Lost stories here

Kyle Boatright wrote:


No problem.

Last summer, we were headed back to Atlanta from San Antonio, and were
dodging some pretty big weather in the process. Of course, the weather
avoidance put us in the proximity of a restricted area in Alabama,
which I was trying very hard to avoid.

And then I noticed that the information provided by the GPS didn't
make any sense. I was pretty sure I was holding the same heading I'd
been maintaining for a few minutes, but the GPS heading was off by
20 or 30 degrees and the groundspeed was off by 50 knots. And the
restricted area was getting closer...

After a couple of minutes of consulting maps, repositioning the GPS
antenna, etc., I noticed that the portable MP3 player was sitting on
the glareshield right next to the GPS. Naah, couldn't be
interference, I thought, but I moved the MP3 player anyway.

The GPS started giving believable information, and things were right
with the world again. The missing 50 knots of groundspeed returned
and I was still clear of the restricted area.

Was I ever lost? Nope, but I was fairly concerned/confused for a
couple of minutes while I tried to sort out the situation.

It all proves that even a GPS isn't a good substitute for maintaining
situational awareness.

KB



Absolutely. A few years ago, I was asked to source a reliable
distress system for a particular state capital's can't name them parking
inspectors.

Every once in a while, some moron would object to getting a ticket and try
to rough up the inspector. As it turns out, some of the 'sticker
lickers' welcomed the change in pace and could handle themselves quite well,
but there's only a few punters that you can flatten before your management
considers your career options.

A particular brand of phone was tried, 200 examples were purchased and
issued to the parking inspectors. As it happened, they worked fine
as a distress beacon - in the suburbs. In the high-rise parts of
town, in the back alleys and deep in the concrete jungle, these damned
phones could only ever see one or two satellites. So they reported
people in trouble in wheatfields 2-300km away.

Perhaps if they were fitted with a bayonet attachment .....


--

Cheers

Dave Kearton

"Kevin Clarke" wrote in message
ink.net...

picked up flight following to KFIT and saw the friendly welcoming lights of
the Mt. Wachusett ski area, it being winter and all.

On my dual cross country, my instructor tried to get me to try to land on Mt
Wachusett's trail, telling me it was a runway.

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
I had an old friend who had been a UPT student of mine, come through
Holloman for a fast jet requal after a staff job. He'd been a **Raven**
and was generally **crazy**, but a good aviator.

Sorry, but I can't resist. Does this make him a "Raven lunatic"?
Oz/Crash Lander

Crash Lander wrote:
"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
I had an old friend who had been a UPT student of mine, come through
Holloman for a fast jet requal after a staff job. He'd been a
**Raven** and was generally **crazy**, but a good aviator.

Sorry, but I can't resist. Does this make him a "Raven lunatic"?
Oz/Crash Lander



No, but if a nun starts sleepwalking, she's a roamin' Catholic.



--

Cheers

Dave Kearton well HE started it ...

On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:00:26 -0600, in rec.aviation.military "Danny
Deger" wrote:

What is your favorite "lost" story?

EC-130 Airborne Command Post, Nellis Ranges, about thirty years ago. I
was an enlisted swine (Life Support) who went along for the ride.
Boring, actually... flying around and around in a racetrack pattern
hour after hour after hour... zzzzzz.... Suddenly the all-hands
intercom clicks on and an aggrieved voice exclaims "I'm the navigator,
goddammit; I have a right to know where we are!"

This got everyone's attention. Are we not where we belong? Have we
strayed into a live-fire area? Finally the pilot comes up on the
intercom and reassures the crew that we are where we need to be.

Back then, the flight deck intercom had two switches: flight deck
only, which linked pilot (Capt.), copilot (1Lt.), navigator (Maj.) and
flight engineer (TSgt.), and "all-hands", which transmitted to
everybody in the aircraft (some enlisted, some junior officers, a
light colonel, two birds and a two-star, and your reporter, he of the
paired stripes).

Seems our navigator, having nothing to do, decides to kick back and
take a nap. Not usually a problem, since all we are doing is going
round and round and round... Anyway, he wakes up and asks the pilot
where we are, to which the pilot - being the sarcastic sod that he was
- replies "You don't need to know." Of course, our navigator is highly
offended at this, grabs the intercom to reply... and presses the wrong
switch.

Needless to say, the stars and birds were not amused. Heads did not
roll, but our intrepid flight crew was markedly subdued after the
postflight debrief.

The unit identification, and the names of those involved, will not be
revealed to protect the guilty.

