How many in this club?

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message

Huh? No...seems you misunderstood what he said. He picked airport A for
his waypoint, and then identified airport B as airport A.

It's kind of like if I'd picked Boeing Field in Seattle as my waypoint,
and
then pointed out SeaTac (the Class B airport a few miles away), claiming
it
was Boeing Field.

Well, it's more like, Boeing Field is a little asphalt strip across the
rural road from SeaTac, which is actually a square field in which the farmer
just mows a runway in whichever direction the windsock dictates on the rare
occasion he flies out. :

The only thing that really bugged me is, they were so close to home I could
pretty much see both from my house. His lesson was important; another
nearby example he pointed out was a "private airstrip" that was merely a
dirt roadway in the center of a Christmas tree farm. On the map it's an
airfield. From the air, it's a farm. You'd NEVER find it if you didn't
know in advance what to look for.

As I said before, it's a very good example of why one needs to learn at
least some basic things about an airport to be used as a waypoint.

I agree with you. I was disappointed with busting the checkride and having
to pay the extra cash (as a college student.) He could have simply said
"Guess what...you hit the geographic mark but that isn't the waypoint and
you can be failed for that." I'd have gotten the point. But, in any case,
I didn't contest it and haven't misidentified a waypoint since. :

-c

"Jose" wrote in message news:dF3yd.2108

The DE's point was, don't use private airfields as waypoints.

That's not what I'd take away from it. I'd take away "don't use
waypoints you can't identify". You in fact did not correctly identify
the waypoint. I bet you'd've passed had you pointed to the grassy
area rather than the paved strip.

Nope, 'cause the grass strip wasn't a strip; it was a square field that
hadn't been mowed in who knows how long (from 3,000 ft.) Had it not been
for the ashpalt strip, I'd not have found it AT ALL. (which was his point,
although in retrospect it may not have been cause of failure, as people are
pointing out.)

What he said, literally, is that you don't know what somebody's going to
call a "private airstrip" and unless you've actually been there and seen it
recently, you don't know whether it's a dirt road, somebody's back acreage
or an ultralight strip.

=c

gatt wrote:

Nope, 'cause the grass strip wasn't a strip; it was a square field that
hadn't been mowed in who knows how long (from 3,000 ft.) Had it not been
for the ashpalt strip, I'd not have found it AT ALL.

Okay, I think I did misunderstand the situation. Never mind what the
checkpoint was, you missed it (and mistook something else for it). Yes,
that's a Nasty.

I just did the 100 mile non-solo commercial XC this week, and it was back to
pilotage and ded reckoning (sp?) for me. Every checkpoint consisted of
multiple features. This is something I learned during my PPL. It makes
both mistaken identification and missed checkpoints less likely.

It's important to note that even charted features are not always visible
from the angle at which you approach them (or the season/daylight at the
time of your flight). It is also very useful to make note of additional
features along the way (if there are such features {8^). This way, you
always know where you are. It's not a matter of "finding your location"
every N minutes.

- Andrew