"Ask ATC" Blog
ATCreadback.com regularly blogs about relevant topics in air traffic control, Aviation English and flight safety. We will strive to respond to any questions and post the best online so that everyone can benefit. Topic suggestions can be sent to us here.
Get exclusive updates on Twitter!
Has the art of navigation gotten lost?
Any pilot who has embraced GPS technology is unlikely to ever give it up. By nature, many people prefer to absorb information visually - especially when it comes to figuring out how to get from point A to B. Moving Map GPS is now a staple in any modern avionics suite and the "whizz-wheel and pencil line" method of navigation has more or less been relegated to the archives of navigation textbooks.
However, as hard-pressed as one would be to find a pilot who prefers "dead-reckoning" to "GPS direct" drawing track-lines and determining groundspeed using checkpoints is a staple of pilot training that seems unlikely to remove itself from the flight test syllabus. Are these legacy navigational skills fit to be discarded? Or should flight training embrace the concept of GPS in admission that glass-cockpit instrumentation is the standard which is to come?
In reality, any pilot who can afford to use a GPS should. However, technology should not be an inhibitor to the development and maintenance of basic flight skills - nor should it offer excuses to sacrifice the fundamentals of aviation for expediency. These are skills which form the foundation from which to grow one's experiences. One must always remember that everything we do in the aviation industry, whether it be as a pilot or an air traffic controller, revolves around safety.
Technologies such as GPS are superb tools for improving situational awareness and can be invaluable during emergency situations such as an engine failure or being caught VFR in IMC. As safety is our primary concern, any technology which helps us out in that regard should be embraced and student pilots should be able to learn and practice with it.
Perhaps a day will come when GPS and glass-panel avionics are so reliable, that traditional methods of navigation become obsolete. I hope that day never comes as it will mean the devolution of the aviator. Until then, we must learn to embrace the relationship which has defined aviation for the last 100 years and continue to redefine the balance between man and machine.