G-ALDN "the Hermes in the desert" had a combination of the " holes in a Swiss cheese" to make it easier to produce the errors.
TRUE courses were to be steered. This required whoever was Navigating that sector to adjust the Magnetic Variation Setting Control to the Local Magnetic Variation = which started at 3 Degrees W , increasing to 6 Degrees W or more during the flight
The V.S.C. was calibrated in TENS of degrees.... With a X10 printed above the calibration. The flight would have started misleading. right from the departure.
IF Tripoli had had VOR installed and operating at that date then the fact that the Hermes was tracking. in the wrong direction might have been apparent. The ADF would have pointed back over the tail.... Whatever direction the a/c was heading, N S E or W.
There were no NDBs available, reliably, on that route.
As a Britavia Hermes F/O I had been trained by B.O.A.C . in the use of the Hughes Periscopic sextant which demanded NOW "improved star recognition" THANKS to this accident.
( Perhaps F/Os did most of the "Chart Table Navigation". Britavia did not employ " Straight Navigators".)
PS The " passenger who noticed..." may have been a steward who had had some N/O training in the R..A.F. Or so we were told.
The VSC had been disconnected and the "X10" painted over. We flew Co (C) instead.
LT
Last edited by Linktrained; 29th Dec 2015 at 23:20.
Reason: ps