BOB era "instrument" approaches

[GraveyardJimmy]

Originally Posted by jcenzano

Thanks for the reply.

I know you will enjoy the book.

I am specially interested on how they found the runway to land. Did they descent without any navaid until they could id a landmark??

This was definitely a problem. I can't remember which book it was offhand, but there is a story of someone who simply couldn't match up the runway lights and his heading, not realising he was repeatedly coming in off line or across the runway and decided to fly off and try again.

It was only when he finally managed to land (running on empty or fumes) he managed to piece together his relation to the airfield he had been circling from what people told him on the ground.


I have also read that Q-sites ("An electrically lit dummy airstation for nighttime deception.") that used lights and flare paths not only confused German airmen, but also British flyers who weren't sure of their position. Apparently there were 100 of these so a lost pilot stumbling across one might momentarily not realise it was a fake.