FEATURE - AVIONICS
navigation system called LORAN C…… .the “snow”. As I launched into the wild blue yonder
on a 045’ish heading, I climbed to FL1.2 (1200’). During climb out I programmed the Loran to show me the way to KLNA, centered the CDI, and settled in for the flight. I made note of the course and added a few degrees right to account for the hard right crosswind. It did not take long before I lost sight of land. Unless you are a for- mer Coast Guard Pilot, that is typically when your gut tightens and you begin hearing odd noises in the helicopter that you had not heard only moments before. As “Murphy’ would have it, the ceiling
came down a little bit and pushed me down to about 800’, but the vis was still pretty good. As I reached the halfway point, the one piece of equipment I was hanging my hat on to take me the shortest route decided to stop participating. Actu- ally, the Apollo LORAN C receiver was not broken, but the ground base tower in my LORAN chain that I needed to send me signals (GRI 7980) went offline……
..now I am “barefooted”. Due to ceilings, I can’t get high enough
and there. The Bell 206B Jetranger I was flying was
based 175 miles away at Palm Beach County Airpark (KLNA). After topping off and paying for the over priced, (we have you by the short hairs), jet fuel at KEYW, I was determined that I would get back to base as quickly as I could. I had three choices before me: The Long Way - Follow U.S. 1 along the island chain until it reached mainland Florida. The Short Way - Head di- rectly N-NE from KEYW across the 56 mile open water gulf toward the southern tip of Florida. The Fun Way - Leave the Je-
tranger on the ramp for the night, get a room, and soak up some local game at the Hog’s Breath down on Front Street. After a quick phone call to Flight Serv-
ice, I determined the weather enroute was going to be 5 – 10 miles visibility and the ceilings would be about 2000 OVC. Back in those days, there was no internet, smart phones, or iPads with up to the minute weather apps, ergo the “uphill” part of my title. Although 2000/5 was not the best weather conditions for an over water leg, I felt good because I was armed with my flight plan, fuel, floatation, and a high end
to pick up a VOR or an NDB, so what now? No big deal, back to dead reckoning. Florida is a big state, all I have to do is hit the south end of it, keep heading N-NE across the Everglades until I recognize some part of it’s east coast urban sprawl, and I am home free. I did run into one big rain cell that popped up, which pushed me even further west, but I still felt good about my course. At that moment how- ever, the only thing I was sure of was that I was south of the FL coast, but exactly where I would make landfall, I had no idea. My mind did race for a few minutes and ran all the “what if” scenarios. What if my rain deviation and this stiff cross- wind pushed me so far off course that I missed the coast? I quickly ruled out that possibility, and would soon be confirmed when I hit the beach according to my time/distance calculations. This would not be the first time, or the last, I would lose the GRI 7980 loran signal and had to go barefooted. There were many other factors that could affect the reliability of LORAN such as weather and geographic location. Fast-forward to today, I reflect back on
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