Student pilots must be proficient with dead reckoning, pilotage, and landfall navigation. These training flights are conducted at low altitude within 3,000 feet of ground level in order to easily pick out the reference points that students have circled on their navigation charts for course and position orientation. Those points, located approximately every 10 miles on or adjacent to the course line, shouldn't be listed on the navigation log. That log should contain only the end points of each leg and the top-of-climb and top-of-descent points.
During these flights, students often tell me how enjoyable it is to fly at low altitude and enjoy the sights. It's as though they're spies in the sky riding on a magic carpet. Generating such enjoyment and enthusiasm is an important flight-training element.
Why do we usually fly high? Because of radio navigation. You cannot always receive VOR stations at the lower altitudes, particularly in mountainous terrain. When I was learning to fly, the rule was 'low altitude for visual navigation, high altitude for radio navigation.' GPS navigation, which works at any altitude, has invalidated the old altitude rule. With GPS you can fly your magic carpet at low altitude, be a spy in the sky, and always know exactly where you are, where you've been, and where you're going.
GPS does not eliminate the need for continual proficiency with visual navigation skills--dead reckoning, pilotage, and landfall. Good pilots are always prepared for the unexpected, such as a potential GPS or electrical system failure. In the past I have read notices to airmen that reported unreliable GPS operation within 100 miles of a specific location. Visual navigation skills are your parachute for flying from your present position to your destination airport, or an alternate airport if necessary.
Low-altitude flight does not mean that the minimum safe altitude rule is compromised (Federal Aviation Regulation 91.119). With the exception of airport departures and arrivals, you must be able to make an emergency landing after engine failure without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface. Over congested areas you must remain 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle and 2,000 feet from it (the same as cloud separation). Over other than congested areas you must remain 500 feet above the surface; over open water or sparsely populated areas you must remain at least 500 feet from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure. And don't forget temporary flight restrictions for sporting events and other public gatherings. They, too, have altitude restrictions.
There are two types of visual, dead reckoning navigation: formal, such as you were taught in ground school, and practical--skills that you use in flight without being encumbered with a navigation plotter and calculator that result in extensive heads-down flight, a dangerous thing to do (see 'Insights: Disoriented,' May 2008 AOPA Flight Training).
Pilotage is the simplest form of visual navigation. Follow a highway, railroad track, power line, shoreline, water way, or other significant reference. You go where it goes. With respect to time and expense, however, this is seldom the most efficient way to fly.
Landfall navigation is a mystery to some pilots. That's unfortunate, because when a major ground reference is available, it will eliminate the dilemma that occurs when you're faced with a should-I-turn-right-or-turn-left decision.
For example, you're not familiar with the area and the airport you're trying to find, located approximately 40 miles east of your position, next to a river that runs north and south. You estimate the heading--course corrected for wind--to be about 90 degrees. So you fly 70 degrees, an intentional 20-degree error, knowing that when you see the river you'll be north of the airport and a right turn will take you there.
Visual navigation is an endeavor that you should practice regularly using current navigation charts. It's fun to do, and it will definitely improve your self-confidence. After a few flights, you'll find that your navigation charts come alive, you'll start referencing chart features that previously seemed benign, and you'll stop using features that are not as prominent or helpful as the chart indicates. With that proficiency established, a GPS failure will cause you to say, "So what, no problem."
Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying since 1959 and has 25,000 hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.
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