out of interest, most yacht navigators (myself included) prefer the Air Almanac to the Nautical version - it's much easier to use.

Once that new-fangled GPS came out, I thought the purpose of the astro-nav sextant on the nimrod was to allow bored AEOps to covertly apply black shoe-polish to the baby Nav's eye-socket. Kept the intercom busy for hours afterwards - "nav, think you should re-do that shot using the other eye to correct for 'sight-handedness'" etc etc. :p

AP3456 Volume 7
 

Came across a copy dated 2000 and it still had the astro section inside. Still have the AP collecting dust along with a copy of section 5 as well.

My AP3456 Vol 7 AL 7 (last updated about 2005) still had Part 3 as astro navigation. GOAT does not seem to feature in said manual. MOO and MOB do.
Out of general interest, does anyone have a piccie of the slide this thread refers to, that they can post??- looks like the original one is gone. THX

I opened this thread just moments ago, for the first time, and I can clearly see the pic contained within the opening post! :confused:

I don't know how many hours work Mears did for me :)

Pre-flight show time for an astro sortie was about 4 hours. The plotter pouring over his mystical tables compiling reams of pre-computed astro shots only, after a tech delay, to start over again.

Followed by more time double checking his work.

Then in the air doing a 5-shot (if you were lucky) or 7 if he was really trying, followed by more double checking his maths and mears all to end up with an idea of where you might have been 15 minutes before.

Better than not knowing where you might have been 15 mins before surely?
I only experienced astro at Finningley but it worked well enough for me.
It was very satisfying when it all worked out. I was always thankful that I never had to re-compute in the air though..

Thx DC3 for the reply- it still doesn't show when I look at post#1- weird. Maybe its a stealth slide, or UK eyes only! :bored:

THANKS
 

I was an air transport 3-star fix navigator throughout and only encountered the Mears Slide on academic courses such as the Staff Nav and Aerosystems but I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to W A Mears for his contribution to our 'art' and for his input here (Post 20). A long and happy retirement Sir!

Mears Slide
 

W A Mears seems a bit formal to an old ex 44(R) Nav Rad, I remember him as the "Wallygator." All the best Boss!:ok:

Jerry Gegg

Jerry, my memories of those days are that mates who were on 44(Rhodesia) after Wally left used to refer to their new boss as "That bloke who sits in Wally's office".

Not as popular as Wally would be an understatement!

He was also known as 'Husband of OC 44' after his wife's highly unwelcome interest in squadron aicrews' lives......:hmm:

Hope all's well with you these days? Are you going to next year's V-force reunion at Newark Air Museum?

130Ks 'lost' their sextant in the late 90s, I seem to recall.

T'was always rather satisfying getting a good astro fix, along with a game of 'find the fish'...