NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Dependence on GPS
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2009 Oct 31, 22:05 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2009 Oct 31, 22:05 -0700
Thomas, you wrote: "They ia now a term "yuppie rescue". GPS, GPS tracking device, sat phones etc are giving people without the requisit experiance the boldness to try. " Yes, it's a strange irony. We work to make navigation simpler, but then it becomes so simple that any fool can do it. It's interesting to note that this also applied to navigation historically. I was listening to a museum interpreter recently describing the chip log. This, of course, is a simple bit of technology, perfected only in the 18th century, that lets us measure our vessel's speed scientifically and thus improves the DR. The interpreter, who had done a small boat circum-navigation, commented that anyone with significant sailing experience soon reaches the point where they can estimate speed easily and accurately without resort to hardware so the chip log seems superfluous. But that's not the point. The chip log could be used properly and yield accurate results even in the hands of novice seamen once they had been taught. The tools of scientific navigation exist to make us all experts without requiring expertise. And I can't help getting a little laugh from the auto-signature appended by your iPhone. That little thing is sending your email AND tracking your position better than any of us could ever have hoped for twenty years ago. -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
