Navigation Flights

From general handling, its on to another chapter of flying.. navigation. It wasn't exactly the way I'd thought about going from one place to the other since there's no signboards saying where you are or which direction to go to the destination.

The way to go is Time-Ground-Map. Kindda new and againts my habits to go as we're so used to looking at features around us then looking at map to see if it matches. And time? What time? The views in WA ranges from ocean and salt lakes near the coast to mounts further inland passing the escarpment. Dams (which I never get to see in my previous company although there's couple of dam projects that were were doing) and reservoirs are a common sight inland and a good landmarks for navigation.

Must say its quite an experience and I underestimated the workload during navigation flying. My initial perception of navigation flights would be looking out for features (aka sight seeing) to reach a destination. Did I get that so wrong! There's still other things to do and it does demand quite a lot of your attention. I've often do a lot of things when I drive and I do it with ease. While driving a car, I can (Kids don't try this at home.. leave it to professionals):

1. Take photos

2. Eat dinner/lunch/breakfast
3. Find my way with road maps

4. Read

Don't get me wrong, I'm a safe driver. And whenever I don't feel comfortable I can always stop the car anytime. With planes, its a totally gameplan all together. Stopping the plane at the roadside? That happens only when I ran out of fuel and forgot to top up the plane. One common trouble for me when flying and driving would actually be thinking of mathematical sum and talking. Well, guess I do get too engrossed with what I'm doing sometimes.

However, practice does makes perfect and I can't wait to go on solo navigations on my own to brush up on the technique and hopefully it'll all come to me like second nature like driving a car.

I guess next time if I own a small plane, I can cut down travelling time from Kuching to Sarikei to just one hour! For guys and gals traveling back to Kuching and Sarikei, Happy Chinese New Year!