Poor Boy Over Richfield

Richfield was forecast to be overcast 2000 or better all day, so you didnt file an alternate and didnt carry alternate fuel. So thats the situation: 12,700 MSL at EBOVE, no GPS, no DME. Even turn off GPS location on your iPad if you have that. (In ForeFlight, this is in settings, scroll to the bottom, and set Enable Ownship to Never.) Give yourself 45 minutes of fuel at normal cruise. No one said you were good at planning.

jwanwest

Saturday, July 14, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Dick Karl in the cockpit. Jon Whittle

Key Takeaways:

The article presents a flight simulator challenge simulating a loss of GPS and DME capabilities during an IFR flight with limited fuel, requiring a diversion from an airport that only offers GPS approaches.
The core task is to navigate to an alternate airport using only traditional terrestrial navigation aids (VOR, NDB, ADF) and execute an approach under challenging weather conditions.
It emphasizes the importance of older IFR skills such as estimating position and distance with VOR radials and timing, managing descent rates with wind, and making critical in-flight decisions without modern navigation aids.
Detailed scenarios for three different alternate airports are provided, along with debriefing points that offer practical guidance on applying these essential "lost" navigation techniques.

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We’ve done our best with these sim challenges to accommodate older sim setups that lack IFR GPS. That’s a challenge itself in an IFR world ever more dependent on RNAV. Today, however, everyone is in the same boat—a leaking one with one chance to avoid “swimming with the fishes.” And nobody gets to use “RNAV (GPS).”

Assume you’re near the end of a flight bound for Richfield, UT (KRIF). You are southbound on T298 at 14,000. Salt Lake Center clears you for the RNAV (GPS) RWY 19 approach, crossing EBOVE at or above 12,700 and the usual missed approach instructions. As you pass 13,000 Salt Lake gives you a “radar contact lost.”