Hapless Harry

The story continues below. Have you figured it out yet?

• Where is Harry?
• What makes the piece of sectional easy to locate?
• What is the heading and distance to Worcester?
• Did it take you more than 3 minutes to figure it out?

Harry left Worcester Airport in his Skyhawk planning to experiment with his new portable GPS. First he punched in "Direct-To" LAX (Los Angeles International) and flew the suggested heading. He then experimented with the various heading and moving map displays offered by his new toy. This continued for 45 minutes or so. Then Harry noticed some distinctly dark and nasty clouds ahead and then a large lightning flash.

Oops, better get on the ground quick, thought Harry as he pushed the "Nearest Airport" button on his GPS. The GPS screen slowly faded out. "Maybe I should have fixed that NAV radio" Harry muttered, "But it sure seemed dumb to buy a GPS and spend money to fix old technology like a VOR" Harry to anxiously looked out the window for a place to land. What luck! Almost directly below Harry could see a field and someone pushing a yellow taildragger into a T-hanger.

Harry immediately did an abbreviated left base entry for the airport. Harry landed long and slid to a stop, brakes locked, with less than 10 feet of runway remaining. He then taxied back to the T-hanger where an old timer was standing in front of a yellow CUB. Harry climbed out and joined him.

"Boy this is really a short runway", offered Harry. "2500 feet" replied the Old Timer, "You was pretty fast". After a pause Harry tried again. "That weather sure came up fast", he offered. "Was dark to the west twenty minutes ago" replied the Old Timer. "Not a talker", thought Harry, as he looked at the yellow taildragger. Not seeing any antennas Harry asked, "Don't you have any radios in your plane?" "Nope", replied the old timer, "No electrical system." "Well I guess that's all right if you want to stay in sight of the airport", said Harry. "Took her to Oshkosh three times" replied the old timer.

By this time the front had passed and the clouds were clearing. Harry asked "Could you tell me were I am and how to get back to Worcester? My GPS died." "Do you have a sectional" asked the old timer. "Of course" Harry answered indignantly. After all he had just bought one last year, or was it the year before.

The old timer took a well worn sectional out of his back pocket and tore a small circle out of it which he handed it to Harry "What am I supposed to do with this?" asked Harry. "Shows the airport, where you are" said the old timer as he turned and walked away. As Harry stared at the quarter sized piece of the sectional the old timer climbed into an ancient Ford pickup and disappeared down the airport driveway.

Here is that piece of sectional:

Can you give Harry the no-wind, magnetic heading, and distance to Worcester Airport? The old timer would solve this in less than three minutes.

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Dick writes:

Harry was at the Red Fox airport in Bondville Vt. Heading of 155 and 69 miles will bring him back to ORH. D

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The intersection of V-72 and the magnetic deviation line, then the wilderness area and airport symbol made identifying the airport pretty straightforward.

But why was Harry so far off his course to LAX? Looks like he flew 45 degrees further north than he should have. Maybe Harry didn't correct for wind when he "flew the suggested heading"? Must have been v-e-r-y windy to send him so far to the north.

What am I missing?

-- Ken Brown N2242Y

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The trick to the quick solution is obviously the isogonic line - there is only one about an hour west of Worcester. He ended up off course because as the story said, He "flew the suggested heading. He then experimented with the various heading and moving map displays offered by his new toy." It didn't really say how long he flew the heading. So he just wandered around getting generally disoriented. As long as the GPS could return him to home, why worry about where he was at the time.