Map Reading
 

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)?

All RAF personnel (and I presume Army and Navy) are taught map reading.

You don't need to be in the Military for loss of nav signals to cause havoc.
Inmarsat I-4F1 satellite outage disables tractors

Although the army aver that the most terrifying sight for a group of soldiers is an officer approaching with map and compass.

Whoever heard of a woman who could map read?
(Ducks to avoid incoming):ooh:

Chevvron
In the 'good' old days of gliding competitions where crews chased their pilots round the countryside, my wife became adept at identifying the best route down many a country road. The only other problem to sort out was approaching T junctions. To ensure turning the correct way, 'My left' meant turning in her direction and 'Your left' turning in mine.

Did you not have a compass…

There is an alternative perspective:

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(Sorry, needed 8 posts to be allowed to post URLs):

https://www.davesinclair.org/prose/vne

Sensible lady !..notably with her ending.

Maps, and gliding, well yes they did come in useful....however, it did help when the heroic pilot could be more accurate as to the location..." in a field with tree's at one end and cows in the other " didn't really give an accurate location.

Some crews would look at the task, and then position themselves at say a mid point on a leg....some crews had more money than sense however....most of us just sat, and waited.

I heard a tale of a retrieve crew who drove many miles to fetch a glider only to find on arrival that the trailer contained a three piece suite.

I wore one of those in my wedding.:ok:

CG

Sofa I think it would have suited you, Sir!

In fairness to Mrs vasco she can read a map really well, mind you she can’t park!

If it’s so bad the satellites were taken out. There would be no civil aviation! So no problem there.

In RAF MT Despatch at JHQ Rheindahlen there was a very low cross-beam, adorned with a notice:

CHICKEN! .... sorry, I meant DUCK !!

Back in the day half the bush pilots I flew with would invert the map when heading south, others could read the map properly north up.

If the half who "would invert the map when heading south" reached their destination, I can't see that they were doing too much wrong.

I think that you don't understand the civil commercial environment. Civil traffic would still exist, just not quite as busy.

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....

Quite a few other ways to drive a moving map rather than using GPS. Inertial navigation systems have been around *quite* a while now!

Bit of a difference between a $2000 GPS and a $200,000 inertial system, if you could get one that cheaply.

Yes, reading a map to find your way around is still a requirement for licensing.

Mechanical moving maps, if we ever went a night shift on harriers without at least one having to be replaced it was a bonus!

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 ! :ok:

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.....

I started my career with Marconi Avionics who were producing moving map displays for the Jaguar based on manipulating spools of 35mm film in front of a projector; and developing something similar for the Tornado.

And of course, all battles are fought on the edge of the map.

And any place you want to go on a LL Nav is on the join of 3 of them!

North up man myself. Recall a walk, friend grabbed the map of me as deliberated at a footpath junction, turned it upside down and confidently led us off down the wrong path... I let him go a mile before pointing out his error.

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.

I did see a Decca moving map fitted once - horrendous. ISTR crossing the Irish Sea from Aldergrove to Valley was a crap area for Decca coverage.

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:)

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...

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.

Usually with creases of fablon.

'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

And two of them will be based on different geodetic datums and 2 on different MGRS....

Progress.....

My first cross country flight used pubs as way points to determine progress along my track, signs of a misspent youth perhaps?

That reminds me of the conversation I had with the Navigating Officer of one of the CVS's while standing on the bridge between the electronic kit and the empty wooden chart drawers. "So, n, what happens if it stops working ...?"

I had heard that BRNC had dropped the Morse exam for OsUT?

So many posts, but no answer given.
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.
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