A report in the latest ATSB short investigation document discussed an incident where a Cessna 172 operating on a VFR cross-country from Gold Coast (19 March 2016) inadvertently entered cloud. ATC were helpful and the pilot soon became VFR again.
An extract from the ATSB investigation said:
At the time of the incident, the pilot had logged about 46 flying hours. Three hours of this was instrument3 flight training.
The pilot provided the following comments:
• The weather had changed very quickly, and that it was different to that expected.
• They felt no pressure to conduct the flight. They had been briefed to ‘turn back’ to the Gold Coast if at any time they felt uncomfortable with the weather.
• They did not specifically alert ATC that they had entered cloud. They had however, advised ATC that they were uncertain of the aircraft’s position, and accepted assistance in that regard.
• They had attempted to program the “Direct To” function on the KLN89B GPS installed in the aircraft, but had not been able to get this to work. They were not confident in the use of the navigation aids (VOR and ADF).
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Apart from the annoying and distracting Public Service use of "they" instead of he or she, it is surprising that the ATSB missed a good opportunity to comment on the last line where "they were not confident in the use of navigation aids (VOR and ADF)
The pilot had about 46 hours which no doubt included dual cross country time. Surely, before being sent on a solo cross-country trip his instructor(s) should have taught him the in-flight use of VOR and ADF as a back-up to map reading? The report mentioned the pilot also had problems using his GPS.
I have sympathy for the student who was dispatched on a solo cross country flight without being certified competent in basic use of VOR/ADF/GPS operation as a cross check against possible map reading errors. Instructors need to do better than this. There would have been ample opportunities to practice obtaining position lines during dual cross country flying. If these aids to navigation are installed in the aircraft, then I would think common sense and logic would dictate that students should be given instruction and tested on how to use them before flying in command on cross country navigation flights.
That said, maybe his/her/ instructors did not know how to use them, either
