Skip to main content

Why Couldn't N7022G Establish on the Localizer?

Why did Dr. Das have trouble establishing on the localizer for 28R? He followed his vector to the localizer but started to veer right of the signal when he neared the field.

The localizer signal would have been 

Some panels are equiped with a "reverse" switch between the radio navigator and the VOR or HSI instrument. The reverse switch transforms the signal from the VHF navigation receiver so that indicator needles appear as they would in a forward approach and the pilot wouldn't have to translate (or reverse interpret) the needle. So, if equiped with a reverse switch and the switch was inadvertently in the reverse position, veering right on the localizer would look like the correct action for the pilot to make.

He also may have been thinking more about circling around to runway 23 and that's why he veered right early. Though he was reminded plenty of times of what he approach was.

The controller reported Dr. Das was veering right of the track. The pilot acknowledge it but may have been too focused on the needle to realize he needed to correct left. If his reverse switch was on, he would have though he was correcting and has no ground references to know the difference between banking left or right. And these types of manuevers are performed in small increments.

The high winds out of the south would have continued to push him right of track. They also would have contributed to a fair amount of turbulence at his altitude over the mountainous San Diego East County area.  

Part of the accident chain.

Part of it could be Dr. Das's confusion about the approach clearance. This is evident from the radio transmissions. Why was he having such a hard time grasping the clearance? Was he distracted by something else? If he was having equipment problems, modern instrument training dictates that you notify the controller and abort the approach.

San Diego has a regional emergency IMC process. Landing at Mira Mar.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Importance of Television

I have no intention of pontificating on the impact of television on humankind. Before TV, people went to movie theaters to get motion pictures from around the world. Before that, they attended plays and other theatrical productions. Before that, they played with sticks and rocks (known today as golf). Enough on that. Last Sunday, after Dawn and I were fortunate enough to watch Donald Trump speak at CPAC, Life, Liberty, and Levin, and Steve Hilton, our living room TV died. It wasn't necessarily unexpected as it was exhibiting turmoil prior to its final Swan Song. But, still, dissappointing. The TV was purchased six years ago at Costco. Neither Dawn nor I were happy with a TV that only lasted six years. If it made it to ten years, then that would be acceptable. Nonetheless, it's time for another television and defining the television's mission given what's now know. In particular, with regards to mission, the living room TV must not have a screen glare. The windows on the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Training Aids and Standards Automation

While reading through a mountain of standard operating procedures related to my company's policies for the development and operation of medical devices, it occurred to me that being fully aware of and to make full utilization of sed policies requires a full-time position. This not necessarily reasonable for everyone involved in the process of engineering medical devices and information systems in support of the same. The scope and complexity of so many procedures also incurs a tremendous amount of overhead. Time and money spent performing many boilerplate tasks is time and money that can be spent providing better value elsewhere. I am reminded of AWS's "Well Architected Framework" or "Well Architected Tool" (whatever it's being called). The WAF or WATool provides a comprehensive strategy and checklist for meeting various important criteria in an AWS deployment. The content and guidance could easily be externalized and declarative and therefor easily exte...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Promise of Spring Roo

I've been thinking about a project scaffolding tool for Java for a long time now. Many modern technologies now come with CLIs that can lay down project skeletons and add conventional concerns by simply executing command line actions. This scaffolding, as it has come to be known, jump-starts project work significantly by laying down the typical boilerplate and, in many cases, simplifies the wiring of ancillary technologies. As a top-tier technology, Java has benefited from the many available IDEs that also provide scaffolding-like functionality. These IDEs, and even Maven archetypes to some extent, provide very powerful tools for project foundations and instrumentation of specialized components. You are even able to produce your own extension, provided you're willing to figure out some of the rather obscure mechanisms to do so. However, architectural patterns change very rapidly and IDEs fail to keep pace. Plus, the IDE capabilities are usually driven through user interface ...
Post a Comment
Read more