Navs

[Compulsion]

I am about to start my Navs. i love navigation and have been waiting to get to this stage. Can someone tell me what navigation equipment I NEED to buy as opposed to me buying every gadget going. I have a GPS hand held plus Oz Runways on my iPad but they aren't allowed to start with. I will buy everything from Ian I am just not sure what I need,

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

I will buy everything from Ian I am just not sure what I need

Ian should be able to give you a list then!

 

I asked this same question some time back Compulsion, the tips others provided there would probably help you too.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

I am about to start my Navs. i love navigation and have been waiting to get to this stage. Can someone tell me what navigation equipment I NEED to buy as opposed to me buying every gadget going. I have a GPS hand held plus Oz Runways on my iPad but they aren't allowed to start with. I will buy everything from Ian I am just not sure what I need,

Map, pencil, ruler, protractor & watch, anything else is just nice to have. Get the basics right first!

PS: Assuming your aircraft already has a compass, otherwise you will need one of those too.

 

 

[facthunter]

You will still need some way to plot track and drift and G/S etc. Don't get any USA made thing that uses entirely different terms or you will send you instructor and yourself NUTS. Nev

 

 

[Chris Tarran]

When I did my Nav training I bought a whizzwheel and protractor (and some local WAC charts). All fits in a slim compendium with writing pad, pencil, pen and eraser. When CASA were offering their VFR planning kit for the cost of the postage (absolute bargain) I grabbed on of those as well as it included a knee board.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

 

[Compulsion]

Wish I could just use the iPad. LOL

 

 

[Chris Tarran]

Wish I could just use the iPad. LOL

I'm going to buy an iPad in the not too far distant future (although I am hoping the rumoured small one will be released sooner rather than later) but it will only ever be a secondary navigation tool. A chart, pencil and whizwheel are 100% reliable.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

Wish I could just use the iPad. LOL

Why the hurry? That will come soon enough!

Please learn the basics first, then you will still be able to navigate when the fancy gizmos stop working! And trust me they do!

 

Last year I got to fly half way across the Atlantic using only DR. When we finally got in range of land based aids (after some four hours), we were less than 5 miles off course (I was very happy with that).

 

 

[facthunter]

A pencilled in track line on a WAC chart doesn't need batteries and your map reading skills must work when the weather is near minimum VFR. That's usually when your GPS fails to acquire satellites or some other problem happens. Nev

 

 

[Compulsion]

I have done a lot of ocean miles and races. I actually love working with charts. I am also a qualified ships master in a previous career. I distinctly remember being in a gale going across to Port Lincoln when all of the electrics on-board failed. We still managed to finish and come second. I first started my navs in 1972 in the Airforce cadets as a pimply little brat and have loved navigating and reading the weather ever since. I have ordered all of my nav tools from Ian today so I now cant wait to get started. I do love playing with Oz Runways though.

 

 

[facthunter]

I've flown a lot over water too and I can't pick one wave from another. The Polynesians used to navigate by just that method. Nev

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

I've flown a lot over water too and I can't pick one wave from another. The Polynesians used to navigate by just that method. Nev

It wasn't just the Polynesians who used the wave patterns as indicators, Nev. David Lewis wrote a facinating book, "We, the Navigators", in which he not only describes the techniques used by the various Pacific Islanders to navigate around the World's biggest pond, he also tells how he went to sea and proved their techniques work. If you're into Nav, it's worth a read...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

It wasn't just the Polynesians who used the wave patterns as indicators, Nev. David Lewis wrote a facinating book, "We, the Navigators", in which he not only describes the techniques used by the various Pacific Islanders to navigate around the World's biggest pond, he also tells how he went to sea and proved their techniques work. If you're into Nav, it's worth a read...

Amazing what skills people can develop in the absence of artificial aids. Darwin' theory applies here as well, of course; the less skilled navigators don't pass on their genes.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

HH you should run a celestial navigation & morse code course for the youngsters that have grown up in the telephonic era. :peepwall:

 

 

[kaz3g]

I have done a lot of ocean miles and races. I actually love working with charts. I am also a qualified ships master in a previous career. I distinctly remember being in a gale going across to Port Lincoln when all of the electrics on-board failed. We still managed to finish and come second. I first started my navs in 1972 in the Airforce cadets as a pimply little brat and have loved navigating and reading the weather ever since. I have ordered all of my nav tools from Ian today so I now cant wait to get started. I do love playing with Oz Runways though.

Hi Comp... someone after my own heart!

 

I learned to navigate using parallel rules and divider and hold a Marine Board Certificate, too. When I started flying, I drove my FI spare because I had to navigate north up (instead of track up) and still do.

 

I wonder how many airpilots know that each division along the latitude scale = 1 nm (and that 1 division of longitude doesn't)?

