NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: flabbergasted by gps
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2011 Feb 22, 11:28 -0800
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2011 Feb 22, 11:28 -0800
Patrick:
You don't specify what make and model of GPS you have, but for many you can adjust the averaging interval. Spend a moment with the user manual, just as you have for celestial...
Lu Abel
From: Patrick Goold <goold@vwc.edu>
To: navlist <navlist@fer3.com>
Sent: Tue, February 22, 2011 10:45:21 AM
Subject: [NavList] flabbergasted by gps
I put down my calculator and my almanac on Sunday and went sailing. I had spent spent several hours that morning reducing and plotting a series of sunsights taken the day before, preparing to ease myself into the arcana of running fixes.
Just past the coal dock in Norfolk harbor, I was tinkering with the sail trim. I asked my wife to watch the handheld gps to see if my adjustments made any difference in our speed. We were loping along at 4 knots. She was at the stern, I was in the front of the cockpit. I asked her to hand me the unit. When she did, just for a second, it registered our speed over the ground as 6 knots. I could not believe that satellite info was refreshed so frequently that the unit would detect the increased velocity northward as it was passed from hand to hand. I stepped onto the side deck and walked to the bow, carrying the gps. Sure enough the speed reading increased to 6.4 knots while I walked and returned to 4 the moment I stopped. Oddly, while my first reaction was to laugh with delight, my second was to throw the thing overboard. Damned creepy, these machines!
If nothing else, they sap a man's motivation to learn about running fixes.
Best,
Patrick
--
Dr. Patrick Goold
Department of Philosophy
Virginia Wesleyan College
Norfolk, VA 23502
757 455 3357
Charles Olson: "Love the World -- and stay inside it."
You don't specify what make and model of GPS you have, but for many you can adjust the averaging interval. Spend a moment with the user manual, just as you have for celestial...
Lu Abel
From: Patrick Goold <goold@vwc.edu>
To: navlist <navlist@fer3.com>
Sent: Tue, February 22, 2011 10:45:21 AM
Subject: [NavList] flabbergasted by gps
I put down my calculator and my almanac on Sunday and went sailing. I had spent spent several hours that morning reducing and plotting a series of sunsights taken the day before, preparing to ease myself into the arcana of running fixes.
Just past the coal dock in Norfolk harbor, I was tinkering with the sail trim. I asked my wife to watch the handheld gps to see if my adjustments made any difference in our speed. We were loping along at 4 knots. She was at the stern, I was in the front of the cockpit. I asked her to hand me the unit. When she did, just for a second, it registered our speed over the ground as 6 knots. I could not believe that satellite info was refreshed so frequently that the unit would detect the increased velocity northward as it was passed from hand to hand. I stepped onto the side deck and walked to the bow, carrying the gps. Sure enough the speed reading increased to 6.4 knots while I walked and returned to 4 the moment I stopped. Oddly, while my first reaction was to laugh with delight, my second was to throw the thing overboard. Damned creepy, these machines!
If nothing else, they sap a man's motivation to learn about running fixes.
Best,
Patrick
--
Dr. Patrick Goold
Department of Philosophy
Virginia Wesleyan College
Norfolk, VA 23502
757 455 3357
Charles Olson: "Love the World -- and stay inside it."
