Narrative:

On this particular day; we were returning from a flight training clinic. The two other pilots were sharing the flying and personal expense of renting the airplane. One flew left seat on the way to the clinic and the other flew left seat on the way back. Both of them hold commercial amel certificates. It was the usual 'get up too early' kind of day and by the time the clinic was over; all I wanted to do was sleep in the back seat on the way home. The left seater planned the flight by himself. When we boarded the airplane I wasn't even sure I wanted to plug in my headset since all I wanted to do was sleep. However; just out of habit; I plugged it in anyway. The crew received an IFR clearance and departed. After takeoff I reclined my seat and tried to go to sleep. However; after I little bit I heard the words from ATC that brought me up in the seat. 'Where are you going??' that is ATC talk for 'boy; you are really screwed up'. The pilot replied that he was flying direct to ftz. The controller said you're never going to get there on that heading and gave a heading to the pilot. Now fully awake and sitting up in my seat I looked at the instruments and told the pilot his HSI was off 25 degrees from his compass and he reset it. Somewhere in that time the controller gave him another heading change and then following the correction and resetting of the HSI; the controller provided a third heading change. The flight went relatively routinely after that. As I questioned the left seater later; he told me he wasn't able to receive ftz during the first part of the flight and so he couldn't get a good signal. The right seater told me that he gave a suggested initial heading to the left seater; but the left seater elected to try to follow the VOR (which apparently he was not receiving well) instead of accepting the right seater's heading. I then asked the left seater what his route of flight had been. We had departed jef and he had filed direct to ftz and then on to the destination airport. The distance from jef to ftz is 80 NM. The service volume range of ftz VOR at the altitude we were flying is 40 NM. There were several factors that went into this event. For starters; I should have kept an eye on the pilot. My only excuse is that I'm a tired old man who just runs out of steam after a while. The right seater and left seater were not working as a crew. They didn't plan the flight together; they didn't discuss the plan; they didn't listen to each other once in the air; and I was just as guilty of that in the back seat. I've been doing this for a long time and I usually say I never see a new mistake. But this day; I clearly saw a new mistake. I've read about this before; but I never saw it happen so clearly. The pilot had just forgotten how to aviate without a GPS. What we don't use; we lose; and this pilot normally flies in a glass cockpit aircraft. But on this day; there was no magenta line to follow and the skills and knowledge of planning and executing an IFR flight without a GPS just were not there.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ATP rated passenger reported the Pilot Flying and Pilot Not Flying of the Beech Duchess failed to align the HSI compass system and experienced a track deviation as a result. Believes lack of recent experience in non-GPS based avionics contributed.

Narrative: On this particular day; we were returning from a flight training clinic. The two other pilots were sharing the flying and personal expense of renting the airplane. One flew left seat on the way to the clinic and the other flew left seat on the way back. Both of them hold Commercial AMEL certificates. It was the usual 'get up too early' kind of day and by the time the clinic was over; all I wanted to do was sleep in the back seat on the way home. The left seater planned the flight by himself. When we boarded the airplane I wasn't even sure I wanted to plug in my headset since all I wanted to do was sleep. However; just out of habit; I plugged it in anyway. The crew received an IFR clearance and departed. After takeoff I reclined my seat and tried to go to sleep. However; after I little bit I heard the words from ATC that brought me up in the seat. 'Where are you going??' That is ATC talk for 'boy; you are really screwed up'. The pilot replied that he was flying direct to FTZ. The Controller said you're never going to get there on that heading and gave a heading to the pilot. Now fully awake and sitting up in my seat I looked at the instruments and told the pilot his HSI was off 25 degrees from his compass and he reset it. Somewhere in that time the Controller gave him another heading change and then following the correction and resetting of the HSI; the Controller provided a third heading change. The flight went relatively routinely after that. As I questioned the left seater later; he told me he wasn't able to receive FTZ during the first part of the flight and so he couldn't get a good signal. The right seater told me that he gave a suggested initial heading to the left seater; but the left seater elected to try to follow the VOR (which apparently he was not receiving well) instead of accepting the right seater's heading. I then asked the left seater what his route of flight had been. We had departed JEF and he had filed direct to FTZ and then on to the destination airport. The distance from JEF to FTZ is 80 NM. The service volume range of FTZ VOR at the altitude we were flying is 40 NM. There were several factors that went into this event. For starters; I should have kept an eye on the pilot. My only excuse is that I'm a tired old man who just runs out of steam after a while. The right seater and left seater were not working as a crew. They didn't plan the flight together; they didn't discuss the plan; they didn't listen to each other once in the air; and I was just as guilty of that in the back seat. I've been doing this for a long time and I usually say I never see a new mistake. But this day; I clearly saw a new mistake. I've read about this before; but I never saw it happen so clearly. The pilot had just forgotten how to aviate without a GPS. What we don't use; we lose; and this pilot normally flies in a glass cockpit aircraft. But on this day; there was no magenta line to follow and the skills and knowledge of planning and executing an IFR flight without a GPS just were not there.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.