The Strats. were welcomed to Kano by a Tribesman sat on a camel blowing the Nigerian equivalent of a Didgeridoo ! long horn, anyway.
I've just been chatting to one of my microlight students about navigation - not a major hazard in Northern NZ, most times you can see both coasts ! - and mentioned using a sextant in a 707, the reaction is usually, Oh Yeah, silly bugger, but this time I was surprised by the reaction - like, wot's a sextant !!
One dark and dirty night on the North Atlantic, was beavering away with all the modern aids known to Man, like Astro, Loran, Consol, when the door opened and a pax asked if he could have a look. Turned out he ferried light aircraft across. I asked him how he navigated ? He looked at me as if I'd crawled from under a stone, explained that there was a ship permanently stationed around 40 West, Ocean Station Charlie, and another near 20 West, which had beacons, and he had a radio compass, so he just tuned in Charlie and set off from Newfoundland. The ships were some 1,000 nm apart if I recall ? Maybe a bit less ?
Not long after I was involved in a crossing where Gander asked all the aircraft who could transmit, and get a response, on 121.5 to report position. Turned out that 4 light aircraft had set off and only one had suitable navigation equipment so the other 3 formated on him - and got seperated. Eventually one of them was located and turned towards Iceland and ditched about 40 nm South of the coast, and a chopper from Keflavik managed to fish him out. The other 3 were never heard from again.
Innocence is Bliss.
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 28th Aug 2009 at 10:24.