NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Aircraft drift; over wate.r Re: Amelia Earhart's aerial navigation
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2009 Nov 19, 19:35 -0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2009 Nov 19, 19:35 -0000
As one quite ignorant about air navigation, a few questions come to my mind. I can see the relevance of some sort of drift angle meter when flying over land, in establishing ground track direction from relative motion of landmarks seen passing below. But how does that work over the sea? Presumably, one would be seeing whitecaps on the waves, or white-horses, that will tend to drift downwind, as the wave-tops move downwind. Is that speed of motion quite negligible, compared with the airspeed of a light aircraft? Is there some way of allowing for that motion? Or does this just add an additional uncertainty to the estimated track-angle of the aircraft? If so, what level of uncertainty would that be? George. contact George Huxtable, at george@hux.me.uk or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. -- NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com
