Basic Navigation Skills (many images)

[Liamy77]

Just a thought on Basic simple navigation skills how many of you know where North is by looking at the Sun at any given time (even in very thick cloud /fog you can often ascertain where the Sun is) cannot help with very cloudy skies at night tho
c

even more accurate if you add an analogue watch into the mix...

[corvus]

Done that in a previous post that you must have missed
c

[Macca81]

i do

[tas-man]

I wanted to also add that whilst theory is important, nothing beats practical experience & continual practice. [SNIP]

While catching up on this thread, I recall reading Bernard O'Reilly's book "Green Mountains" (which contains his account of the finding and rescue of the survivors of the Stinson wreck in Lamington National Park in the 1930's) and being fascinated by his detailed observations of the flora in the rainforest, such that he was always aware of his direction, as most of the time there were no views to landmarks and the ranges are continually in cloud and mist. His years of experience and observation of which fungi always grew on the southern side of certain trees, became as good as a compass! If I get around to finding some of his references to his direction finding, I will post more details.
http://www.oreillys.com.au/about-us/o-r ... on-rescue/

I located the bits in "Green Mountains" that I mentioned in my earlier post - the book is a great read if you can get hold of a copy. Bernard O'Reilly's search for the Stinson crash and rescue of the two survivors was an amazing piece of bushmanship.

Green Mountains_0.jpg (162.25 KiB) Viewed 10835 times

[Phil Box]

This demonstrates clearly something I have been banging on about for ages and that is the necessity of building up in your mind a mind map. Bernard O'Rielly had a mind map more acute than most of us from having grown up and lived in the area he became familiar with. It also clearly demonstrates the value of opening all of ones senses to the wonder of nature as one moves through it. That has a far more practical value than mere aesthetics as well.

Survival stories speak of this situational awreness developing after the first flights of panic and foreboding recede. Those who survive open up their senses to the wider perspective around them and become keenly aware of their surroundings. This is something that we who venture into the bush need to cultivate. Being goal orientated is not always a good thing, first we should take in the wonder of the journey lest we miss the signs of our own upcoming potential undoing.

Navigation is not all about the hard skills although those skills are an extremely important part of the whole story.

tas-man, a great example I shall use in an upcoming nav training weekend with FMR. Thanks heaps for posting this up mate.

[flatfoot]

I completed this course on the weekend:

http://www.nswrogaining.org/AboutEvents/Events/10RW/10RW.htm

It was a great way to get practical experience with the basics. Navigating steep gullies during the night exercise was loads of fun! Looking forward to future rogaines for more practice!

The instructors had the right mix of experience, patience and humour.

My compass was 10 degrees out. It was a Silva which I have sent back to the supplier for a refund. Others with identical compasses had no problems. One of the participants kindly loaned me their backup compass.

[Phil Box]

Some compasses have a compensation for magnetic variance. Mind you if you had that type of compass you would no doubt have the instructions which would have alerted you to the ability to alter the compass for any variance. If not then that's just poor quality, unusual for silva.

One other thing to note as an aside is that you cannot use a compass that was made for the northern hemisphere in the southern hemisphere. The needle is finely balanced and has an inbuilt compensation for the shape of the earth.

[flatfoot]

One other thing to note as an aside is that you cannot use a compass that was made for the northern hemisphere in the southern hemisphere. The needle is finely balanced and has an inbuilt compensation for the shape of the earth.

Thanks! I was aware of that and did carefully select a locally based eBay supplier. There was no obvious marking on the compass packaging to indicate whether it was for our region....? It was a "Ranger 3". It took me forever to decide on that purchase and now I've got to choose again. One of the instructors had a fancy quick-settling compass that was a silva. It unfortunately lacked the convenient 1:25000 distance scale. Decisions! Decisions!

[crockle]

I located the bits in "Green Mountains" that I mentioned in my earlier post - the book is a great read if you can get hold of a copy. Bernard O'Reilly's search for the Stinson crash and rescue of the two survivors was an amazing piece of bushmanship.

