Lost GPS
I flew up to Little Bear Lake the other weekend (2,000 feet of sand on the side of a hill tucked down into tall spruce trees). Just after takeoff my GPS beeped a bit. Once I was established on cruise I started checking into it and noticed it was complaining about not being connected to a power source. The one amp circuit breaker was popped.
Everything seemed fine so the breaker was reset. A few moments later it popped again. So I removed the Garmin Area 500 from its carrier and reset the breaker. It popped again. So, no more fooling around, there has to be a short in the wiring somewhere. I left the breaker.
So, that meant digging out the old VFR charts and wrestling with an improvised straightedge in the cockpit to figure out a VOR radial and distance to the destination from Prince Albert. I really should have had that prepared in advance and I will from now on.
It was very smoky from the fires up by Pelican Narrows. Scattered clouds at 7,000 feet gave plenty of sunshine but the visibility was around six miles. When you are cruising at 5,500 feet that only leaves a small green circle of greyish green directly below. Had to stay high to keep the VOR signal.
Had a pleasant time tracking the inbound radial direct to the YPA VOR and then tracking outbound the 20 degrees and 74 knots required. The DME in the aircraft made estimating the ground speed moot. Dropped down at the required time (estimated with an E6B no less!) and there was the lake emerging out of the smoky murk. I was a few miles off to the east but it was no challenge recognizing the basic shapes involved as I am quite familiar with it now.
Had a great day, pulled the dock out for the winter, and had a pleasant flight home following the highway south and then low over the Saskatchewan river to YXE.
Everything seemed fine so the breaker was reset. A few moments later it popped again. So I removed the Garmin Area 500 from its carrier and reset the breaker. It popped again. So, no more fooling around, there has to be a short in the wiring somewhere. I left the breaker.
So, that meant digging out the old VFR charts and wrestling with an improvised straightedge in the cockpit to figure out a VOR radial and distance to the destination from Prince Albert. I really should have had that prepared in advance and I will from now on.
It was very smoky from the fires up by Pelican Narrows. Scattered clouds at 7,000 feet gave plenty of sunshine but the visibility was around six miles. When you are cruising at 5,500 feet that only leaves a small green circle of greyish green directly below. Had to stay high to keep the VOR signal.
Had a pleasant time tracking the inbound radial direct to the YPA VOR and then tracking outbound the 20 degrees and 74 knots required. The DME in the aircraft made estimating the ground speed moot. Dropped down at the required time (estimated with an E6B no less!) and there was the lake emerging out of the smoky murk. I was a few miles off to the east but it was no challenge recognizing the basic shapes involved as I am quite familiar with it now.
Had a great day, pulled the dock out for the winter, and had a pleasant flight home following the highway south and then low over the Saskatchewan river to YXE.
Comments
Post a Comment