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My worst case of being turned around backwards was a few decades ago not long after I got my pilots license. A few of the folks from the FBO were going to go attend a WINGS flight safety session and threw my young carcass in one of the airplanes since I was working hard at getting my CFI and Instrument ratings and was still short a few hours.
We arrived, had some ground training and finally it was my time to do some air work. Did well on luck of the draw for an instructor; young, very cute and as it turned out a very good female instructor. We talked or a bit before takeoff about what I though my weeknesses were. I told her that hood work was probably it, did not have nearly as many hours instrument as I needed.
We took off, headed out past the local VOR, did a few of the normal maneuvers; steep turns, slow flight, stalls etc ... Skylanes are not high on my list of A/C to spin so we passed on those, bummer, I like spins. So under the hood I went. She wanted me to fly direct to the VOR and take a different heading outbound. Cool, easy peasy (had just checked my DG against the card compass before I put the hood on). I flew, and flew, and flew. Since the darn thing was a VOR it did not give me distance. So after 15 I did my normal cross check, finding out she had changed the DG while I was putting the hood on, about 30-40 plus miles the wrong way. Fixed that and set up my inbound course. And she made me fly back to the VOR and take the heading she initially assigned.
Rest of the flight went well. All under the hood. Learned a ton, got turned around big time once and it only cost me a couple hours of gas for the182 and a dinner for one of the best instructors I have ever flown with.
We arrived, had some ground training and finally it was my time to do some air work. Did well on luck of the draw for an instructor; young, very cute and as it turned out a very good female instructor. We talked or a bit before takeoff about what I though my weeknesses were. I told her that hood work was probably it, did not have nearly as many hours instrument as I needed.
We took off, headed out past the local VOR, did a few of the normal maneuvers; steep turns, slow flight, stalls etc ... Skylanes are not high on my list of A/C to spin so we passed on those, bummer, I like spins. So under the hood I went. She wanted me to fly direct to the VOR and take a different heading outbound. Cool, easy peasy (had just checked my DG against the card compass before I put the hood on). I flew, and flew, and flew. Since the darn thing was a VOR it did not give me distance. So after 15 I did my normal cross check, finding out she had changed the DG while I was putting the hood on, about 30-40 plus miles the wrong way. Fixed that and set up my inbound course. And she made me fly back to the VOR and take the heading she initially assigned.
Rest of the flight went well. All under the hood. Learned a ton, got turned around big time once and it only cost me a couple hours of gas for the182 and a dinner for one of the best instructors I have ever flown with.
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This. But shocking, jarring, devastating... hard to get it forced down and under control. I've been crushed by 25' waves/rollers, fell off a roof and several times had a ladder accident, had my slag ex-wife say she wanted a divorce and everything I owned, etc, but nothing ever made me feel like that except getting lost in the woods, and below:
The only other time I've had that feeling was when the FBI ransomware scam turned on the camera on my laptop, showed a live pic of me, and said they were on their way to get me unless I paid $100 immediately. The logic part of the brain goes "oh horseschlit", while the animal part of the brain goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
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Driving and lost?
HA, Ha, ha....
GPS = "HOME" button
BUT, I must admit that there have been times when I was traveling on a well-paved road but, per the GPS, I was actually "off roading." Really a confidence builder...... Rrrright......
Aloha, Mark
HA, Ha, ha....
GPS = "HOME" button
BUT, I must admit that there have been times when I was traveling on a well-paved road but, per the GPS, I was actually "off roading." Really a confidence builder...... Rrrright......
Aloha, Mark
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Well, you're no fun...
I usually program my onboard GPS for somewhere "near" home... in case it gets stolen. But I guess if they steal the entire car, they have my registration and address anyway...
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My one and only grid nav flight in the Arctic. Never got lost but never really had that warm fuzzy feeling that I knew exactly where I was. Things feel really strange when your only direction is South.
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My favorite lost story that I was told comes from an SR-71 pilot. They had taken off from Edwards AFB and got distracted. When they figured out where they were they were over South Dakota. I quote, "You have never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3."
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Jesus'll wade in here any minute and scoop up all these lost souls.
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"So, There I was..." (Ya gotta start all stories by sayin' that.)
Having shot a Muley Buck at the age of 14 in the Benchmark district of Montana, I was deep in a canyon where neither of my buddies (one, an adult) expected me to be.
