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Lost! Or as my instructor Bill Benbow used
to
say
Temporally unsure of my position.
By Steve Ward
One lovely Sunday morning in February 1995, I departed Bankstown in a C206 tracking 209 for Wilton distance 24 miles, expected time interval 12 mins, to pick up some passengers for a trip outback. Weather was 4 okta's of Sc. Cu at 3–6 thousand ft.
I called up the parachute school at Wilton on 122.9 as advised, at what I identified as Douglas Park from the VEC chart and was advised that they had 2 aircraft in the air, come straight in! Well the mins ticked by and you guessed it—no strip spotted—must be late, there was a bit of head wind forecast … give it another min or two—still no strip. Study the charts, decided I must have mistaken the road to Aspin for the M5 Freeway, turn 90 deg right, fly for 3 mins … nothing on the ground lining up with VEC or WAC charts … Fly in big circle, study the ground … look at the ranges … try to get perspective. Ten more mins pass.
The parachute Nomad called me up and asked my position relevant to the strip. I told him I was first time in the area and having difficulty spotting the strip, he asked what I could see. I told him a I was heading west with a dam on my left and a high tension power line on my right. He advised I was north of the strip … steer south. This I did, then East, West, North, as I eliminated possibilities.
There are numerous small settlements in the area many of which I am sure do not appear on the WAC or VEC charts. After inspecting many of them I found an airstrip, but it obviously was not Wilton. None of the roads or towns lined up … I felt a feeling of panic starting to rise … the cloud was lower here, and there was more of it, I found it difficult to avoid the clouds, and read the maps.
Fear filled my mind, I could taste it! I started to get mental pictures of an aircraft in a grave yard spiral emerging from the low clouds and crashing, at one stage I thought, I will run out of fuel (the tanks were nearly full) I was close to rising ground so was obviously too far south west. I had to force myself to remain calm. STOP! THINK! PLAN! What can I do ?
I can dial up Camden navigation aids and track back to there … start again from a known position … yes that is what I will do.
Once I had settled on a positive plan of action, dialed up the necessary frequencies, put the ADF needle on the nose and headed off, the butterflies that I had started to feel began to settle.
With the subsidence of the butterflies, rational thought returned, what SYD radial is Wilton on about 255 I measured … tuned it up … I was nearly on it … well I may as well intercept it and track inbound for Camden along it! Before long features started to make sense and I spotted the strip just as 8 to 10 chutes appeared beside me. I called for advice on protocol and was told to follow their Nomad in.
That was a real unusual experience, it seamed that chutes filled the sky around me, as I followed the Nomad down a long final to land with those experienced sky divers paralleling the aircraft seemingly only yards away.
I figure that I probably inspected Picton, Tahmoor, Buxton, Thirlmere, Bago, Yanderra, Yerimbool, and lots of other small as yet un mapped settlements.
I was later told what I thought was the cement works, marked on the VEC chart was actually a mine which is much more prominent but not marked.
When I landed, Les Nixon, head of Australia's Outback patrol and personal friend who has logged many hours in the bush said, "Have a nice look around. I have been watching you for the last half an hour! Is this the man who goes straight to Tibouboura, Thargominda and Wanaring and hits them on the nose … and can't fly down the F5 freeway for 24 miles?"
I was hoping nobody would ever know!
So where did I go wrong? I went VFR thinking that with the quantity of visual navigation clues available, and the short distance involved, I would not even steer a heading … well getting lost didn't even enter my mind. I had Nav. aids in the aircraft and did not use them to cross check my navigation. When I became unsure I headed off all over the sky without a plan.
What did I do right? I forced myself to settle and do something positive; that is, head for Camden.
The Moral of the story? Even experienced pilots with thousands of hours can feel that feeling of panic, the one that hits most students early in their flying career as they feel their way in the air.
PS. after picking up my passengers I headed west, did 25 hours in the bush in 5 days and was never unsure of my position once.
Remember:
'Don't back out on the outback!'
 Opportunity down under Go to our opportunity down under page.
 Home Page Back to Outback Patrol's Home Page.
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