Too many airmen today are going autopilot, solely relying their GPS navigation systems. It’s time we rethink our over-reliance on technology, no matter how advanced.
Not long ago I was flying in my helicopter when the bracket holding the GPS suddenly snapped. The receiver fell and smashed. I was in the air without a navigation system, with a flight visibility of between 3km and 4km – comparable to a foggy motorway when drivers can see about 300 or 400 metres ahead. My workload doubled immediately. It was a good example of why we shouldn’t rely on tech alone. Sometimes it takes a paper map to get us home safely.
In aviation today, there’s a dangerous over-reliance on automation. Pilots are trained to plot a course on a map, taking into account the weather and the speed at which they will travel. But once they’re out in the working world, they pack away the maps. A few years ago a British team tried to re-enact the famous “Dambusters” raid of 1943. It involved planes locating specific dams in Germany’s Ruhr valley. But I’m sorry to say that most modern navigators can barely find Germany without GPS, let alone a dam.
There are numerous problems with GPS, ranging from iPads shutting down the system to inputting the wrong co-ordinates – not to mention jamming attacks, which currently affects more than 1,000 civilian flights per day. So my advice is to be prepared and practised. Switch off the screen now and then, know where your map is and plot a course before you set off. Convenience suddenly becomes chaos if the backlit screen you’re beholden to breaks.
Andrew Harvey is a UK-based helicopter pilot and instructor with 25 years’ experience. As told to Monocle’s writer and researcher Julia Jenne.
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