I took a lot on board today, and I am starting to learn the true value of flying - how to get places! We had a about 2 hours sat down with all my equipment laid out and he went through the very basics of Navigation, from the curvature of the earth and LAT/LONG lines, all the way to the numbers that go round the compass. It is good because he laid it out in a way that I had never actually thought of before, and it all helped my understanding a great deal. For anyone starting NAV - dont miss out the basic simple stuff, it all forms part of a big picture.
The main area for now was to learn how to calculate heading required and groundspeed, given a certain wind condition (this all done using the whizz wheel - by the way I have the ARC-1 from AFE, anyone got this? I have some questions about it later). He drew a straight line, which was a True Track (very important) and it represented us flying A to B. Then we went through all the necessary steps as to calculate the required heading to fly, and what are grounspeed would be (with 90kts airspeed). At first this seemed all very daunting - but as we went through each stage seperately, and I made of a note of what to do (in logical order), it all started to fit into place, and I was actually enjoying what I was doing (sad arent I)
Anyway, it all went well, but the fact it, as I left the building, I knew that by about 8pm I would have forgotten it and would need to go over it more (no way anyone would take this on first time) - I knew I was in for some serious practice in order to get it right. So I gave it a go in the evening, and honestly couldnt understand some of my notes - I went over it again and again (also using the instruction manual that came with it - this has slightly different methods though) and in the end I had cracked it - I made some further notes that were easier to understand, so at least when I come back to it (I will definately need my notes again) I can do it successfully.
I would like to thank Blinkz for his help on MSN in this subject - it was a good introduction and he was very (very) patient with me - cheers
I look forward to writing the next post - which will be my first solo trip out of the zone - I hope it goes smooth, and I hope it is tomorrow - but we will see.
FFF - if you still read this, you were right about how good all this Nav malarky is
Thanks guys,
Lee
Questions about the whizz wheel to come soon.......