hotbwayjoel

It is evident that I'm not so much of an avid poster here on APF, however I do sign in on a regular bases and read all the fascinating posts you guys make.

I'm still working on my PPL, presently doing my cross country solo flying. Today, well yesterday rather, I flew, (well attempted to fly) to a little airport called Mount Airy/Surry County Airport. On my way everything was perfect.. VOR's where precisely centered and where intercepting perfectly at my designating checkpoints. I was following my check points and coming up on them perfectly, everything was great.. However the last 10 minutes is where everything seemed to go wrong.. I all of a sudden found my self over the town and couldn't navigate my self to the airport. I just didn't know where I went wrong. I kept my heading and everything. You name it I did it! My flight plan was correct I'm sure of this because I've went there before with my flight instructor and we used then same plan. I just couldn't find the damn place. Nothing I did seemed to work. I'm a bit shaken up about this and disappointed. Seeing as how I can't sleep, another evident factor.

Why couldn't I find that darn place
Well I know that based on the info it would be impossible for anybody to tell me why I couldn't find the airport. However, I guess I'm just wanting some where to vent my frustration.

Thanks for reading,
hotbwayjoel.....

saabguy493

It happens to alot of people. I had a couple students who had storys of things that seemed perfect but ended up not as planned. I had it happen once to me as a student pilot when I was flying to FDK and somehow passed over the airport (there was ALOT of haze that day) I was worried because Camp David was active and the airport only sits miles from the protected zone. It did shake me up, but I just used it as a learning experience and moved on! In other words, don't worry too much about it but at the same don't ignore what happened. Look back at your flight plan and since it happened in the last part of the flight, look at how you had planned to Id the airport and what would have made finding the field easier. Whether it be taking a closer look at the AFD as to the posistion of the field, or being more aware of where the field is in location to the city as on the map. This may help you the next time you fly to this location. All in all, it could have just been a bad day. Try to learn from what happened and move on. Best of luck to you in your training!!!! IT is worth it in the end!

USMCFLYR

I got lost on my first solo x/c too. Departed TUL and was vectored north quite a bit before being told to resume own navigation. When they said that - I turned to my planned heading (270) and headed west. A lot of my checkpoints were rivers or roads going north/south - which I passed on just like I had planned. Problem was - I was 20-30 miles north of where I should have been
In the end - I saw AN airport - landed there - found out it wasn't the one that I was planning on landing at
Like you hotbwayjoel - I was pretty upset with myself, but as saab said - take it for the experience that is was and learn from it.

USMCFLYR

FlyJSH

I had a student who had St. Augustine (non towered, KSGJ) as a destination. I was flying with another student and monitored all his radio calls on KSGJ CTAF: they were perfect. BUT he landed at Mayport Naval Station (towered naval air station KNRB). And he landed on a taxiway.

This was prior to 9/11, but still he was met by SPs with M16s drawn. He got his ticket a couple weeks later.





There is an old joke:
Pilot after landing: Nice field you got here
FBO worker: Thanks, we try.
Pilot: Umm, one question: do y'all just call it by the city name or is there another name for it?
FBO worker: you don't have a clue where you are, do you?

DanC

hotbwayjoel, I understand your feelings of being disappointed, but everybody gets lost in their flying career. As a new CFI/II I sometimes find myself starting to lose situational awareness once and a while. I probably have over 400 more hours than you, too. I actually have learned a lot from these situations and it has bettered my flying skills. Everybody gets lost just remember your training and it wont become an unsafe situation.

Furthermore, I rather have a student get lost any day then have a near mid air collision. Training is meant to be a learning process. Next time you will be able to recognize more quickly when you are becoming lost (and trust me you will).

So don't let this discourage you from getting your PPL. Just take it as a lesson to be vigilant and study all the information you can.



(It SO easy to land at the wrong airport in Florida with an airport almost every 10 NMs and all the runways lined up the same direction mostly. If I remember right a commercial A/C did it in Miami Area)

hotbwayjoel

Thanks a lot everybody for the advice... It really means the world to me that I there are other people out there who I can relate to.

-Hotbwayjoel

Ray Blaszak

I just got my PPL and haven't experienced getting lost. But, one thing I do to help me is find out what radial the airport is from a VOR. I know that in Alaska its almost impossible to lad at the wrong airport because your just so spread out but, when I start flying in the lower 48 Ill use the same technique. For example, Birchwood is 20.6nm on the 260 radial from BGQ VOR. Viola you can use that as a tool. Also, you could go buy a cheap GPS to help you out if needed although I avoid GPS if possible because I dont want to use it unless I need it. Bottom line don't get discouraged and if needed go back up with your instructor to try and find out what you did wrong. Remember, the most important part of a flight is the preflight planning IMHO.

Ray B

jetcaptain

Getting lost happens sometimes while flying vfr. The good news is that you were able to make it back from where you started. That's a successful trip in my book.

Engineer Pilot

I do what is said in this quote above. As you grow as a pilot you will find the importance of using ALL YOUR RESOURCES. With proper pre-flight planning and using VOR radials and the DME (if available) off the VOR in relation to the destination airport you will have a much better time of getting what you expected. This of course comes with the proper pre-flight planning. Flying the planned route in MS Flight Simulator the night before is a good thing to do as well. Also, if you get lost you can fly to the last VOR and try it again. Just remember, we all have been there before... keep learning from your previous experience to make the next one better.

Outlaw2097

Probably just picked up a wind drift or somthing...

Was flying to an airport Id never been to in a plane that was a true piece of work...no VOR, no GPS, no DME. Just pure pilotage and dead reckoning...

I see an airport and start the descent. Im well outside of the airspace when I notice something odd...the runway numbers dont match up with what the AFD says...

So after flipping through the book and looking around, I found that I had drifted a good 30 miles off my course (by matching runway numbers to those in the AFD)...made the turn and got to my destination after that.

And now, the .02...since technology helps, Id say if you are uncertain about an airport and the location, just go to Google Earth and look it up on the satellite...see the distinguishing stuff around the airport so that way you know youre headed in the right direction.