banaari 27 Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Revising my way through the yachmaster theory, and got to thinking: This stuff involves precision charting and a clear head. So what must it have been like for the navigators on allied shipping (naval and merchant) operating in extreme tidal conditions, no GPS, no chartplotters, no hand-held calculators, light houses etc blacked out... and under attack? Anyone know of any good books on the topic? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 The Riddle of The Sands - Erskine Childers Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 If you think it bad on the water, spare a thought for the bomber command. 10 hours training and pushed down a foggy runway with an atlas and a "germany's that away ----> nice knowing ya" Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Also read Chichester's Biography (The Lonely Sea and the Sky?). He spent the war years teaching pilots to navigate. From Wikipedia: Chichester joined the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of the Second World War, serving in the United Kingdom as a navigation expert. He was granted a probationary commission as a pilot officer in February 1941[3] and was promoted in flying officer in August of that year.[4] In July 1944 Chichester gained a temporary promotion to flight lieutenant.[5] He wrote the navigation manual that allowed the pilots of single-handed fighter aircraft to navigate across Europe and back using kneeboard navigation similar to that which he had used in the Pacific. At the end of the war, he stayed in the United Kingdom. He purchased 15,000 surplus Air Ministry maps, initially pasting them onto boards and making jigsaw puzzles out of them, and later founded a successful map-making company. Link to post Share on other sites
Steve_C 0 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Childers book is more about coastal navigation and was written in peacetime. Strange guy, was a personal friend of Churchills, but shot for gun running weapons to the IRA... Link to post Share on other sites
erice 732 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 think of how many carrier based planes, often pilot only took off, flew a dog legged course over the horizon, to hide their carrier's position attacked another ship, keeping track of; their own safety, damage to aircraft, fuel levels and time before flying another dog leg course back to prearranged co-ordinates where they hoped their carrier would be as long as it wasn't attacked or held up somehow in radio silence must have been many who got lost, or got their too early or late battle of the coral sea just off townsville http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea and even if they did survive a ditching life-rings were no protection from the sharks Link to post Share on other sites
Steve_C 0 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 We are so lucky to have the tools we have now, even without ground support a dummie like me could undertake aerial search navigation, which frees up a pilots time when flying around at low level Link to post Share on other sites
idlerboat 116 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 The flying boats that did the Oz to Lord Howe Island, used sextant navigation !! out of a bubble in the top of the aircraft. At the time, the island was just too small a target to use any other type (dead reckoning) etc.. If you missed the shoreline you could fly around for hours otherwise. Link to post Share on other sites
erice 732 Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 how about borrowing a couple of dodgy old radio Automatic Direction Finders to hop across the pacific from the usa to oz in a couple of crop dusters what could go wrong? http://airodyssey.net/1999/03/01/movie-flt771/ http://www.navworld.com/navcerebrations/mayday.htm Link to post Share on other sites
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