 

kaz

 

 

[turboplanner]

I've flown a lot over water too and I can't pick one wave from another. The Polynesians used to navigate by just that method. Nev

Which may be why they populated just about every island in the Pacific.

 

Just bought We, The Navigators Wayne.

 

For those interested in navigation, the book "1421 the year China discovered the world" by former submarine commander Gavin Menzies is fascinating.

 

He's come under massive attack from the archaeologists because he hasn't used traditional methods of research.

 

His explanation of how the ancient map makers became remarkably accurate when their longitude was corrected by factoring in ocean currents, which he was very proficient in after skulking around the ocean floor for years. They estimated their speed though the water quite accurately by using knotted rope, but had not way of measuring current, but when known current speed was factored in the west African bulge spread right out to where we know it today and Australia expanded out similarly. The scale of the Chinese armada of hundreds of junks which were dispatched into every ocean, the huge losses, but the huge successes make very interesting reading.

 

Compulsion the problem I have with "Wish I could just use the iPad. LOL" is that I'm sure we have people on here who use it and have never bothered to learn Navigation, and it only encourages them.

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

Which may be why they populated just about every island in the Pacific........

 

For those interested in navigation, the book "1421 the year China discovered the world" by former submarine commander Gavin Menzies is fascinating.

 

.......

 

.

Looks very interesting. Thanks for the heads-up Turbz.

 

I must be cracked, but I find it amusing when academics pooh-pooh less qualified people's hypotheses. Invariably, it smarts of jealousy. Criticism of Gavin Menzies may well be a case in point.

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

Amazing what skills people can develop in the absence of artificial aids. Darwin' theory applies here as well, of course; the less skilled navigators don't pass on their genes.

"the less skilled navigators don't pass on their genes"... Not so sure this's true, Lyle. There's certainly evidence out there that it's not...

 

 

 

[Compulsion]

I once knew a guy that brought a yacht from cairns to Adelaide using a street directory and keeping Australia on the right. Takes all kinds.

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

I once knew a guy that brought a yacht from cairns to Adelaide using a street directory and keeping Australia on the right. Takes all kinds.

I once was on a trip from Rockhampton to Richmond in a gaggle of Balus (Caribou) where the bloke giving the briefing said, "Keep the wet on the left, the dry on the right, and turn right at the second big creek." It worked. And nobody used an Ipad. I don't know to this day which was the first big creek though. So I'm guessing there was a bit more than "science" involved in that run for home, eh?

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

For those interested in navigation, the book "1421 the year China discovered the world" by former submarine commander Gavin Menzies is fascinating.

He's come under massive attack from the archaeologists because he hasn't used traditional methods of research...

 

The scale of the Chinese armada of hundreds of junks which were dispatched into every ocean, the huge losses, but the huge successes make very interesting reading.

In 1421 China was an innovative society, far in advance of Europe. They had enormous ships with modern design features. Literacy was high- there were 600 novels in print. At the same time England's king had half a dozen books (all borrowed) in his library, but he could not read them. Eventually China turned against "progress" and burned the ships, the maps and books. A few centuries later Europe walked all over them.

 

Its the same story with any field of human endeavour. After a period of great progress a sort of orthodoxy takes over and innovative thinking is stifled.

 

The archaeologist were proven wrong when enormous medieval shipyards were unearthed near Shanghai.

 

Now the western world is turning away from science and religion is booming. General Aviation is withering on the vine as Rec Aviation grows...

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

In 1421 China was an innovative society, far in advance of Europe. They had enormous ships with modern design features. Literacy was high- there were 600 novels in print. At the same time England's king had half a dozen books (all borrowed) in his library, but he could not read them. Eventually China turned against "progress" and burned the ships, the maps and books. A few centuries later Europe walked all over them.........

...

Anybody else got the feeling they may be about to get even?

 

 

 

[turboplanner]

If China gets its nose in a knot, we'ere all going to be walking round in rags shortly thereafter because we closed down our textile industry.

 

Same is happening with cars being built in Korea, Thailand and China.

 

We're very close to losing the ability to tow a horse float, boat or caravan with the family car.

 

 

[ben87r]

I once knew a guy that brought a yacht from cairns to Adelaide using a street directory and keeping Australia on the right. Takes all kinds

How many time did he say hello to the reef would be my question.. We had a Naval Navigator put a boat on a reef not long ago, Had to GPS zoomed out to far and not showing all detail on the map..

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

HH you should run a celestial navigation & morse code course for the youngsters that have grown up in the telephonic era. :peepwall:

Geez GG, I'm not that old!

I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to gain my IRT one month after the requirement for Morse was dropped, I had however done quite a bit of study, but not taken the test, so most of it stuck. Learning celestial navigation is on my my bucket list of things to do! I have great admiration for navigators past!