AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2012 - 26

PROFICIENTPILOT

BY BARRY SCHIFF

WUVHRKDBGM

hen I was preparing for my private pilot “rating” in 1955, the night experience required by the Civil Air Regulations (CARs) consisted only

the chart for an airport along our route. There was none. Then I realized that this was not a green-and-white beacon; it was white and white, an airway beacon, one of thousands placed along federal airways to lead wayward pilots through the night sky. I had read about these guiding lights, but had never before seen one. There also was supposed to be a pair of red “course lights” associated with the airway beacon, lights beamed in each direction along the airway to provide cross-track guidance. I could not see a course of 10 takeoffs and landings. A cross-country flight Barry Schiff has light, confirming that I was not on the airway at night was not required then as it is now. many years of My first cross-country at night as a private pilot (Amber 2). experience as was to be only a month after Fran Bera, my flightBecause the beacon was to the right, I assumed an experimental test examiner, courageously signed my temporary that we were left of the airway and made a test pilot in light pilot certificate. This was just hours after my 90-degree turn to the right so that our left wingtip airplanes. good friend, Joe Stanley, called to ask if there pointed at the beacon. The idea was to fly a large, was any reason why we could not rent my flight circular swath around the beacon until eventually school’s Cessna 140 and “hop up to Vegas” that night. There seeing (intercepting) one of the on-course beams. Several was no reason I could think of, no reason at all. It didn’t mat- minutes later—it seemed like an hour—I could see a red ter that neither of us were old enough to gamble or that I had directional beam, which meant that we had returned to the never before left the traffic pattern at night. I had a piece of airway. At that point, I turned directly toward the beacon. paper that said I was qualified. Joe picked the Cessna 140 As we got closer to the beckoning light, I saw that the onbecause it was the only airplane available to us with an elec- course beam was flashing a G in Morse code. I quickly returned trical system. to my chart and discovered that this particular beacon was 56 After taking off from California’s Santa Monica Airport, I statute miles southwest of our destination. I cannot describe turned away from the Pacific Ocean, pointed the nose east- the flood of relief that comes from fixing one’s position in the ward, and climbed over the vast carpet of lights that sprawled void of the nighttime Mojave Desert. The mid-1950s were the heyday of the airway-beacon systo the edges of the mountains ringing the Los Angeles Basin. No sweat, I thought. Night cross-country is no big deal. tem. Approximately 2,500 of them “illuminated” the airways I nudged the little 140 toward the northeast, through the across the United States. They were installed at 10-mile interCajon Pass, and into the hollow darkness of the Mojave Des- vals. Pilots flew along difficult routes simply by flying from ert. My enthusiasm and confidence slowly began to wane as one beacon to the next. I worked with increasing diligence and decreasing success to The letter W identified the first beacon along an airway, and match the sparse lighting patterns on the desert floor with the U identified the second. The letters V, H, R, K, D, B, G, and M symbols on my chart. The farther we flew, the more confused represented the next eight beacons. After that, the sequence of I became. This was not what I had expected. letters repeated themselves over and over again until reaching There was a low-frequency, four-course range along our the other end of the airway. Pilots presumably knew their posiroute, but the little 140 did not have a low-frequency receiver. tions within 100 miles, so it was unlikely that one G beacon, Nor did it have an omni receiver to pick up that new omni- for example, would be confused with another (although I am range shown on the chart. Even if we had had such equipment, certain that there have been times in the pre-GPS era when I I would not have known how to use it. All of my navigation did not know where I was within 100 miles). training took place in the confines of an Aeronca Champ, and It helped to memorize the sequence of beacons: WUVHRKthe only equipment upon which I had learned to rely was the DBGM. No one seems to know why this particular sequence compass and the clock. So it was that I attempted to dead- was used, but a mnemonic was developed to help us rememreckon my way to Las Vegas. If only I could have found a few ber it: “When undertaking very hard routes, keep direction checkpoints with which to verify en-route progress. I found by good methods.” I would have preferred something like, nothing reliable. Droning through the darkness seemed only NFREGJALOP (night flying requires exercising good judgment to increase doubt and fear. I had no idea where we were, and and lots of petrol). rivulets of perspiration formed on the back of my neck. You probably can think of something better. My attention was suddenly arrested by a rotating beacon some distance ahead and to my right. I frantically searched Visittheauthor’swebsite(www.barryschiff.com). 26 • JANUARY 2012

AOPA PILOT •

http://www.barryschiff.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2012

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