TopNav 2002

[Aussie Andy]

Well that was fun! It was my first time doing TopNav (annual RIN navigation competition out of White Waltham) - glad I was the one flying and 1013.25 was doing the navigation, which looked like a lot of work!

It was an interesting route - 2 hrs flying, all the way to Beachy Head and back along the south coast.

We found the GNAV VOR-track system that you are supposed to use a bit fiddly... and we missed one waypoint by putting the plastic arm on the wrong VOR pin!

How did everyone else get on? There were 30+ aircraft, so I reckon this must've included other PPRUNERs!?

Looking forward to next year - we'll reverse roles and it'll be my turn to Nav :eek:

[tomcs]

Yeah it was great....it was our first time too! I have to say the nav method is quite um....different :D But we got round!

Waypoint 9 was quite interesting! There didn't seem to be anything there....but apart from that i think fun was had by all!!

Tom

[andrewc]

Yeah, we enjoyed Top Nav as well...my intrepid crew were
opening envelopes and entering waypoints like demons.

We of course will have been handicapped to bug$ery by our
excessive navigational kit but we do have some interesting
photos...

As first timers we had not realised that all of the waypoints
are there to be seen on 1:500,000 maps so we thought that
there should be items of photographic interest in all of
the waypoint pics. So for instance at Newbury, which we
found with little difficulty, we were orbiting looking for
the particular building or bridge or railway/river combo that
reflected the nav coordinates (damn the GPS).

Hey, it was fun, and we knew that we weren't going to win
anyway,

-- Andrew

[Aussie Andy]

We thought WP9 was the kink in the road - agree?

Agree - we didn't expect to win either (although you might have heard me saying otherwise during the briefing ;)) but realy enjoyed it. I just feel so guilty that I had all the easy part (i.e. flying) while my mate did the hard bit!

[AerBabe]

I was there Saturday morning, lining my stomach with a nice fry up before heading off to the GatBash. Saw lots of people wondering round with their 'TopNav' badges on, so thanks for enlightening me!
Sounds like a very fun and interesting exercise. Might try and find out some info for next time around :)

[andrewc]

Aussie,

WP9 was allegedly waypoint Whiskey going into White
Waltham itself...

AFE sez N of gravel pits by Reading gasometers however
its not really obvious where they mean.

I think we took nice pictures of a pair of islands in the
Thames which were close but no cigar!

White Waltham

Is it me or is runway 25 horribly bumpy on take-off, on
both departures we found ourselves launched into the
air at less than flying speed to do a most excellent
gooney bird impression bouncing off and up the runway.

My passengers didn't scream but I cursed a lot...

And yes, I've done my fair share of flatter grass :) previously.

-- Andrew

[tomcs]

WP9 was definitely not Whiskey, it was in the wrong place....we put the radial and DME into the RNAV when we flew home and it was definitely near the kink in the river...but who knows...and i think every one was a bit too accurate lol.

But it was great fun!

Tom

[Aussie Andy]

andrewc - RWY25 bumps? I'll say - happily I was just at flying speed the first time it launched me! There's an awful lot of divets!

tomcs - WP9, yes I have a photo of kink in road near kink in river... very kinky!?!

;)