Fellow racers

My wife, Diane and I, returned home from TOTC today after a bit of holiday time in Philadelphia and Hershey.  We had a great time in the Chesapeake area mainly due to the efforts of the hosts.
The race was well organized and for a first event was well attended.  The Sunday race weather was great and the course well thought out. 
My plane performed flawlessly, the pilot much less so. I pride myself on my sense of direction and while I often stray off course I do not believe I have been as totally befuddled as I was in the first portion of the race.  There are no excuses, but a number of little things did lead me astray.  It would be a great case study to demonstrate how one sees what they expect and then continues on against instrumentation and good sense.

I even pre flew the course two days prior and that did not help.  Here is what happened, a chain of events;

Minutes prior to the race I was asked to contact Lancaster approach and Harrisburg approach during the race. This was on top of numerous frequency changes at each airport and then back to race frequency between turn points.  Again I am NOT making excuses but showing how little things add up.

Second, since adding my 430, tied in with a moving map, I have not paid as much, if any attention, to the actual headings between legs.  I simply set my garmin 496 for a close range and the 430 map, on the effis, for a big picture view.  This time I had both gps maps zoomed in and this was error #1.

The finish and start of the race turn points, as entered on the gps units, are centred on the runway, and both inbound and outbound legs are north and east of the runway.  The actual start and finish were on the far end of runway 31. This means that after a pass over the runway you had to turn hard to the right and start a course correction to get back to the line.  In doing so you cross the “finish” course line and pick up the “start” course line. I never wear sunglasses as I have difficulty seeing my panel, but the sun was so bright that I did wear them that day.  When I turned on course I picked up on the first line and followed that.  I did notice that I did not see the “magenta” on course line but thought that it was the sunglasses that were hiding the colour.  Just to make sure, I reset the 496 and it of course gave me the same thing.  I then “knew” that I was on course and I set my altitude, opened my ram air, set engine controls, checked the other gps, both were the same and noted that the miles to what I thought was the first turn were decreasing. I then set the next turn point frequency plus entered the other approach frequencies in com 2.  All was well. 
This took about three minutes and then I noted, horror of horror, the distance to the first turn was INCREASING.  I just could not believe it and could think of no possible reason for this.  I promptly reset the 496 again and still no solution was obvious.  Finally, finally, I zoomed out the other map and my mistake was clear, what a shmuck! And yes I can see the magenta line with my sunglasses.  I did a right hand turn and proceeded back and across to the first way point.  At an airspeed of 220 plus knots, a three minute error can take you a long ways from where you are supposed to be, eleven miles to be exact, and then I had to fly back to the first turn point. Rough calculations indicate that I flew an extra 18 to 20 miles with that tangle of errors.  It took me a day or so to really sort out all the things that I did wrong, but it was a lesson to me on how little things can really add up. 

            Previously when I have made stupid little mistakes during races I have been angry with myself, but this time it was so bad that it was hard not to laugh.  At the same time it was also sobering to see how long it took me to sort out that not only had I made an error but what was the solution.   I kind of felt bad for my airplane; it did everything right except for letting the wrong guy flight it that day!

Solutions and lessons learned

I am not going to wear sunglasses in a race, at least not until I get firmly established on the correct track!

I am going to note the course lines and pay attention to heading.  (Previously I had already learned this lesson but let the second moving map give me a false sense of spatial orientation)

I will not let items like frequency changes distract me from flying the plane

I will more carefully consider the area that I am in and how landmarks, or lack of them, might affect my sense of direction.

I will fondly remember the laughter that this event generated and hope that someone else may be in my humble position, especially someone in my class!

Again it was a great event and I look forward to seeing all of you at future races, you are a great bunch of competitors, friends all.

Tom Martin