VFR aircraft lost going to OXC

[cboneill0099]

My first attempt at an upload, harder than I thought. The original clip was spread out over about 20 minutes. Takes a lot of time to cut all the garbage out. This guy was trying to get to OXC but ended up over Roberston. Then when he told the tower he knew exactly where he was on the map and he was inbound he ended up flying to Meriden instead.

At the end he tells OXC he just turned final but he didn't realize he turned final at MMK. The guys in the tower at OXC try to call him twice but he never responded.

[jeffcyn]

Thanks for the audio.  This was a little scary to listen to.  A GPS would have been nice in this situation.

[cboneill0099]

It also goes to show that you really need to do some preflight prep, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area. First he mistaked Roberston for Oxford, Robertson has no tower and the runway is about 2000' shorter and 25' narrower. Then he flew to Meriden which is also untowered and much smaller than Oxford, and was telling Oxfords tower he was on final at Oxford.

[Jason]

It also goes to show that you really need to do some preflight prep, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area. First he mistaked Roberston for Oxford, Robertson has no tower and the runway is about 2000' shorter and 25' narrower. Then he flew to Meriden which is also untowered and much smaller than Oxford, and was telling Oxfords tower he was on final at Oxford.

It happens on occasion at DXR as well, where pilots mistake BDR for DXR (which frankly I find hard to do). It pays to be familiar with the area.

[iFLY87]

controller says squak 7600. isnt that lost coms??? emergency is 7700

[snipper_cr]

eh... I really hate to criticize other pilots but there were many mistakes here. As a positive, the fact that he "located" himself on the map indicates at least he had a sectional out. Also goes to show sometimes we get spoiled by towers with radar/DBRITE feeds.

Although he located himself on the sectional, once he realized things were going pear shaped, he could have tried some cross radial locating. I've gotten a bit disorientated once or twice and cross radialing helped alot.

The controller was very helpful - I know many controllers would have gotten far more irate at this event. Good clip to listen and follow along with.

[Dave_B]

I agree - nobody is perfect. At some point, everyone gets a little messed up. I know I have, like back before GPS was widely used and you couldn't as easily fly "to a point" without good planning, and the controller would give you a straight-in approach to a runway that was just out there in the ether somewhere, and maybe you'd already be low because you were scratching around for the airport, and it would be hazy...you know the drill.

It is easy to get spoiled nowadays!

That said, I wonder if he at least knew how to use VORs. If he had a chart, you would think he would have tried this. That is a pretty densely-popuated VOR area. Have they de-emphasized that in primary training? Maybe things were happening too fast for him to be able to start twisting dials but it seems like he could have oriented himself fairly quickly in that location.