Do NOT give up. We all get lost and we will still get lost. I remember my first trip after getting my PPL where I took my friend up. We headed off, I thought I was on course and thought I was near the field we were looking for. My friend said, "Is that it?" It wasn't but what he had spotted about 3 miles on the nose was the threshold of Woodvale. Poo came out and I went into the lost procedure and managed to get my bearings. It knocked my confidence but I did learn a lot from it. Best thing to do is get back up again and keep flying!

Keep going, you learned a lot
 

When I was doing my ppl at about 30 hours, on about my 3rd solo flight, I went into full IMC. Totally !!!! my self, remember thinking I am going to die. Was in IMC for probably 2-3 min (seemed a life time) I even did a 180 turn (every slowly) in IMC & descended a little & saw a some ground so then descended more. Finally got out of IMC & was totally lost & confused, luckily had the ADF & it was still tuned to home air field so just followed it straight back. After I could not relax for a few days really was about to pack in flying. After I calmed down I learnt from it & carried on. I now have over 250 hours Solo & my own plane. Keep going.

We would much, much rather have someone call for help early (and perhaps not need as much help as they thought) than struggle onwards, getting more lost and more stressed.
Think of ATC as an invisible co-pilot with huge resources close at hand. We can help with navigation, get weather, coordinate airspace transits, phone your club and more.... but only if we know you need it!

I had a lost student only the other day, and in fact he didn't know he was lost until I (with my magic eye!) pointed out that he was flying 80degrees off track, and he had flown less than 10 miles from his base airfield at the beginning of his cross-country. We tried realigning his DI, but that didn't help, so I ended up "suggesting" headings. On 2 legs of the huge triangle he was flying around me he required significant help. Unknown to him, I phoned the airfield he was landing away at and explained his predicament so that they would handle him gently, and I phoned his instructor and explained the situation, what we were doing, and that I would make sure we kept him safe.

My point is this - he knows I helped him with his navigation when he was in a fix. He knows I didn't get cross at him or shout at him or let him stray into CAS, or file any sort of report and he knows that if he gets stuck again all he needs to do is call, and we can help. No recriminations, no charges & no small-print. It's what we do.

(He doesn't know about the phone-calls because he doesn't need to, and he doesn't need his confidence bashed!)

Happy flying!!!:ok:

I had a student who in the days when you could complete a PPL in 40 hours did just that. During her solo qualifying cross-country flight, landing at two other airfields, she called D&D on 121.5 to confirm her position (she was where she thought she was but due to the marginal weather she could not be certain).

My comment was well done!. I was totally happy that after she gained a licence she would have no hesitation in asking for help if the same situation were to arise. I let her depart in marginal conditions because I had confidence in her decision making.

YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.

Man is never lost, merely temporarily unaware of his current position! Logic will always tell you where you are, the only thing that varies is the degree of accuracy.

As a student pilot I got lost on a solo cross country flight from Conington to Humberside. I flew an incorrect heading and, without having the skill at that time to promptly detect the track error, narrowly missed RAF Coningsby's ATZ. I realised where I was when I saw their runway and, needless to say, felt rather stupid. I asked their very helpful radar controller for vectors to Wickenby, where I was subsequently able to establish a course to Humberside.

Navigating the UK's airspace by ded. reckoning ranges from being dodgy at best to extremely challenging, depending on where you are. When you factor in DI precession, arbitrary TAS planning and the chocolate fire-guard that is Metform 214 it's amazing that solo students don't get lost more often.

Spotting the fire engines returning to base as you taxi off the runway is sometimes a clue that someone has been on the phone.

And then once you have your PPL, if you havent already, you buy a GPS and enjoy flying much more.

I have never found any correlation between GPS and the enjoyment of flying!

That didn't do me much good. I got lost on my second solo circuit after having been told to orbit on the downwind leg.
Having made myself totally dizzy I simply headed off into the unknown....

You got lost - so what? Don't beat yourself up about it.

You are training, you learn more when things go wrong than when they go right.

Sounds as if you did the right thing.

You got back - you used the available resources to get to your destination safely.

With modern GPS there is little excuse for getting lost! with a radio none! Call someone do not let pride delay that.
The emergency frequency or London Info will soon locate you and get you on the right track.

Pace

Time to give up flying is when you get lost going to the shops. Now where did I leave the car?:O

D.O.

That will be right the number of times I have lost the hire car in the car park.

If that was apart of the class one medical there really would be a shortage of pilots.

I recall my skills test, was asked to fly to an area I'd never been to before, prepared my route only to have to make a diversion at the request of the examiner. Once we did that, he wanted high bank turns left and right plus various stalls and other manoeuvres, so due to the fact I'd been concentrating on getting these right, I lost track of where I was.

I'm nowhere near where I expected to be, no TV towers or recognisable points around me, am starting to sweat and hoping the examiner doesn't ask me to identify my location. A colleague failed his skills test for getting lost and not being able to reconcile his position, I had visions of the same happening when all of a sudden, the dreaded question was asked:

"What town is that at 2 o clock?"

What do I say? The honest answer is "I've not got a clue" but add to it "I'll call ATC to ask for a confirmation of my position" - said this to the examiner and he said "Good, a plan of action - but tell you what, there are two VORs in range, work out your position from them......."

I started to dial in the first VOR, plotted the track on my map when the examiner said "Ok, I can see you know how to work it, I also see you had an alternative course of action to find your position - steer heading 080 and let's head back".

The most important point to consider is not the fact you got lost - we all do it - but the fact that you knew what to do in order to ensure you got home safe and well, you didn't bust any controlled airspaces so in total, I'd say:

WELL DONE

Don't give up, you'll only regret it......

@Steve
You let the cat out of the bag...
I think every examiner pulls the exact same stunt - plan to somewhere new, divert, under-hood testing and then... what is that road? or town? or mountain? or river? or OK, set a course for home.
In my case though, he didn't mention the VORs, but just said something about if I was really lost, I wouldn't know what frequency to use, so the radio is out, come up with another idea.

I've only had sensible examiners, who say "I am responsible for navigation whilst we're playing silly buggers". And in response to "set a course for home" it's not too much of a challenge to follow the NDB needle (you did tune it in before taking off, didn't you) or press the Direct To button.

i) Where I was flying, there was no NDB in range, the one at Dortmund Airport was switched off a couple of years back.

ii) This assumes the examiner allows you to use the GPS, mine didn't, he set the 430s to maximum range so you couldn't see burger all....

If an examiner is going to tell me to find out where we are after the partial panel unusual attitude recovery stuff I'm bl**dy well going to use all the information available.

clinique_happy,

It is so easy to get lost, really easy. I know people with thousands of hours instructing people like you and even they get lost in areas they've flown in for years.

This one time I was flying to a very new area, had my map folded in a way so I could just about see the airfield on the edge of the chart. Idiot! Took off, mis-identified a landmark and starting my headings on the wrong landmark. I was totally lost 100%. And to make matters worse I was lazy with my plog! Lessoned learnt! Don't be lazy with plogs, and make proper use of the map.

You've demonstrated great airmanship by asking for help. A lot of pilots will just continue on and hope for the best. A lot of them ended up in control zones causing massive safety issues.