The current ATSB Aviation Short Investigation Bulletin No. 47 published an incident where a PA 28 on a VFR cross-country flight from Moorabbin inadvertently entered into cloud while attempting to maintain VFR. The pilot had decided to do a 180 degree turn and return to Moorabbin and it was during this turn he found himself in cloud.
The purpose of the flight was to gain solo cross-country experience towards a CPL. He already had a PPL which included cross-country flying as part of the syllabus. The pilot advised ATC of his predicament and in conjunction with ATC and an instructor flying nearby he was able to regain VFR and landed back at Moorabbin.
The ATSB report stated:
Almost instantly, the pilot realised that the aircraft was now completely engulfed in cloud, and had entered instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The pilot was not instrument rated, nor was the aircraft approved for flight in IMC.
The aircraft was equipped with a Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR), but the pilot had not been trained to operate this navigational aid.
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At a guess, at the time of the flight, the pilot would have accumulated around 75 hours including at least five hours of dual instruction of simulated instrument flight time (under-the-hood) and depending on flying school policy maybe a small amount of synthetic trainer time.
It is incredible that during his dual flying up to the time of this incident, his instructors had not bothered to teach him the basics of using a VOR or even the ADF to fix his position. After all, it takes only a few minutes to demonstrate to a student how to twiddle an OBS and read a radial or use the needle of a ADF to get a bearing.
While the PPL or CPL syllabus may not include the need to know something on how to tune and identify a VOR or NDB, this basic knowledge could be very useful for VFR flying if only as a rough guide to present position.
The student doesn't need to know how to fly an instrument approach of course, but common sense would surely dictate that a pilot should know how to operate every switch in his aircraft before first solo and certainly as part of first area solo knowledge. In fact, this could easily be taught by a qualified instructor on a desk top trainer. Of course, if the instructor hasn't a clue how to operate a VOR/ADF himself because he doesn't have an instrument rating, then that really says something about the individual instructor's professional attitude.
To certify a PPL student safe to perform his first solo cross-country, yet fail to ensure he can back up his map reading if necessary, by confirming his approximate position using the navigational instruments available to him in the cockpit, is a surely dereliction of duty by the flying school concerned and students instructor - even though whatever training syllabus is used by the flying school may not publish a specific requirement to do so.
After all, it's not exactly rocket science to teach a student how to use an VOR OBS indicator in a PA28
