Can you navigate?

Twitch · 07-19-2006, 12:16 PM

When I was a kid in St. Louis we rode our bikes all over the city. We'd look at a map and take off to our destination. In my USMC recon unit we were given coordinates and expected to go there. Often it was just 2 guys on listen post duty but we knew how to navigate in the boonies.

Later in business everyone I was associated with could read maps. It was standard proceedure to give a salesman a list of accounts, throw him the Thomas guide and say, "here, route yourself."

Today I find fewer and fewer people capable of reading maps and certainly less able to look at a map once and not need to refer to it over and over on the way. They don't know their compass directions like, "go north and then turn west." Without Mapquest's turn by turn written directions and GPS systems people seem as though they'd just sit and stare at the dashboard if they didn't have them.

Does anyone else notice this? We've all gotten lost but do you generally consider yourself a good navigator?

syscom3 · 07-19-2006, 12:37 PM

I'm a great navigator. Just give me a compass and a map.

One thing I like to do when traveling by air, is to bring some maps of the states along the route and try to figure out the route were on and what location we are over.

FLYBOYJ · 07-19-2006, 12:57 PM

Being a pilot, this is a requirement. Although I may use nav aids and GPS, I like to keep my skills sharp and and navigate with dead reckoning, using the nav aids as a back up. You never know when you have to get home with no electrical power and be forced to break out the Sectional and E6B...

trackend · 07-19-2006, 01:09 PM

Done a bit when I used to sail, although I still managed to miss a river mouth once from 10 miles off shore

cheddar cheese · 07-19-2006, 01:12 PM

Done a bit with the ATC, so I dont suppose im the worst person in the world.

Gnomey · 07-19-2006, 02:54 PM

Done quite a bit through Scouts and DofE, I can generally get to where I want to and it the local woods I can walk seemingly randomly and come out exactly where I want to...

pbfoot · 07-19-2006, 02:56 PM

I can't use a sextant but I can stumble around without straying too far off course but I am a dab hand at giving ETA's to the minute

timshatz · 07-19-2006, 03:24 PM

Can do it with a GPS, Map(Street, Contour, Nautical and a bit of Sky), Compass, DR, ect. Once you know what to look for and get into the hang of it and know which way North is, your generally ok.

Wife, on the other hand, is hopeless. Does everything by rights and lefts (and even these are sketchy). One got lost and called for directions. I asked her, "Ok, where is the sun from where you are?". She said, " I don't know". It went down hill from there.

mosquitoman · 07-19-2006, 03:36 PM

Can map-read from scouts but that's about it- anybody can do it if they know their a*se from their elbow.

Is everyone sitting comfortably on their elbows?

Glider · 07-19-2006, 05:06 PM

Difficult to type like that, hang on a min, thats better.

My wife is the fun one when it comes to navigation. She used to teach outdoor pursuits including orienteering so with a map and a compass, navigating by stars or natural signs, she is close to unbeatable.
Put her in a car and you are doomed. The excuse is always that we go to fast across the map for her to keep up.

pbfoot · 07-19-2006, 05:48 PM

Mind you I told a pilot to turn right to 370 one day

syscom3 · 07-19-2006, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbfoot

Mind you I told a pilot to turn right to 370 one day

And did he do it?

pbfoot · 07-19-2006, 06:32 PM

yeah as matter of fact he did he was heading 350 and i told him to turn right 20 degrees to a heading of 370

Twitch · 07-19-2006, 06:47 PM

Good. You guys CAN navigate big time. I don't even mean "real" navigation but rather finding your way around a city grid. I find more and more folks who don't understand compass bearings like "go north on Pine then turn west on Main St. And they can't really, really look at a map and plot the best route across town.

I used to know people that you'd just give them a address and they'd show up. Now it's "go about 2 miles up Cedar and trun right when you see the McDonalds at River St. and then.....got that?"

pbfoot · 07-19-2006, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syscom3

I'm a great navigator. Just give me a compass and a map.

One thing I like to do when traveling by air, is to bring some maps of the states along the route and try to figure out the route were on and what location we are over.

talk to a pilot maybe you can scrounge his old High level charts its the map of the airways for high level they get updated quite often so it should be easy to nab a recently outdated one easy