What I learned about Flying
One September day in 2001, I was on the 2nd leg of my first major cross country. We got up in Twin Falls, Idaho, to a very gusty morning, a bit overcast and cold. Just under 1 month previously, I had received my brand new Private license. I was anxious to use it. I needed to build time to get my instrument and commercial licenses. I had less than 100 hours. Now I understand why new pilots often get too bold and get into crashes. I had left Montana the day before, and spent the night in Twin Falls
My little Cessna 150 was working wonderfully. My wife was learning how to help me by reading the aviation maps. I was use to plenty of wind in Montana, and our runway ran straight in line with the wind. The weather got better to the South where we were headed, so I figured if I could just get off the runway and stay under the 2,000 foot ceilings for an hour or so I would be fine. Light snow was around, and the weather was just below freezing.
As I untied the ropes and preflighted the plane, my wife got in and tied down the cargo net. I got in the plane, and the wind was rocking it pretty good. We sat there while I was arranging things, and watched a little helicopter try to land not far from us. He kept coming to where his skids would almost touch the pavement, and then a gust would hit him and he would pull up several feet, and then slowly try to go back down again. My wife said, “Are you sure this is safe?” I replied, “Of course, the runway is lined up with the wind”. I should have stayed in the motel, this was my first mistake. A light snow, heavy wind, departing from a runway you wouldn’t like to come back and land – almost every accident has a chain that could be broken anytime. Our takeoff was uneventful and it wasn’t very smooth up there, but not too bad. I didn’t have a GPS, but had a good Loran. I programmed the Loran and tuned in the VOR to head to the next airport on our plan.
After a few minutes flying, I noticed the VOR was having a little difficulty, the needle bouncing around, and sometimes the flag showing a bit. This is when I made the next mistake that almost cost us our lives. Instead of checking for some different VOR’s, I just assumed that VOR would start working when we got closer, and we could just trust the Loran, it had always been trustworthy before. Unknown to me, the Loran wasn’t receiving a full signal, putting us way off our track. I flew along for maybe ½ hour with the weather about the same, a little scattered snow..Since the ground was pretty flat, I wasn’t too worried. Everything was grey and flat, not much to break the monotony of the trip. I didn’t think it was worth bothering with the charts since I couldn’t find unique landmarks on the ground anyway. I was thinking about other things, when I noticed a hill on my right, it seemed to be coming closer, just a grey drab, rocky hill. As I looked at it closer, I noticed my altimeter and saw I was lower than I thought. Being raised around mountains in Montana I knew there were probably other hills around. I quickly looked to the left. To my amazement there was a hill on that side too! Neither of those hills were on my charts, and they were much too close.
I suddenly realized something was wrong. I added full power, but a Cessna 150 doesn’t have much climb power when it is close to full gross. The ground under us between the hills seemed to be coming up faster than we were climbing. At the same time (maybe because I hadn’t noticed it before) the visibility was dropping and the snow was coming down heavier. The hills continued to get closer together. I was wondering if I could turn around in this small place and exactly what was going to happen, when suddenly the little rise in the ground ended and we were in a little flat plateau. I quickly turned 180 in that little clearing, and headed back out of that shallow valley. As I turned, I could clearly see the rocks on the ground.
I shudder to think of all the “what if’s” in that situation. What if that little plateau wasn’t there? What if there were trees there instead? What if I hit a downdraft? And so my thoughts continued. Realizing now that something was wrong, I got back to the flat land and pulled out the map. I triangulated between 2 VOR’s and found where I was, double checking it with a 3rd.
I learned several things that day. One was how fast things can turn bad. When circumstances are more challenging, be sure you slow down and carefully examine everything you are doing and be sure you aren’t continuing a chain of mistakes that will kill you. I also learned never to depend on just one instrument whether it is for navigation, fuel, or instrument flying. There was no excuse for letting so much time lapse without checking an alternate navigation method. Always back up all you can with visual inspections and cross check every instrument that you can. With GPS’s today, it is so easy to just push the button and then ignore the ground or backup systems as you follow the “magenta line”.
Clint Hanley flies a Cessna 172 in the remote NE corner of
Nicaragua for medical evacuation. He is establishing new runways among the
Miskito Indians.
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
