Navigation Exercise, April 2002.

Unusual wind conditions and heavy traffic made this a flight to remember. It could have easily turned out to be my last day in the real world. Under the circumstances, I thought it best to delete the pilot's name from the narrative.

I received a copy of our route map from my friend X the day before the flight. He had the marked the proposed route in pencil onto a 1: 1000 000 scale World Aeronautical Chart. He thought that I might like to study it before meeting him Jandakot Airport (YPJT) the next morning at 8.15am.

It was the first time that I had seen such an immensely detailed VFR map at close range. The proposed route distance was about 200nm, and we expected to be in the air for about 2-2.5hours, depending on the wind conditions. When I arrived at the airport the next morning, X was completing the aircraft's pre-flight checks. Then he asked if I wanted to watch him plan the flight. You bet I did!

Preflight
In the briefing room, he consulted the latest weather bulletin as he started to fill out the navigation log.
(This looks just like the nav.log in FS2002.) As he was filling in the details of the second of six proposed legs I asked him 'How do you know that the bearing from Armadale to Wandering is 135deg?'
He pulled out a device that looked like a protractor and placed it on the map, in a line between the two waypoints. It indicated a bearing of 135 degrees. The bearing between the next two waypoints, Wandering and Darkan, was 171 degrees; and so on and so on.

For each leg he consulted the weather bulletin to adjust the track according to the prevailing wind direction and speed. This was calculated using a kind of circular slide rule. And finally, each amended track was adjusted to allow for magnetic variation. The fuel load was calculated, a SAR watch of 13.30 hours was noted and the nav. log was signed and faxed to Melbourne for approval. While we were waiting for flight plan approval I asked X about the main runway at Perth International. It had always bugged me that it is designated 03/21 when its actual compass heading is 017/197 degrees. He told me that runway headings are usually rounded up to the next even number. (At Perth, this would be 02/20.) But to prevent any possible confusion, it was rounded up again because, over the radio, "zero three" can't possibly be confused with "two one". (In FS 2002,we have the option to "cheat" by reading the landing instructions on the monitor at the same time as we hear the instruction.)

Single Runway Operations
As soon as we got our clearance from Melbourne, we went out to the plane, a C172, and started to taxi out to runway 30. Usually, YPJT operates parallel runways, the left-hand runway is used for circuits (touch and gos ) and the right hand runway is used for traffic arriving at, or departing from Jandakot. But that morning, the wind was blowing in from the Northwest, so all traffic was forced to use the same runway, 30. The touch and go traffic was making left-hand circuits, while we would be making a right-hand turn to depart the airfield. I should also mention the helicopters that were taking off from a grassed area in the centre of the airfield, and performing right-hand circuits. Yes, it was all a bit busy!

We took off, and turned right, heading east towards Armadale, our first waypoint. From Armadale to Wandering our altitude was 3500ft ASL. (That's only about 1600ft AGL). The photograph is of the Wungong Reservoir, which you can find accurately plotted in FS2002. (E116deg 4.62' S32deg 12.56')

In fact all of the main roads and waterways in this part of the world are modeled with extreme accuracy!

The major landmarks to look for were the Albany Highway, some high voltage power lines and the wheat silos at Wandering. Then we turned south, and increased our altitude to 5500ftASL (roughly 4000ft AGL). There was nothing but cleared pasture below us, which meant that we had plenty of landing options in the unlikely event of an engine failure. The only downside was that power lines don't show up very well over this type of terrain.

Autopilot
X used the autopilot to hold our heading. Interestingly, if he adjusted the heading bug with the autopilot switched on, the plane changed direction quite suddenly, just like it does in the flight simulator.
I have to say that the brand name of the autopilot did not inspire confidence. Maybe it's just me, but the name "Navomatic" sounds like something that Wile E. Coyote would use to track the movements of the roadrunner.

After turning west at Darkan to head for our next waypoint at Collie, X politely refused my offer of cookies, which I had brought along for morning tea. As I was stuffing my face, I noted the contrast between he and I. My T-shirt and shorts were covered in cookie crumbs, while his flying uniform remained as immaculate as ever. I felt like such a slob; just like Homer Simpson in that episode where became an astronaut for a day.

Collie was easy to spot, because of the huge stacks at the Muja power station. From here, our track back to our starting point was NNW. But X had pre-arranged with his instructor to treat this leg as a "diversion". Which meant that we had to fly at low level, towards the north-east until we came to the intersection of the Harris River and a set of high voltage lines. Well after months without rain, the Harris River, when we found it, was just a dry riverbed. We turned east and followed it along, looking for the power lines. The lines showed up well in the long clearing through the heavily wooded terrain below us. We turned left, heading northwest to once again pick up our track back to Jandakot. I realised that in the forest below us, there was no place for an emergency landing.

We slowly but smoothly made our way against the headwind until finally we commenced our descent into the bumpy air stream just south of Jandakot. Now let me tell you, even with parallel runway operations,   YPJT can be a busy place to land at. But on a clear, sunny Sunday afternoon such as this one, and with just one runway in operation it can sometimes become quite hair-raising.

Almost a disaster.
Approaching the airfield on a northwesterly track we were cleared for a straight in approach and landing on Runway 30. Just a couple of minutes before we were due to touch down, we heard a radio call from an aircraft executing left hand circuits from the same runway. He announced to the tower that he was 'turning base' or  'on base'. Simultaneously, both X and myself turned our heads to look to our left just in time to see another aircraft bearing down on us at speed!

Suffice to say, the last thing you want to hear through your headphones is the sound of your pilot saying 'Shit',* followed by a swift collision avoidance maneuver.

Now the funny thing is, I did not immediately think 'This is it, we're dead!  You see, by this time, having run FS2002 for a period of some months, I had become used to near misses. (A clear case of too much fs).
In FS2002, many times I had experienced the sight of giant jet aircraft filling my field of view when on final approach. On this occasion, the imminent real danger just failed to register until later, after we had landed safely. I spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of delayed shock, which produces a state of mind similar to that induced by drinking far too much coffee.

Having discussed this incident with people who know about these things, it seems that the pilot of the plane executing the circuits should have been aware of our plane being cleared for a straight in approach. He should have extended his downwind leg before turning base instead of following his usual procedure which almost caused him to collide with us.

So to summarise, I had a great time (mostly) and I learned a lot. And yes, if a similar opportunity arises, I will jump at it!

Bill (I laugh at danger) Smith.
Perth, Western Australia.

*(I think I must be the only person on the planet to have ever heard X swear.)