There are a number of reasons why a person might become lost during a flight. In the past, students have forgotten to set the airplane's directional gyro before takeoff. This results in the instrument showing a heading that is completely different than the airplane's real heading, shown by the compass. The student then follows the wrong gyro heading and goes off in some random direction, instead of along the course of flight. Around the time they should be reaching their first checkpoint, the student fails to recognize anything and becomes confused. Make sure to keep the directional gyro set to match the compass before takeoff and during the flight.
A student might just become nervous during a first cross country flight alone. Lack of confidence in cross country flying skills might cause a person to prematurely decide they are lost. When, in reality, they were right on course and just and would have found their visual checkpoint if they would have continued on for another few minutes. Don't make any big turns or decisions on an impulse. You might be very close to where you're suppose to be, but just not correlating what you see out the window with what is on the map. Relax, give it a few minutes, and keep working on it.
But, what if, for some reason, you find that your unable to recognize anything on the map when you look out the window? What if you become lost? Here are a few things that can help you reorient yourself...
Climb
Higher altitude has several benefits:
When considering a climb, remember to consider VFR weather minimums, air traffic, airspace, and aeromedical factors, and aircraft performance.
If You've Got It - Use It
Is there a nearby water tower with the name written on it?
Do you have GPS on the aircraft?
Make sure you're not overlooking a resource that could be helpful. There is no such thing as "cheating", so use everything you have. If your aircraft is not equipped with GPS, tune nearby VOR's or NDB's to find your location. If your aircraft is not DME equipped, finding your radial from two different navaids allows you to pin down an approximate map location.
Communicate and Confess
Air traffic control services are excellent resources which are available almost everywhere. A radar facility may be able to locate a lost aircraft on radar. Flight service stations sometimes have direction finding equipment which allows them to locate a lost aircraft's position. They will not know to look, however, unless someone calls them to tell them help is needed.
If judgment dictates, the emergency frequency 121.5 MHz is always available for a pilot to try to obtain help from air traffic control, should the normal frequencies for the area not be known. Additionally, squawking the emergency transponder code will get the immediate attention of any air traffic controller who observes that transponder on radar. The emergency frequency is monitored continuously by air traffic control in most areas. It is also common for air carriers to monitor the emergency frequency. Because they are at high altitudes, they can hear a small aircraft at low altitude a great distance away.