A pilot explains how to use the compass to stay oriented during flight, especially in pattern work and checkrides. Knowing your compass direction helps you make accurate radio calls and avoid confusion about which way you're heading.
All right, we have a little tip for you for help keeping yourself organized in the cockpit and your situational awareness. Occasionally in training and even in a recent checkride, we had somebody who got discombobulated during their pattern work and getting back in the pattern and unsure where they were at and made a mistake on a checkride. And I just want to give you this simple tip. If you always use the compass to your benefit, just think it's always going to point towards where you're going. So right now we're heading east. The bottom of the compass is always telling you where you've been, where'd you come from? So I'm going east, and I came from the west. If I want to go south, I'm going to turn right because you can see it right there. If I want to go to the north, I'm going to turn left. So when you get ready to make your radio calls and the recent problem we had on a checkride, the guy, again, was confused with his direction and made a bad call because he was unfamiliar with where he was at. So very simply, just remember, always look to the compass. If you're just EAS a little bit confused, look up and go, okay, I know this is where I'm going. It's pointing the direction you're flying. The direction at the bottom is where you just came from. So I'm headed east, coming from the west. If I wanted to go south, I would turn right. And you can use that to help not only just keep in your direction, but with your radio calls on which way you're going to be turning and what you're going to be doing. So just a simple, easy little tip. Work on your situational awareness in the cockpit and always try to have a good idea of where you're at, what the directions are around you.