But with signaling they came to the kill. Toward afternoon, they departed back to the rig, after agreement that they'd hike to the truck and bring it to the section of road they might find closest to the kill, hike back down and start helping me pack.
Got worried when it got dark. Got more worried when a Black Bear came in. Climbed a tree. Spent the night in the tree.
Buckskin Rider Network got activated when my partners could not find the kill (or me) after they moved the rig. (Buckskin Rider was then a statewide conglomerate of volunteers in hand with local government resources to activate immediately for anyone in trouble in the woods.) Truck drivers, Law Enforcement, Rescue/Medical, Civil Air Patrol and even any righteous CB operator were on the network.
I made it to daylight where I was promptly found and after I had described the huge black bear that came direct and growled at me in the night, one of my buddies found the track plain in the wet dirt: About 2-3/4" across. A yearling by any measure.
Go ahead and laugh. Spend a night at 20 degrees with your buttcheeks perched on a spruce limb 15 feet off the ground. THEN you can laugh.
Having shot a Muley Buck at the age of 14 in the Benchmark district of Montana, I was deep in a canyon where neither of my buddies (one, an adult) expected me to be.
But with signaling they came to the kill. Toward afternoon, they departed back to the rig, after agreement that they'd hike to the truck and bring it to the section of road they might find closest to the kill, hike back down and start helping me pack.
Got worried when it got dark. Got more worried when a Black Bear came in. Climbed a tree. Spent the night in the tree.
Buckskin Rider Network got activated when my partners could not find the kill (or me) after they moved the rig. (Buckskin Rider was then a statewide conglomerate of volunteers in hand with local government resources to activate immediately for anyone in trouble in the woods.) Truck drivers, Law Enforcement, Rescue/Medical, Civil Air Patrol and even any righteous CB operator were on the network.
I made it to daylight where I was promptly found and after I had described the huge black bear that came direct and growled at me in the night, one of my buddies found the track plain in the wet dirt: About 2-3/4" across. A yearling by any measure.
Go ahead and laugh. Spend a night at 20 degrees with your buttcheeks perched on a spruce limb 15 feet off the ground. THEN you can laugh.
I was lost a while back before gps or cell phones .driving in the woods looking for good wood cutting places and old homesteads . used to do it for hours . I got off the main forest road .ended up on a old skid roads my sense of direction was telling me I was right ,no way to turn around and the gas tank then was close to E .Then the sun went down. I was at the top of a hill that had branches and small alders hanging over the moss covered path. After skidding down the hill and through The brush I bounced onto a gravel forest road looked around and I was about a mile from home . .The prayer I said at the top of the hill paid off .
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Only one time without a compass or phone, and I was walking back in school year about 2000-2001 so almost 20 years ago... I had gotten bored at a school party, and decided to walk to my friends' house where I was going to stay until my parents were done with their thing.. well, at that time, I was not fully aware of the neighborhood layouts and distances.. ended up taking a wrong turn and finally found my way back to their house at around 1am This was after leaving the party at like 9pm To top it all off.. I was off by 2 blocks.. in Salem. Never went without a compass to keep my bearings relatively straight
Another time... but understand.. I enjoy driving around aimlessly in good weather when gas was cheap, and I had no worries these days... anyhow, I went exploring new roads and places..... and ended up reaching Newport from a different route than I usually took, in the evening.. that took some creative driving finding an open gas station at 3am. Nowadays, I know which roads goes where for the most part, and keep an eye on my gas gauge. Haven't gotten lost walking around the woods yet Again, took it upon myself to always carry a compass
back in school year about 2000-2001 so almost 20 years ago... I had gotten bored at a school party, and decided to walk to my friends' house where I was going to stay until my parents were done with their thing.. well, at that time, I was not fully aware of the neighborhood layouts and distances.. ended up taking a wrong turn and finally found my way back to their house at around 1am This was after leaving the party at like 9pm To top it all off.. I was off by 2 blocks.. in Salem. Never went without a compass to keep my bearings relatively straight Another time... but understand.. I enjoy driving around aimlessly in good weather when gas was cheap, and I had no worries these days... anyhow, I went exploring new roads and places..... and ended up reaching Newport from a different route than I usually took, in the evening.. that took some creative driving finding an open gas station at 3am. Nowadays, I know which roads goes where for the most part, and keep an eye on my gas gauge. Haven't gotten lost walking around the woods yet
Again, took it upon myself to always carry a compass
