NavList:

Geoffrey,

I would bet that the NA office would take NavList suggestions seriously although not as serious as Annapolis or the Maritime academies. It seems that the choice of concise sight reduction tables for inclusion in the NA comes down to Pub 208, Pub 211, Weem's, and NASR. My personal experience has the Pub.208 and Weem's tied and much easier to use than Pub. 211 and NASR. The most important feature for me is the error free ability to generate Hc in a timely manner. Another benefit of Pub. 208 and Weem's is that they are both simple enough to use without a sight reduction form.

Greg Rudzinski

[NavList] NA sight reduction tables - a considered response from NavList to the NA office?
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 09 Apr 2012 08:18
The straw pole that has effectively been taken on this list would appear to universally condemn the NA tables as being too complicated and confusing to be used in the circumstances for which they were intended, which is an emergency backup in the event that other electronic means of navigation have failed and the navigator is reduced to pencil and paper.

My own view, for what it is worth, is that the rules for the tables are too complicated and are not well expressed in the NA. I think that a well thought out workform - such as that devised by the people at Starpath - is essential if these tables are to be used successfully on a regular basis.

Back in January, Frank Reed was suggesting that the NavList community could be considered as a legitimate body to represent those who still practice celestial navigation today. Is this not a good case where representation could be made to the NA office that the NASR tables are not practical as currently laid out?

To this end, should a more formal pole be run to gauge the opinion of the NavList?

What mechanism should be adopted to convert this pole into a document for consideration by the NA office?

Geoffrey

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