an open topic

[Malcolm]

We all use the various systems to navigate , road , air etc. the question, is how many of us can or indeed capable.  / trained to fall back to the old systems? I can read using a printed road map , how many of you could navigate , say using YVR to AMS over the artic using star sighting etc as the magnetic compass was not relievable?   anyone know how to generate their own flight plan, load sheet etc?   Are we screwed is technology goes south?  Comments Please

[Kip Powick]

I'm sure most of us can still read a road map....although my wife couldn't ( picture me and her, 2 dog,s and 3 kids in a 1/2 ton with a low rise camper top, and  pulling a speed boat going through Pittsburg near night time and I was the only one who could read a map )

Flights anywhere in Canada can be accomplished if the pilot has the latest topographical map and is always flying in clear weather and has to have had a good background in reading topographical maps.

Now going to Amsterdam from Vancouver  with just a pilot on board would be next to impossible, even in VFR weather. I have done flights up and down and around the Arctic but have always used a NAV and of course we did not use Magnetic North as the basis for navigation  and  our compasses were slewed to Grid North. I don't think many pilots could go to AMS using star sightings unless they were a skilled Navigator. 

Again, as an exMil pilot I am pretty sure I can still file a flight plan and do Weight and Balance charts but of course, one has to have the charts to input the data . 

IMO, now days, if all the enroute Nav aids took a dump, the vast majority of  pilots would be hard pressed to get anywhere unless they had Topo maps and could read them, and were in clear air all the time.......overseas flights would be a "no-no" unless you had an actual Air Navigator who could read the stars....

[deicer]

9 hours ago, Kip Powick said:

 

IMO, now days, if all the enroute Nav aids took a dump, the vast majority of  pilots would be hard pressed to get anywhere unless they had Topo maps and could read them, and were in clear air all the time.......overseas flights would be a "no-no" unless you had an actual Air Navigator who could read the stars....

As long as the wifi on board doesn't go down and they could youtube how to get where they're going

 

[Specs]

With the proliferation of cell phones today, kids are having a hard time finding their way around without one.  Being driven to school by mom or dad or by school bus doesn't help either.  I've had to start teaching mine how to read maps and  understand where they are and how to get from A to B and figure out how long it will take.        

[Malcolm]

From 'CP Air News' magazine

Issue dated May 1971

Mel Knox Climaxes His Career Using New Navigation System When flight 324 nosed to the loading bridge at Vancouver on March 14 it signaled the end of a 42-year flying career for Chief Overseas Pilot Mel Knox.  This flight from Honolulu to Vancouver was the first Canadian commercial overseas flight to operate without a navigator, using the inertial navigation system (INS). Installation and M.O.T. approval had just been completed prior to this flight from Honolulu to Vancouver on a DC-8-63 in four hours and 48 minutes. Shown left to right with Captain Knox are: Bill Roxborough, Director of Flight Operations; Ken Grott; Craig Stevenson; Dennis Harland; Tom McCloy; Ted Randall; Gordon Scott; Tom Gale; Lloyd Moffatt; Don MacLean; Jack Reed and Rick Wiley.

[Kip Powick]

So the flight  went to Honolulu using a navigator and he was left in Honolulu, (lucky guy), or on the way back he just sat in Business Class incase he was needed???

All the other Captains in the photo are there to congratulate the retiring Captain, or were they onboard to see how the magic INS worked enroute??

We used INS in the Cosmo, (CV580), a few times but carried a Nav most of the time. (Arctic/TransAtlantic)

[Malcolm]

I think there was Just Y and F in those days..... no automatic ride other than in Y.