Diversions

[ECCM]

Ok, flying along on a nav/diversion excercise, overhead Auchterarder, and instructor gives diversion to Kinross. I make the necessary calculations, and set off on my new wind corrected heading (we're taught Maxdrift technique). However, the instructor then comments that something's amiss as we're probably about 15deg off with a visual check. (Not being particularly savy with the area, I didn't realise that Kinross was that town just beside loch leven :rolleyes: )

Can I just make an instant track correction, and say to the examiner, "I've obviously made an error here", or should I assume no local knowledge, and read map/ground, with an adjustment at the half way point?

I'm struggling to get regular time in the air, and it would be good to here some comments on best practice, just to keep things fresh in my mind. My instructor has recently left to work with a local airline, and I guess it's going to be even trickier to get slots now.

[Noggin]

Always make sure you know exactly where the examiner/instructor wants you to divert to by pointing it out on the map if necessary.

If you didn't know where Kinross was, how did you do the calculation? On any diversion draw a line from where you are, to where you are going, measure the track accurately, in this case 120 degrees. Apply your max drift to give you a Heading and off you go. A heading by the way is really a wind corrected track.

If it doesn't look right, do a gross error correction and change the heading. This is where the line comes in. look for features that will confirm your position relative to the line. Try to find a mid point fix, time travelled then equals time remaining for an accurate eta.

[Squawk 8888]

On my flight test I got an examiner who likes to give an engine failure just as you're ready to set heading :) As part of his marking criteria, you score extra for colourful language :)

[BEagle]

The idea of the diversion is that you are making an unprepared amendment to your planned flight. The Examiner SHOULD say something like "We'll pretend that the weather ahead is deteriorating unexpectedly. When you are ready, I'd like you to divert to XXXX" If you don't know where XXXX is, then ask him/her to show you on your map (I always choose an aerodrome, hand the candidate the appropriate page from Pooley's and show him/her where it is on the map). Fly to an obvious feature which you can recognise, draw a line from there to XXXX on your map and do your in-flight re-planning. Then set off, but update your progress with some map-reading; we know that your in-flight estimation won't be as accurate as your pre-flight planning and that you'll need more frequent visual fixes to assist you. Always remember that THE EXAMINER WANTS YOU TO PASS!! The idea is that you can SAFELY divert if the local weather-wizzard has cocked-up his forecast.

[Stan Evil]

All BEagle says is true. You mentioned the use of local knowledge. All's fair in love and aviation so use the knowledge you have but don't get suckered into track-crawling - aim to use specific check features but, if you fly over the top of something that you 100% recognise and that is off track, use the information. PPL Skill Tests are usually flown from your home airfield so the examiner wants to see that you know your way around. The CPL test may well be flown from somewhere different. Now the examiner want's to see that you can apply the correct techniques whereever you are.

[ECCM]

Thanks very much for the useful information. It's encouraging to here BEagle that the examiner wants you to pass http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif

Noggin, thinking about it now, I did pinpoint Kinross ok on the map, and did the necessary calculations, but with the higher workload involved, I managed to miss the relevance of the big puddle! Amazing in hind sight.

I think I over corrected for the wind, and ended up travelling in a direction clearly heading right of the Loch.

I think the gross error correction is what I'm thinking about. As long as it's ok to say "Looking at the map, I should be heading towards a large water feature, which I'm not, so I'll make a track error correction of xdegrees", and continue looking for visual confirmation.

Must visit the flying club this weekend, and see about another lesson!