novicef
However when I mentioned it to a retired SCPL ground instructor he said that if the TE and Closing angle together exceeded 15 degrees the 1:60 rule should not be used because it was an approximation
is crap. (Edit) What he said was crap...I absolutely believe you that he said it!
Back before GPS I was flying a Queenair from Port Moresby to Honiara...at night
Because of enroute navaid requirements I had to track via Gurney NDB, Gizo NDB and then down 'The Slot' to Guadacanal and the Honiara VOR...no DMEs. Because of the long overwater legs in the dark I chose to put the forecast winds on my flightplan..first mistake...2nd mistake was using the resulting headings.
By about halfway I was being driven nuts by doubts about the actual wind...it was forecast as blowing from a direction that seemed unlikely given the time of year...I was convinced if I didn't do something I was going to do an Amelia and dissappear into the Pacific. I explained all this to a new pilot who had come to PNG that morning and was sent off with me because the charterers had a 'two pilot' requirement...his eyes sorta got round and bulgy when I did a 1/60 purely based on Dead Reckoning and changed heading in excess of 30 degrees.
Approaching my GETA an hour or so later the ADF was just spinning in lazy circles..and a big line of TS lay across our path. We bashed through those and as soon as we did it snapped
EXACTLY to zero relative bearing and
RIGHT FECKING AHEAD was an island bathed in moonlight...GIZO.
I use capitals and highlight it because I have a difficult time believing it to this day
We were about 5 minutes early too
back in those days I was a enthusiastic employer of 'the old way' and was pretty good at it in general..in fact it wasn't the 'old way' then it was the 'only way'
....although I surprised myself that night...and near scared my mate to death...but these days I use an FMC at work and a GPS at play...the enroute charts come out to check a frequency.
Anyone else used 'deliberate error nav' in anger...or howgozit charts?
Ahh the good old days