NavList:

This thread was unexpected but welcomed.  I'm looking for my father's PAA Morse code book with the list of abbreviated messages. I seem to remember a section on navigaiton codes, they would give an idea of what kinds of messages were unual exchanges such as position reports.

Although a bit later, in the early 1940's, PAA played a key role in jumpstarting celestial navigation training for the Army Air Corp. prior to the outbreak of WW II in the Pacific. The attached document tells the story of instructor Charlie Lund and the first graduating class of celestial navigators.  It's also posted in the NavList archives somewhere but I attached a copy I had found on the net.

Page 9 shows PAA's original seaplane base at Dinner Key, in Miami, Florida. Today, it's Miami's City hall.  The planes in the scene are mostly by Consolidated or Sikorsky. My father flew on some of the local hops when this class did field work.  Flights were various circuits - Cuba, Bahamas, Florida Keys etc.

The 'classroom' he once described was a Consolidated seaplane fitted with a long work table and anchored benches down the middle of the plane. Navigators took shots out the windows and did their reductions and plotting on the table.

Ed Popko