Wednesday, February 28, 2007
So I was looking for this town.
I had another test, quick illness, only lasted 1.6 hours, considered myself very lucky. In this test, I had to fnd a town, it was called Eyebrow, I shit you not. Thats not the reason behind this post, making fun of saskatchewan that is (though it easily could be), so I'll move on to the iris of the matter (oops, I meant heart).
It was the Navigation test. Nav is easy, when you get to use the GPS, sadly for the test, you can't use the GPS. Its like building a house without power tools, sure you can do it, but WHY WOULD YOU?
I digress, this Nav test is done at around 500 feet above ground. Seems pretty high right? well we're doing 240kts over the ground...thats about...oh...480km/h (slightly more than my civi can do down the Trans Canada). So you're going at a pretty good clip, hoping like hell you don't hit anyone who is also flying around also at 500ft and 240knots. Some nav trips you see lots of people, other trips are devoid of other aircraft. When you don't see anyone else you think to yourself, is there ACTUALLY no one out here, or am I just not seeing them? Thankfully on the trip you have other things to worry about, like hitting the ground or a tower ( some of them out here are 800ft high), so you don't have much time to question your lookout technique. If you just had to bomb around it wouldnt be so hard, but you have to look at a map as well.
You ever try to look at a map and drive at the same time? Well imagine that, now imagine your map is 30 years out of date, and only haphazardly puts down roads, and most of the "towns" on the map are either a)non existant, or b) two houses. Im not sure if you've drive around sask, but farms usually have more than two houses. Thats right, sask have "towns" that have fewer buildings than single family dwellings.
This brings me to Eyebrow, its an actual town sized town. Sadly about 6 miles away, Brownlee is also a real town. 6 miles seems like a big distance, but not when you are traveling at 4 miles a minute.
For my test, after I flew the low level stuff (at 500ft) I was find the town a Eyebrow from about 40 miles away, near a little place called Liberty. Liberty is easy to find because it has a big 600 ft town next to it, but thats not the story. I leave Liberty (or did She leave me?) and set out for Eyebrow on a heading of 240 degree. Unfortunately Eyebrow is a track of 245 degrees from liberty. Liberty to brownlee is 235. It was a pretty clear day, so I could see quite far (about 15 miles), and in the distance I could see two towns. One on my left, and one of my right. I panic and make the wrong choice(the left town). As I get to closer to the town, I realize I am not at Eyebrow, none of the features around Eyebrow are there...I try to will the town to be Eyebrow...but nothing happens, the town insists on not being Eyebrow.
I fake it, and say "and we are over the target....now" and quickly add "should we return to base sir?"
He doesn't buy it, and tells me to orbit. I start looking at the town to the right, and realize its the town I was looking for. He asks me if I REALLY thought that was Eyebrow below us. I tell him its Brownlee, Eyebrow is that town (I point to the actual Eyebrow).
The exercise I explain above is a called a Mental Dead Reckoning. I had to redo it, but thankfully it went a lot better the second time around. We got down, and debriefed, he gave me a High Average. Had I chosen the town to the right, it would have been a Snake/superior (the highest mark you can get).
Funny thing is, on my pre-test, I did the same damn thing. Early in life I decided when given a choice between left and right: I would always choose left.
Im starting to think I should re-evaluate that choice.
It was the Navigation test. Nav is easy, when you get to use the GPS, sadly for the test, you can't use the GPS. Its like building a house without power tools, sure you can do it, but WHY WOULD YOU?
I digress, this Nav test is done at around 500 feet above ground. Seems pretty high right? well we're doing 240kts over the ground...thats about...oh...480km/h (slightly more than my civi can do down the Trans Canada). So you're going at a pretty good clip, hoping like hell you don't hit anyone who is also flying around also at 500ft and 240knots. Some nav trips you see lots of people, other trips are devoid of other aircraft. When you don't see anyone else you think to yourself, is there ACTUALLY no one out here, or am I just not seeing them? Thankfully on the trip you have other things to worry about, like hitting the ground or a tower ( some of them out here are 800ft high), so you don't have much time to question your lookout technique. If you just had to bomb around it wouldnt be so hard, but you have to look at a map as well.
You ever try to look at a map and drive at the same time? Well imagine that, now imagine your map is 30 years out of date, and only haphazardly puts down roads, and most of the "towns" on the map are either a)non existant, or b) two houses. Im not sure if you've drive around sask, but farms usually have more than two houses. Thats right, sask have "towns" that have fewer buildings than single family dwellings.
This brings me to Eyebrow, its an actual town sized town. Sadly about 6 miles away, Brownlee is also a real town. 6 miles seems like a big distance, but not when you are traveling at 4 miles a minute.
For my test, after I flew the low level stuff (at 500ft) I was find the town a Eyebrow from about 40 miles away, near a little place called Liberty. Liberty is easy to find because it has a big 600 ft town next to it, but thats not the story. I leave Liberty (or did She leave me?) and set out for Eyebrow on a heading of 240 degree. Unfortunately Eyebrow is a track of 245 degrees from liberty. Liberty to brownlee is 235. It was a pretty clear day, so I could see quite far (about 15 miles), and in the distance I could see two towns. One on my left, and one of my right. I panic and make the wrong choice(the left town). As I get to closer to the town, I realize I am not at Eyebrow, none of the features around Eyebrow are there...I try to will the town to be Eyebrow...but nothing happens, the town insists on not being Eyebrow.
I fake it, and say "and we are over the target....now" and quickly add "should we return to base sir?"
He doesn't buy it, and tells me to orbit. I start looking at the town to the right, and realize its the town I was looking for. He asks me if I REALLY thought that was Eyebrow below us. I tell him its Brownlee, Eyebrow is that town (I point to the actual Eyebrow).
The exercise I explain above is a called a Mental Dead Reckoning. I had to redo it, but thankfully it went a lot better the second time around. We got down, and debriefed, he gave me a High Average. Had I chosen the town to the right, it would have been a Snake/superior (the highest mark you can get).
Funny thing is, on my pre-test, I did the same damn thing. Early in life I decided when given a choice between left and right: I would always choose left.
Im starting to think I should re-evaluate that choice.
