Question: I am a low-time CFI, and I have just inherited a student who has a major fear of getting lost while flying to and from the practice area. He’s about six hours into the training, and he gets lost in the pattern. He is often glued to ForeFlight or the panel-mounted GPS in the airplane. How do I get him to look out the window?
Answer: A learner who becomes lost on a VFR day concerns me too. I have seen this once or twice because the learner was distracted by the instrument panel, or chose the wrong time to multitask and got behind the airplane.
The most upsetting was the YouTube influencer that held a private pilot certificate who became lost shortly after takeoff, distracted by the autopilot while on downwind. Although I didn’t know her, I attempted to make contact to offer my services as a CFI.
Getting lost is one of the major fears low-time pilots have. To address this with my clients, I have them sit down with the paper sectional and help them identify landmarks, such as lakes and private airports nearby, and have them fly to them by dead reckoning and pilotage to get to the practice area and then follow them back to the airport.
It’s important to point these landmarks out as you pass over them with comments like, “See the high school? Try to remember that’s there.”
As far as breaking the habit of being glued to the pink line in the pattern, you might try flying it at 1,000 feet above traffic pattern altitude (TPA), such as what is done for aircraft engine break-in, so he gets used to what the airport looks like, and he learns the relationship between altitude and better visibility.
Stay at that predetermined altitude all the way round the pattern. If you are at a towered airport, make sure to get permission before you do this. At a nontowered airport, report your turns and state altitude with “observation flight,” so folks know what you are doing.
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