Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation

[Erik]

Just remembered a "fun" story about this.

Me and a friend were fishing at a private water, fishing allowed on personal permission by the owner or his son only. We had placed ourself by the shore, and were biding our time for the fish to come in to feed. The owners son comes down to us to see how we were doing. We got into a discussion of how the wind stirs up the muddy lakebottom in tis lake and therefore the best odds would be on the shore which had been having winds coming in for the last few days. Since the wind had been blowing from the east the last few days we had picked the western side of the small lake.

The guy goes "yeah, that makes sense, but you're on the south shore now, the west is over on that side" and points. We try to tell him that we are on the western side, but he refuses to believe it. He'd been living there his whole life, he fished there several times a week, and his father created the water to begin with. He *knew* what was south, and none of our arguments persuades him.

So finally, I decide to become more instructional.
"Where does the sun rise in the morning?"
"East, over there" he says pointing to the right.
"So in the evening it should settle in the west, right?"
"Of course, over there, that's the west shore as I said" pointing to the left.
"Well it's 6pm now, can you see what's behind us?" I pointed at the sun setting behind our backs.
"But... It's not supposed to be *there*!!!"

My friend almost fell out of his chair laughing.

[Darrell]

I've always prided myself on my sense of direction. When I was in Germany though, it was so often cloudy and/or raining that I often had a hard time telling what was where.

[Denis]

I have met a couple of people who have no clue where south is. It is just mind boggling.

Ah, yes. Those would be Australians. For them, it's north.

[Erik]

True story:
My mother was on vacation in the southern hemisphere, walking the streets of the city, when she decided to go back to the hotel which she knew was north of where she currently was. Several blocks later she suddenly realized that she had went in the wrong direction, using the sun as a reference to south as she's always done. Don't quite work the same way down there.

[Windy Wilson]

I think mapreading is, or should be, a required skill.
GPS is great, but should not be relied on fully. I had an incident a while back when my GPS took me on a small road that ended with a roadblock, apparently it was supposed to be the "fastest route". I did have a road map, but it was 15 years old. It was good enough to get me out of there though.

One thing that caught me by surprise last summer was a women I talked to didn't know what direction was south. I was raised learning how to find south by looking at the sun or other signs, and everyone I know does it automatically. I took it for granted everyone knew it. Apparently not, though that's a good thing to know too.

I dated a girl who had one of those GPS things you put in your car with a suction cup. It was interesting because the unit kept trying to take us off the main highway and onto the lesser roads because the route would be a bit shorter. Maybe that is what happened in Escalante Canyon.

Interestingly, the Thomas Guide supposedly has some small error on every page to act as a basis for copyright of its map images. I found that to be true once (I think) where a small frontage road returned to the main road by a slightly different route. But the spot was less than 18 inch square on the map.

I also met a woman a few years ago who tried to explain her lack of a sense of direction by pointing to the map and saying that to her "that [spot]" was north and continued to be north even after the map was turned around.

I have a "solar oriented" nav system. when the sun goes down I have to watch carefully or I get turned around. One night I was driving south in Orange County CA when I thought I was driving west -- and this was without benefit of alcohol!

[Erik]

I dated a girl who had one of those GPS things you put in your car with a suction cup. It was interesting because the unit kept trying to take us off the main highway and onto the lesser roads because the route would be a bit shorter. Maybe that is what happened in Escalante Canyon.

When this happens it's usually because the GPS is set to "shortest route". I generally have mine set to "fastest route", it prefers bigger roads because that's the fastest way.

It's very likely what happened in that canyon. I generally doublecheck the route when I drive in a new area just to have a general idea of what route is the right one, so I can spot if the GPS is doing something really weird.

[Darrell]

Here's a funny one, and they're Swedish!

GPS Typo Leads Couple 400 Miles Off Course

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

ROME — Officials say a Swedish couple looking for the pristine waters of the popular island of Capri ended some 400 miles (660 kilometers) away in the northern industrial town of Carpi after misspelling the destination on their car's GPS.

Angelo Giovannini, a spokesman for the Carpi town hall, near Modena, said Tuesday the couple drove into the main square last week and asked the local tourist office how to reach Capri's famed Blue Grotto sea cave.

Giovannini said "we thought they might mean a restaurant. Capri is an island, they did not even wonder why they didn't cross any bridge or take any boat."

He said the couple, who were not identified, arrived from Venice and later set off to their planned destination at the other end of the Italian peninsula.

[Thomas]

Try NOE land nav at 100+mph....using USGS sectionals over 10 years old.

Welcome to Fort Rucker, me boy.

Hard to believe it was 20 yrs ago this month that I got my wings.............

Good ole Mother Rucker......

Were you a WO or Areoscout Observer?

What class were you in.....

[Mike OTDP]

FWIW, a GPS receiver needs 4 satellites to get a fix. And I wouldn't worry about the constellation...GPS is used for EVERYTHING. Including the touchy task of flying UAVs around the airfield

That being said, I'm a firm believer in the map, compass, and Mark I eyeball. One of the people I work with is a part-time flight instructor...and he sends his students to do their cross-country flights with a GPS unit in a sealed bag. Open it, and the flight doesn't count.

[308Mike]

FWIW, a GPS receiver needs 4 satellites to get a fix. And I wouldn't worry about the constellation...GPS is used for EVERYTHING. Including the touchy task of flying UAVs around the airfield

That being said, I'm a firm believer in the map, compass, and Mark I eyeball. One of the people I work with is a part-time flight instructor...and he sends his students to do their cross-country flights with a GPS unit in a sealed bag. Open it, and the flight doesn't count.

Electronic devices FAIL, eventually. So it's always BEST to make sure the basics are learned so normal tasks can still be carried out without causing an emergency. Reminds me of being in a store when the power goes out and the cashier says she can't finish the sale because the register isn't on and she wasn't taught to make sales otherwise (being lazy) or make change.

I HATE it when they continually look at the change display, then scoop it out and say: "Here's your change." without either counting it back or even identifying how much change you're due. They COMPLETELY given their lives over to circuit boards and processors.

When the power goes out, they're LOST!!