Lost procedures
What to do when you no longer know where you are: climb, look, tune, ask - and the point at which it becomes an emergency you declare.
10 min read · Navigation
After this lesson you can
- State the first action on becoming uncertain of position, and why.
- Use navigation equipment to fix a position from what is available.
- Ask for help correctly, including direction finding assistance.
- Recognize the point at which the situation is an emergency, and act on it.
The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge introduces this with a phrase that sets the priority: getting lost in flight is a potentially dangerous situation, especially when low on fuel. The danger is not the not-knowing. It is that the not-knowing consumes the fuel that would have fixed it.
Which is why every procedure here is ordered by how quickly it helps, and why the last one - declaring an emergency - has to happen while there is still fuel to act on the help you get.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Climb first
- 2.Fix the position from what is on board
- 3.Ask, and how to be helped
- 4.The risks the ACS attaches to lost procedures
These 4 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.