--
William Hughes, San Antonio, Texas:
The Carrier Project: http://home.grandecom.net/~cvproj/carrier.htm
Support Project Valour-IT: http://soldiersangels.org/valour/index.html

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote in message
...
Dudley Henriques wrote:
I've NEVER been lost. I've been "temporarily disoriented", but NEVER
lost!!!!! :-))))



I wish I could say the same. I've been LOST.

When I was a brand new pilot, I did a night VFR flight from Rock Hill, SC
to Wilmington, NC... at least that was where I wanted to go. Having very
little TT (less than 100 hours), I navigated the same as I did in daytime
VFR. At least I thought I did.

Basically you just flew at about 100 degrees until you got to Laurinburg,
then turned another 10 degrees or so to fly down the railroad tracks until
you got to Wilmington. What I hadn't figured was that most small towns
look pretty much the same at night and I couldn't see the damned tracks.

Anyway, I got to where I thought I should call Wilmington Approach to
report I was inbound for landing and said that I was about 25 miles to the
west of the airport. They gave me a squawk code and then radar identified
me.... about 18 miles EAST of the airport. The next landfall would be the
island of Bermuda.

Rather than test my swimming abilities to the max, I chose to take their
offer of radar vectors to the airport.

Embarassing, to say the least. I never again navigated by pilotage and
/or dead recconing at night again. From then on it was radio navigation
for me at night.

I was just kidding Mort; Like everybody else out here I've pulled my share
of boners along the way to be sure :-)))
Dudley Henriques

On 8 Jan 2007 14:40:16 -0800, in rec.aviation.military "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.

Just think -- with the advent of GPS, this is one thread that no one
will understand in another 20 years.

Pilot in 2027: "Lost? How could you ever get *lost*?"

:-)

(Actually, it's already true now -- but we all still remember "BG" --
Before GPS...)

One of the reasons I joined the Air Force, rather than the Navy. We
like our airfields to stay where we left 'em...

--
William Hughes, San Antonio, Texas:
The Carrier Project: http://home.grandecom.net/~cvproj/carrier.htm
Support Project Valour-IT: http://soldiersangels.org/valour/index.html

"Dave Kearton" wrote in message
...
Sorry, but I can't resist. Does this make him a "Raven lunatic"?
Oz/Crash Lander

No, but if a nun starts sleepwalking, she's a roamin' Catholic.

Boom, Boom! ;-)
Oz/Crash Lander

2020-xxx = ?? Probably ground guidance for everything Each plane
will be a remotely-piloted vehicle. The pilot can't get lost... he's
in a chair on the ground.

Good God! You mean....(wait for it)....Mxsmanic rules!?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Kevin Clarke" wrote in message
ink.net...
Danny Deger wrote:
Post your lost story here, so we can all laugh at them.


First night cross country during my PPL training. Flew from KFIT to KPSM,
just over 50 nautical. No problem on the way up there. The return was the
issue.

The way I figgure it, as long as you end up at home in the end, you weren't
really lost.

I did get the "you don't have any idea where you are, do you?" from my CFI
on that first night Cross country...

For some reason, My dad and I had flown up to visit my brother at Ann Arbor
Mi (ARB) and my brother and I decided to go for a ride. (Dad stayed behind)
we flew off westish for a while just dinking around. My brother says
something about heading back so I turn east and off on the horizon, I see an
airport. Ok, that's easy. I head thataway. 5 miles out, call the tower, "Ann
Arbor Tower, Cessna xxx 5 west..." They reply to report 1 mile west (or
something like that) - Ok, I report, they don't have me in sight, but tell
me to report down wind. I go to turn downwind, but something doesn't seem
right. I report downwind, and they still don't have mei n sight they keep
asking where I'm at. And I'm sitting there - like - how can they not see me,
I'm on downwind for crying out loud. Then I look down at the airport - wait,
this isn't right. ****! I'm in the pattern at Willow Run (YIP). yank out the
chart, change frequency, "Willow tower, Cessna xxx I'm downwind at the wrong
airport - I'm outta here. Sorry"...

The funny thing is that my brother never said a thing. One of these days I
should ask him why - he's a lot better pilot than I am, it doesn't seem that
both of us would have made the same mistake. He was probably just waiting
for me to figgure out my mistake.

When we got back to ARB, met up with dad, we find out that, having nothing
to do, he had talked his way into the tower and was listening to the whole
thing. Apparently the controllers thought it was funny.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
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