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Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:37 pm
by workinwifdakids
The benefits of the ubiquitous Global Positioning System units for civilian purchase are manifestly apparent. Unfortunately, widespread use of technology that erases our knowledge of standard low-tech methods can result in disaster when technology fails. If the electrical grid fails, we may need to build a clothesline: intuitive, the results of failure small, and the results not time-sensitive. If GPS fails, traditional land navigation is not intuitive, the results of failure may be disastrous, and time is of the essence. We can imagine sudden disruption to our (civilian) access to GPS for two reasons: either intentional disruption by our own government (not nefarious, and not conspiratorial), or by way of outside force.
Since the inception of GPS, the U.S. military has conscientiously guarded its ability to control civilians' access to the technology. Although "Selective Availability" (intentionally downgrading the accuracy of GPS for civilian users) stopped during the Clinton Administration and completely died on orders from President Bush, American officials abandoned the program NOT because Selective Availability wasn't effective. Rather, the military's ability to downgrade or even cancel GPS over a specific geographic area, or even system-wide, became so transparent and effortless that the technology to implement Selective Availability will not even exist on the next round of GPS satellites.
Aside from the government intentionally taking our access, there are a number of outside forces that might have the same effect. We can imagine space events, enemy action, and a host of other problems along the spectrum of probability, the point of which is that our system - and our access to it - is not set in stone.
Should civilians allow GPS to fade our skills at traditional map-and-compass navigation, we do so at our peril. To make the issue practical, I keep a street-level Thomas Brothers map of southern California, my home state, in the trunk. I add to that easy-fold laminated highway maps of the surrounding states (in my case, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona), along with a compass. As with first-aid kits, tools do no good without the knowledge and training. To that end, if you've never thought about traditional land navigation, I suggest the Orienteering Merit Badge book by the Boy Scouts of America. It's a perfect place for beginners, and a great review for the rest of us.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:13 pm
by Darrell
GPS is no substitute for common sense:
GPS navigation steers Utah tourists into trouble
Posted 8/5/2008 6:27 PM | Comments 26 | Recommend 10
A GPS device steered a convoy of tourists astray in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, at one point leading them to the edge of a cliff.
A GPS device steered a convoy of tourists astray in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, at one point leading them to the edge of a cliff.
CANNONVILLE, Utah (AP) — A GPS device led a convoy of tourists astray, finally stranding them on the edge of a sheer cliff.
With little food or water, the group of 10 children and 16 adults from California had to spend a night in their cars deep inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
They used a global positioning device to plot out a backcountry route Saturday from Bryce Canyon National Park to the Grand Canyon.
But the device couldn't tell how rough the roads were. One vehicle got stuck in soft sand, two others ran low on fuel. And the device offered suggestions that led them onto the wrong dirt roads, which ended at a series of cliffs.
The group was so lost it couldn't figure out how to backtrack and started to panic. Kids were crying, and one infant was sick with fever, according to a member of the party.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: California | London | Massachusetts | Utah | Los Angeles | Belgian | South African | Bureau of Land Management | Jeep | Grand Canyon | Quincy | Salt Lake Tribune | Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument | Bryce Canyon National Park
"It was a nightmare — the vacation from hell," Daniel Cohen, back home safely in Los Angeles, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "That's a story I will tell my kids. For now, I don't want anybody to know about it."
From Grosvenor Arch, where the travelers stopped, they should have taken the better-traveled Cottonwood Canyon Road. Instead, they took Four Mile Bench Road, which takes a meandering southeasterly path. Chief Deputy Tracy Glover said the convoy took one wrong turn after another onto a succession of lesser dirt paths that are barely passable in the best of weather. They finally ended so some 25 miles from Grosvenor Arch near Tibbet Canyon.
"They just kept driving and driving and driving," Glover told the AP.
Cohen said the group had no idea it was setting off in the wrong direction.
"A friend with navigation device said we should go that way, and we all went that went," he said. "I had no clue where we were, I can tell you that. But the next day when we saw the airplane, we were jumping."
Glover said a GPS device is no substitute for good judgment or detailed topographical maps.
"People can start down a nice, graded dirt road and it can soon turn into boulders and deep washes, but they continue driving instead of turning around. I don't understand it," Glover told The Salt Lake Tribune. "The shortest way is not always the quickest way."
You can read the rest here:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/200 ... tion_N.htm
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:22 pm
by Erik
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.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:34 pm
by randy
I primarily use the GPS in my truck to feed my amateur radio gear, and occasionally for driving trips on Interstate and state highways, using it to remind me of upcoming turns, etc. But I always have hard copies of maps of my route and state road maps with me, and a small auto compass on the dash.
In the field (such as SAR support) I use a GPS to back up to and sanity check for my map and compass work. That one (Garmin GPS II+) doesn't even have maps in it, just position readouts, waypoint marking and tracking.
Of course I had orienteering in Boy Scouts, sat in on some land nav training at a Special Forces reserve unit, passed all the academics of Undergraduate Navigator Training, have a certificate from the Defense Mapping Agency, and graduated from Air Force Survival School, so I have more exposure to the tried and true ways than most folks.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:57 pm
by Rumpshot
Does charting position over half of the worlds oceans count? Navigation is easy. Precise navigation is a bit more difficult.
I have never done actual orienteering, but can read lots of different kinds of maps/charts. I usually don't even depend on a compass if I can see very much terrain. And the Sun is shining. Dark night is different. Most of my cross country travel, by vehicle, starts with reading the maps, then placing the maps where they are readily available and hit the road. About the first landmark, I discover the maps are NOT readily available any more. Continue navigating by memory.
I have spent too much time airborne over California and much of the Southwest. A few minutes studying terrain and I can usually tell generally where we are.
That said, I peruse the best possible maps/charts available for any navigation I do. I keep a couple compasses around and available. I have two gps units that I generally use to tell how fast am I really going and how far do I have to go to get there.
Gotta get around to teaching Grandson #1 about maps one of these days.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:13 am
by Denis
Erik wrote:One thing that caught me by surprise last summer was a woman 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 am also always amazed that some people have no innate sense of which way they are oriented... It reminds me of a beautiful scene in "
Politiki kouzina" (A touch of spice). The narrator tells us at the beginning of the movie that his grandfather and all the other old codgers are magnetic (like compasses). When he becomes old, he also finds his inner compass.
As to navigation... hi-tech is great, while it is working. Having been let down by the old
Decca navigation system in fog and a storm on the Irish Sea, I know the importance of being able to navigate with charts and a pencil.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:51 pm
by postmanone
I like GPS when I am in cities and not familiar with the area. But keeping good maps is a great idea. In fact, one should get a copy of the forest service maps too. The roadway system of BLM is unreal. If you have AAA, you can get maps for free.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:28 am
by Termite
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.............
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 1:10 am
by Johnnyreb
A few months back I recall reading an online article about the Air Force and the GPS satillite network. It seems the Air Force has not stuck to the planned schedule for putting new sats up there... they have fallen very far behind that schedule. And the article talked about how if the Air Force does not change that in a big way and damn fast, the GPS sat network will start having reliability problems within 4 years.
Something about how x many sats are needed over a specific part of the planet in order to generate the coordinates. And because the Air Force's performance in sticking to the schedule for getting replacement sattillites up there has been pathetic, global coverage is getting thin and in 4 years GPS global coverage could become spotty from lack of enough GPS sats up there.
Re: Embracing Low-Tech Land Navigation
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:54 pm
by Combat Controller
I have met a couple of people who have no clue where south is. It is just mind boggling.
Funny this topic would come up, I had this exact conversation over the weekend with two people.