In May I published this post from a fellow pilot who had a problem with a VFR reporting point in Zurich. He used the published VOR / DME coordinates to fly to the W point of Zurich (LSZH) airport. The Tower controller told him he was two miles north of the reporting point… He measured the exact radial / distance of the point later and found that the published radial was wrong.

Last week a correction was published. The AIP page with nice color chart was not reprinted – this would cost too much – but a manual correction was added. Pilots have to do such corrections on the charts manually. The DME distance is unchanged but the radial is now 234 and no longer 244. The origin of the problem is not known. It could be a typo but there is a second theory. The KLO VOR was moved when the new terminal E was built, few years ago. This changed both the distance and radial, so it’s must be partly a typo or missed info.

The lesson learned from his mishap is still valid: VRPs are defined by landscape features, not radio-navigation coordinates, even when they are officially published. Cross-check or fly visually. After all, they are VFR reporting point…

The second mystery that got solved is about the yellow metal blades with two holes on the Airbus 320 wings. I saw these for years and always wondered why they are for. They are obviously too small to be use to hang the wing, they have no aerodynamical function, so they were a mystery to me. I took this photo from row 11 of a Spanair Airbus 320…

The next picture explains it all: the overwing emergency exits are relatively small panels that the passengers seating in rows 11 and 12 can throw overboard – only when instructed by the cabin crew. There is no full-size slides or ramp but two ropes to help passengers to evacuate the aircraft. The two holes are used to fasten the ropes, creating kind of a handrail for passengers.

Discovering the function of this part of the aircraft made me happy. There are sometimes small pleasures in aviation… life is good.