Tuesday 19 January 2016

Has the advent of GPS reduced pilots' map reading skills?

Pilots ain't what they used to be!
Must be all this relying on new-fangled GPS, not map reading like what we used to do. Apparently pilots of light aircraft have landed at the BAe Warton airfield instead of Blackpool, their intended destination, and it's a enough of a problem that BAe have issued a video of 'how to tell the difference' (CLUE! The Irish Sea is at one end of the runway at Blackpool, but not at Warton!).



The footage of the approach from the south is interesting; that area of Lancashire (south of the Ribble and east of Southport) is nice and flat and has straight railway lines across it at 90 degrees for direction reference, and I frequently used to practice aeros there in the Chippy and the Yak, with Warton keeping a radar watch on me and advising of any conflicting traffic.

BAe video showing approaches to Blackpool and Warton




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