical way you can use DME alone for nav. is flying a DME ARC ......
The fatal last few seconds of flight actually took them over a small cottage , and I think that a possible and far more likely theory , is that they could see this cottage way up on the hillside (although the top of the lighthouse (40 feet high ) was hidden )..........Rather than use radio , anyone based in this cottage could point a strobe light at the approaching helicopter to emulate the lighthouse proper and lure them to the wrong place (for the conspiracy theorists ) ..... or alternatively (for the realists) if anyone were taking flash photos near the cottage at the relevant time it could have been a simple mistake ....if the flash were powerful enough to be visible..........that should be easy to check as it is known who was present that day.......
rgds Robin....