Map Reading
Despite having GPs (without moving map), we used to carry lots of maps on SAR, especially 1:50,000 maps to assist in searches and locating casualties.
What isn't helpful is when, as happened more than once, the only map of the area we were tasked to suddenly disappears out of the co-pilots window!
That was the old-school equivalent of the satellites going down.......always amusing in an area you didn't know well, Eire for instance....
What isn't helpful is when, as happened more than once, the only map of the area we were tasked to suddenly disappears out of the co-pilots window!
That was the old-school equivalent of the satellites going down.......always amusing in an area you didn't know well, Eire for instance....
The following 2 users liked this post by [email protected]:
I was watching a pre-smart phone film recently with my 25 year old daughter and the star was given an address to meet up with someone. She asked how on earth he found it without a phone to guide him?
So it made me think that with the reliance on satellite systems for GPS and navigation, is map reading still taught to budding pilots?
If the satellites were taken out in a war footing, will they still be able to navigate (and I suppose that applies to other armed forces, though I believe that astral navigation, is in the Navy)?
So it made me think that with the reliance on satellite systems for GPS and navigation, is map reading still taught to budding pilots?
If the satellites were taken out in a war footing, will they still be able to navigate (and I suppose that applies to other armed forces, though I believe that astral navigation, is in the Navy)?
Quite a few other ways to drive a moving map rather than using GPS. Inertial navigation systems have been around *quite* a while now!
Yes, reading a map to find your way around is still a requirement for licensing.
Given the question I think it's fair to assume the OP is talking about military aircraft. If you can point me at a military aircraft in the UK that uses a 2000 dollar GPS as an airframe-fitted navigation system (an iPad EFB doesn't count!) I'd be very impressed....
Did a trial flight at Boscombe with an experimental moving map device which used inserted sections of OS maps and motor-driven cross wires, on the Lynx. Only the one flight and I don't know what happened to it, Service-wise. The "Dectra" (???) moving map for Decca use was avoided, in favour of Deccometers in the S&R Whirlwinds and, given no 'lane jumps' was exceptionally accurate - used to do self-directed SRAs onto the runway numbers at Valley ... the main runway was directly co-incident with a Decca lane line ! 
The following users liked this post:
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
I seem to remember pilots cutting up millions of charts to produce strip maps of their planned route suitably annotated with range and bearings to diversions along the route.
And one GR1 nav, with a former Jag mate as his pilot, who would search his bags before a trip and remove the maps he'd made for himself.....
And one GR1 nav, with a former Jag mate as his pilot, who would search his bags before a trip and remove the maps he'd made for himself.....
Did a trial flight at Boscombe with an experimental moving map device which used inserted sections of OS maps and motor-driven cross wires, on the Lynx. Only the one flight and I don't know what happened to it, Service-wise. The "Dectra" (???) moving map for Decca use was avoided, in favour of Deccometers in the S&R Whirlwinds and, given no 'lane jumps' was exceptionally accurate - used to do self-directed SRAs onto the runway numbers at Valley ... the main runway was directly co-incident with a Decca lane line !
The following users liked this post:
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,635
Received 300 Likes
on
168 Posts
Heard that story too, pretty sure it was at the Long Mynd and the saga involved several other happenings that were so contrived it must be true.
The following users liked this post:
Did a trial flight at Boscombe with an experimental moving map device which used inserted sections of OS maps and motor-driven cross wires, on the Lynx. Only the one flight and I don't know what happened to it, Service-wise. The "Dectra" (???) moving map for Decca use was avoided, in favour of Deccometers in the S&R Whirlwinds and, given no 'lane jumps' was exceptionally accurate - used to do self-directed SRAs onto the runway numbers at Valley ... the main runway was directly co-incident with a Decca lane line !
I also remember the tale of a Puma Nav doing a Decca internal SRA, who offset one lane to the right to compensate for the crosswind
Thread Starter
I remember the TANS that was fitted to the RAF SAR Sea Kings. When they set up at Culdrose, if they headed too far west, the system would give strange readings.
It was discovered that they had flown off the edge of the map and reset back to the beginning in the east...
It was discovered that they had flown off the edge of the map and reset back to the beginning in the east...
The Royal Navy still teach position fixing by sextant and have paper charts available, in case of electronic jamming of GPS, etc. For the same reason that they still practise using morse signalling lamps, which are also very secure and non-hackable.
The following 3 users liked this post by sangiovese.:
'Why is it that all battles are fought in the middle of the night, in downpouring rain, and at the corners of four different maps?' - General George S Patton Jr
The following users liked this post:
My first cross country flight used pubs as way points to determine progress along my track, signs of a misspent youth perhaps?
I had heard that BRNC had dropped the Morse exam for OsUT?
Join Date: May 2010
Location: WAW
Age: 49
Posts: 64
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was watching a pre-smart phone film recently with my 25 year old daughter and the star was given an address to meet up with someone. She asked how on earth he found it without a phone to guide him?
So it made me think that with the reliance on satellite systems for GPS and navigation, is map reading still taught to budding pilots?
If the satellites were taken out in a war footing, will they still be able to navigate (and I suppose that applies to other armed forces, though I believe that astral navigation, is in the Navy)?
So it made me think that with the reliance on satellite systems for GPS and navigation, is map reading still taught to budding pilots?
If the satellites were taken out in a war footing, will they still be able to navigate (and I suppose that applies to other armed forces, though I believe that astral navigation, is in the Navy)?
Yes, leaving aside georgraphy classess in elementary school (at least here in Poland) and then again in High School as well as - obviously boy scouts, map reading is part of PPL theory course. And most likely for gliding and CPL/ATPL courses.
&
&