TANS was part of the standard Dominie fit at Finningley so a generation of Navs used it during training but I also recall that it was mainly a Helo fit. When I joined the Herc in the late 80s, Decca was just on the way out; Omega (a VLF system with a submarine provenance) was the global(ish) kit and accurate to a mile or so; the LORAN ADL61 ('make a fish') was a primary transatlantic nav kit along with the sextant and the whole shebang was displayed on ball/disc resolver along and across twin-channel mechanical readouts which ran from the C12 compasses and the Decca Doppler 62M. The along and across readout (which could be coupled to the autopilot as the source of endless hours of fun with 'voice-controlled flying' for crew amusement at the expense of flight deck visitors) could also run on expanded mode for greater accuracy on airdrops. As back-up there was also a Lat/Long mechanical computer which could also be used for Grid and Griv navigation but that piece of kit was not exactly sparkling when it came to accuracy and had to be manually updated on a regular basis.
In the good old days the Nav would be lucky to find time to stuff down a Mars Bar on a transatlantic route while he played 'One Man and His Dog' with all the bits of kit nav and did Astro calculations to see where the aircraft had probably/possibly been on its adventures. Changing LORAN C chains could also be a leap of faith with no guarantee that once the fading signal had been given up, a new one would be found.
I have huge respect for the fairies who used to keep the airborne annexes of the Science Museum running and always used to visit them in their hangar of wonders to do the tech debrief post-flight when we brought Albert home.
Last edited by Mal Drop; 13th Aug 2014 at 17:23.