Concrete Arrows For Mail Planes

[Sarg]

Someone asked me about this a few days ago and I forgot to post a link. Here it is...

http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-tra...ntinental-air-mail-route-maphead-ken-jennings

Crazy, hey?

Sarg

 

[Drgnner]

LL is the way to go. :-)

 

[Ned]

Brilliant. I love stuff like this (UK is covered in WW2 'A-frame airfields).
The 19th and 20th centuries left a lot of concrete legacies. One of my favourites is these acoustic dishes for 'early warning' of Luftwaffe bombers!

 

[steve1]

Never heard about this in flight training, so simple & effective.

 

[JarHed]

Both very cool, simple and effective.

 

[Fargo1]

Sarg,

I love it! Being an ex-Quartermaster I have an affinity for all things navigation. It was a sad, sad, day when the USCG combined the Quartermaster and Boatswain Mate ratings. Their basic argument was that with the advent of GPS navigation was, "So easy a caveman could do it." (sorry all of you BMs out there). With the USCGs penchant for redundant navigational systems it still baffles me. Electronic systems go down with annoying frequency. It is trivial for our GPS satellite system to be spoofed or taken down completely by most First World countries — what happens then?

Back in my day, we learned to use all of the old techniques: sextant, dead reckoning, astrolabes, sand glasses and chip logs. Dead reckoning is still used of course, but we only used the 'old ways' occasionally for fun except for the sextant. While doing aids-to-navigation we had to be able to use a sextant both vertically and horizontally with great precision (well within a 5m circle anyway).

"A sailor ran the chip log and another sailor the sandglass. The slide of the pulled over the stern and let run the first length of the line 'till the quadrant was stabilized in the water. The sailor was leaving to run the line to pass freely leaving the slide by hand and touching the first knot sang "Mark!" At the moment of the inverted glass and time began to run while the line was counting the knots as they passed until the sandglass sang "Mark!" a second blow when they had dropped all the sand. Then he caught the line firmly, measuring the fraction of knot elapsed to the last mark, and cried, "Five knots and forth!"​

Ah, the good old days!

 

[Ned]

When I QA an antenna arrangement, I use a Brunton Compass on a vernier bed, a Hilger-Watts theodolite to check off that datum, and a Kevlar cord set to do the original deployment. Never bin wrong yet.

 

[JarHed]

Two things: the more they over think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain and if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

 

[Sarg]

LOL Jar! I got this vision of a Southwest Airlines pilot dipping his wing, looking for the arrows!

Sarg

 

[JarHed]

This is a funny and in a way related story. A few years ago I went camping with some friends. Several of them had GPS locators and mapping gear. I had my map and compass. I never, ever go to the woods without them. I also always mark the trail I'm on with a small blaze in a way that you can see it coming or going. Been lost before and it's just not fun.

So, we started hiking and after a few hours stopped for something to eat. Well my one friend, more of an annoying acquaintance, decided HE was going to take the lead to walk us out. Well after an hour or so of wandering around, totally lost, he got scared and didn't know which way to go. Mean time, I kept checking the map and did know where we were or there about.

I told them to wait there and that I would locate the trail and then come back for them. They were sure they would never see me again. We weren't more than a few hundred yards from the trail, but in the woods, that could seem like miles. They were shocked when I returned so quickly. HE didn't say anything for the rest of the way back.

I always chuckle when I think about him, so self assured in modern technology. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great and useful as well. It has it's place, but I've been using a map and compass for longer than he'd been alive and knew how to use it. Keep it simple is always a good credo. Although I'd have to agree with Sarg about a Southwest Airlines pilot dipping his wing would be funny.

The moral of the story, if there is one; Technology is great but use the appropriate one that's needed.

 

[Fargo1]

Jar,
Great story!

GPS is a great thing, but knowing where that dot is on your electronic device is no substitute for knowing how to navigate! If you can use a compass or basic orientation techniques you will rarely get lost and will usually get where you are going. If you know how to do those things then GPS just makes your life easier.

A little known fact about companies that put out maps: they add or subtract things that are really there (like adding a street that isn't really there, or leaving a street off the map)! The do this so that they can have a copyright on their map.

My story on this: The street in front of my old office was broken at a park and ended in a cul-de-sac right in front of my office. When we would order pizza, we would get calls from the drivers all the time asking how to get there... One of the major GPS company's maps showed that road continuing though the park! Good times...

 

[Sarg]

A buddy of mine bought a newer car with a built-in GPS. He quit paying attention to it when it told him to make a hard right when he was doing 70 on the freeway.

A point of clarity for us...when you buy maps, get the quad maps that show the hills and topographical features. I usually get mine at book stores. Makes navigation much easier.

Sarg