NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: RIP the [Fluxgate compass /benefits of 3 axis] ?
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Feb 3, 17:22 -0800
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Feb 3, 17:22 -0800
A good reason to mess around with geomagnetic solutions is that they are independent of the US government and the GPS system, the same reason that most of us on this list are interested in celestial navigation with a sextant. I have had one of my trusty Garmin GPSes die on me and fortunately I was just playing with it on the highway -- it wasn't crucial to my navigation. What if I had been on a boat in mid-ocean with only it and no backup? Then I would have felt quite stupid. The feeling of dread when the GPS died -- it was sitting on the dash of my car updating its own location every second and then just completely froze without anyone touching it or any apparent cause -- is something that I hope everyone that trusts in GPS will get to experience! It would boost sextant sales, but more likely just boost GPS backup unit sales. Dan -----Original Message----- From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Jared Sherman Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 10:10 AM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: RIP the [Fluxgate compass /benefits of 3 axis] ? George, with all this talk about the uncorrectable problems inherent in fluxgate compasses it seems that there is a point going unspoken. Perhaps if these errors are all so damaging, the fluxgate compass is an obsolete artifact that should be abandoned along with the sunstone and the astrolabe. Why spend the time trying to correct an inherently unreliable technological deadend, when a cheap and simple 3-dimensional WAAS GPS system can tell you the speed, position and attitude of your vessel? Employ several high accuracy WAAS GPS devices on board (one at bow, one at stern, one to each midships beam) and you should be able to generate some interesting real-time information on vessel position in all three axes as well as the true heading of the vessel. Why mess around with geomagnetic solutions at all if there is a cheaper and more reliable way to get the information?