Originally Posted by
Yellow Sun
As a matter of curiousity, when was the Astro compass removed from the basic nav syllabus? I remember seeing the device; stowed on all the nav school aircraft; but cannot recall it being used. Heading checks were carried out using the sextant.
YS
Regarding 1 ANS, it was still at Stradishall in 1969 (not 1967 as I first misremembered) when I did a refresher on Dominies.
The Astro compass and the Mk 9 sextant were taught at 2 ANS in 1962. As the Mk 9 was hand held it had no ability to check azimuth. The astro compass, as mentioned above could also measure visual bearings as well a aircraft heading. At 1 ANS we were introduced to the Mk 2 Periscopic Sextant. The astrodome had to be removed and a plate with sextant mounting put in its place. I think we usually put the plate in on the ground before doing night astro sorties. I seem to remember that occasionally we would swap these over in flight.