Short Final: In The Eye Of The Beholder

Mark Phelps

Thursday, September 05, 2024 at 12:07 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The author's old Narco Escort 110 radio had a limitation, allowing for navigation or communication, but not both at the same time.
Instead of relying on often unavailable VORs, the author preferred dead reckoning using visual landmarks like lakes, highways, and powerlines for VFR navigation.
When an air traffic controller asked about the navigation aid being used, the author gave a literal description of their current visual reference.
The author humorously identified their current "navaid" as "a prison with a river just to the south," highlighting their reliance on physical landmarks.

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My old Narco Escort 110 could navigate and communicate, but not both at the same time. That led to some interesting conversations with controllers.

I was just stretching my legs to add VFR flight following to my toolkit, but rather than relying on VORs (only available part-time) I still preferred to navigate in a straight line, setting a heading and picking prominent landmarks along the way. On one trip, I was following my best dead reckoning course with my finger on the sectional and flying from one big lake, to a large highway intersection, to a north-south powerline, and so on.

As I checked in with the next controller, he asked, “What navaid are you using?” I answered, “Right now, it looks like a prison with a river just to the south.”