NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Celesital Navigation Through Clouds
From: Greg Rudzinski
Date: 2009 Dec 20, 08:19 -0800
From: Greg Rudzinski
Date: 2009 Dec 20, 08:19 -0800
A good plan Gary. You may end up hosting more than one flight ;-) I can make the January date but will be out of town all of February. What do you think of a Noonan simulation running down an LOP onto the arch rock of Anacapa Island? List visitors may find a ferry ride to Catalina or a trip to the Getty interesting. Renting a car and driving Highway one from Santa Monica to S.F. would be a scenic option with stops along the way to exercise the sextant from vantage points. Greg On Dec 20, 6:00�am, Gary LaPookwrote: > Here are my thoughts. I can rent a Cessna 172 at Santa Paula airport, > near Ventura California for about a hundred bucks an hour and we will > have to share this cost. It holds four people, one pilot and three > navigators. We fill all the seats and take off and fly out over the > ocean and take sights. You can bring your own bubble sextant and I can > supply a variety of bubble sextants, MA-1, MA-2, A-10A, A-7 and the > navigators can take a number of sights each using different instruments > if they choose. The navigator siting in the right seat can take the > sights while the navigators in the back seats can record data. We will > push the button on the GPS at the mid time of each sight so we can > determine the accuracy of the sights, the navigator with the worst > average buys the beer. Since the plane won't allow the navigators to > change seats in flight we will land at the Oxnard airport, right next to > the beach, to allow the navigators to change seats and a new navigator > to start taking sights. I estimate that it will take each navigator > about a half hour so the plane cost should be about fifty bucks each. It > may be possible to lower this cost somewhat if it is possible to take > sights from the back seats through the back window as this would > eliminate the necessity of landing to change shooters. I will try to get > out to the airport next week and see if it is possible to use a sextant > in back since I have never tried this before. If more than three > navigators are interested in participating we can switch out crews at > the Oxnard airport. > > I believe the best dates for this would be January 9-10; February 6-7; > or February 20-21 or possibly later in the year. �We should plan on > flying on a Saturday and keep Sunday as a backup in case of bad weather > on Saturday. The reason I suggest these dates is that the sun and the > moon will both be visible with good cuts for daytime fixes. > > If anybody is coming from afar, the Burbank (BUR) airport is the most > convenient. LAX is a bit farther and Long Beach (LGB) is about as > convenient as LAX (it might not look like it on a map but a map doesn't > show the traffic coming from LAX on the 405 over the Sepulveda pass.) > Ontario (ONT) is also doable so shop for the best airfare. Things to do > in the area include Santa Barbara for wine tours, an hour drive up the > coast. San Diego is about a three hour drive down the coast or one can > take a train. You can go aboard the Star of India and the carrier > Midway. Long Beach for the Queen Mary and a Russian submarine. Near Long > Beach in San Pedro is the Lane Victory (a victory ship) and a good > maritime museum. One can also drive five hours and see Yosemite which is > beautiful in winter. A different five hour drive up the coast takes you > to San Francisco or you can take a train or fly.You can visit the > Pampanito submarine (SS-383) and several historic vessels including a > liberty ship, the Jeremiah O'Brien. A four hour drive from here is > Vegas, baby. There are plenty of flights from BUR to Vegas also. A three > hour drive takes you to Palm Springs. A two hour drive takes you to the > ski slopes. > > Did I mention that it was 77 degrees here today? > > http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=93021 > > gl > > frankr...@HistoricalAtlas.com wrote: > > > Peter Monta, you wrote: > > "Wouldn't a UAV be the logical solution here? I'm not sure units with > > 40000ft capability are all that cheap yet, though. A very small > > payload might suffice for sun sights (small camera). Establishing the > > offset from UAV position to ship would probably come free with the > > overall control scheme to get the thing back, and the 2D offset would > > only be a mile or two anyway. Fixed wing might be best for smallest > > platform jitter when taking the sight." > > > Nice! That's a very clever solution to the problem of the 40,000 foot > > mast. And if the sensor package is cheap enough (a camera and a radio > > with a ten-mile range?) then you could make them expendable and launch > > on weather balloons. The price of the balloon might turn out to be > > greater than the cel nav package. Whether that's more economical than > > a mini/micro-UAV or not would depend on the cost of the "toy plane" > > and the expected loss rate. In any case, a system like this means no > > sextant and no navigator holding said sextant, so it certainly takes > > the charm out of it, but at least it would still be real celestial > > navigation. > > > -FER > > > -- > > NavList message boards:www.fer3.com/arc > > Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com > > To , email NavList+@fer3.com -- NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com