I'm having probs with the second one (that no one has answered yet).
Here's the complete question with the destination point:
The rhumb line distance in nautical miles between 26 35'S
024 56'E and 26 35S 054 07E is ...
a) 1,566
b) 1,751
c) 4,286
d) 4,793
Now i can work out that the answer is a) 1566 by (erroneously) taking it to be on a great circle meridian so distance = 1751nm. Obv. wrong but I'd guess it must be less than that being a small circle, so must be 1566. Checking with an online calculator confirms this. However, this is obviously not the way to do it!
How do you work out a rhumb line distance like this?