|
|
Subject: Re: [Nml] Calculators for Navigation
From: Dan Hogan (dhhogan@XXX.XXX)
Date: Sun Mar 14 1999 - 14:49:34 EST
Monte:
Being a small sailboat navigator I usually opt for what will be quick
and simple. Right now I use HP32SII's. But the idea is to find a method
and system that you are comfortable with and use it until it is second
nature for you.
When I started I used 211(Ageton), but I was prone to mistakes with it.
I tried 249, easy, but the pages tended to come apart on my wet boat.
229 were just too large to carry in a boat under 35 feet no nav desk
and they didn't fit ANY shelves. Then I switched to Weems LOP Book. I
used that until Hewitt Schlereth published Sight Reduction Tables for
Small Boat Navigation (a shortened 229 table), which I used until I
started using calculators. When I was using Weems I could reduce a fix
in 5 minutes, 229 was faster, the calculators about the same, but they
lead you through the steps.
I still use the Nautical Almanac, a log book and home made plotting
sheets, I round off Lat & Lo to the nearest degree. I find for a small
yacht going 5-7 knots you don't need, and can't use, accuracy to 16
decimal places. But on a Coast Guard ship it's a whole different ball
game! I calculate using the columnar method, this gives me room for
three sights on a page with comments on one 8.5" x11" page opposite my
plotting sheet.
I have a note book of the last navigator on the SS United States, only
a navigator could recognize that he was reducing sights with 211 using
the Ageton format, one reduction per page.
> Does anyone still calcualte thier sites - star and sun via normal math w/
> out the programmagle ones. I use the Starpath forms to do all my
> reductions. It is completely by hand.........but, I know what is going on.
> Is it better to use the programmables instead?
>
> LTJG Monte Mechler, CEC, USN
Dan Hogan
dhhogan@XXX.XXX
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=
=-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@XXX.XXX: =-=
=-= unsubscribe navigation =-=
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=
|