Great post tas-man - thanks. He writes well !

[Liamy77]

I located the bits in "Green Mountains" that I mentioned in my earlier post - the book is a great read if you can get hold of a copy. Bernard O'Reilly's search for the Stinson crash and rescue of the two survivors was an amazing piece of bushmanship.

Great post tas-man - thanks. He writes well !

He may write well but he combs his hair with a piece of buttered toast!

[tas-man]

He may write well but he combs his hair with a piece of buttered toast!

LOL! Probably "Brylcream" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brylcreem & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcRIbExrfg

[corvus]

Yes "a little dab will do you" he must have thought slab
c

[tas-man]

[snip] . . . It also clearly demonstrates the value of opening all of ones senses to the wonder of nature as one moves through it.
[snip]
Navigation is not all about the hard skills although those skills are an extremely important part of the whole story.

. . . an now to get back on topic , your comments about developing an awareness of the natural world around you to help keep you "located" in whatever terrain you are in, brought back to mind another book in my old bushwalking book collection. This one was published in 1958 by Harold Gatty - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Gatty - "Nature is your Guide". Well worth getting hold of a copy if you can. Here's the list of contents to give an idea of the broad area he covers.

Nature Guide_0002.jpg (32.32 KiB) Viewed 10738 times

[tas-man]

Here is the 'Foreword' and 'Preface' from the above book to give you all some more of a feel for the writer and the content, and perhaps encourage you to search out a copy and read it yourself.

[vagrom]

As an aside, but related: the clouds and the stars. Sometimes you walk with people who know how to "read" them, the former for safety and the latter for pleasure (or using Crux, for south).
Is there any Tas. specific information on reading the clouds? The prevailing winds are westerly rather than south-westerly and the best known formations, the ones to watch out for, are Horsetails. If you were a confident reader, you can tell all and sundry that camping tonight (or tomorrow night?), at Shelf Camp, will not be a good idea. I guess you'd have to be pretty proficient to read effectively in Tassie,Qld and WA, each with their own unique sets of weather/precipitation patterns.

If the desert encourages star gazing more than Tassie does, it's probably because it's features are more subtle by comparison, there's generally more sky to view and being tired and cool sees you inside earlier.

The Sydney Observatory has an excellent website and if you hunt for it, you can printout the month's night sky Transcript and learn how to use the Cross and Orion to guide you to Betelgeuse. There are 88 constellations in all and distances, sizes and light comparisons against our sun are brilliant ,to know.
Apparently Stellarium is the best regarded website to download.

The Royal Institute of Navigation offer web membership, a forum,competitions and a journal going back years in which Dead Reckoning (wiki) and Aboriginal methods of navigating, a whole different way of viewing the landscape, have been studied.

[vagrom]

Further to clouds in Tasmania: Collins in his Southwest-Tasmania gives a brief overview, narrowing down the usual large list of categories to: Cirrus(high) to Nimbus(low), with Alto-cumulus and Alto-stratus in between. Just 4 pages of 360, describing a typical pattern, beginning in the east. Seasonal min/max's too.
In a natural history with lots of beastys and flora, I would've expected at least a single leech. Index: nothing. I looked down the spine: nothing. Perhaps there aren't any in the south west? Too wet? But Robin Gray described the Franklin as a leech ridden ditch. Typical pollie. Probably never been there.

[Paul]

Hi All,

If you would like to practice navigation skills, consider entering the Rogaine to be held along the Esk Valley Highwa area ( Fingal Valley ) on January 22nd & 23rd, 2011. It will offer a 24hr event and also a 15hr event.

It is being held on mainly "rough open" farmland, with some steeper ground, distinct gullies with thicker vegetation and some lightly forested areas. Being in a prediminately sheep grazing region, undergrowth is almost nil.


If interested, Google, Rogaine Tasmania website for details on how to enter.

Might see you there then !

Paul