NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Howard G
Date: 2022 Jul 3, 01:35 +0000
Hi David
In reflection it wasn’t the P3 Orion that had the mount – it didn’t need it – it had a Kollsman which ( I think) could be used to do what an Astro compass could do – but it was the Bristol Freighter
which had the WW II type bubble on top of the fuselage that we were able to do this with an astro compass.
And I think in our training in the Devons we could use them
This is exactly how we took a sextant shot in the freighter through the Perspex bubble – that looks very much like an RAF sextant with an averager 2-3 mins – in that bubble (above the head of the
navigator is a hook you could hang that sextan from in prep for the shot – or there was a mount in the apex of this bubble for the asto-compass.
The 2nd picture is a Kollsman or similar periscopic sextant shot through the pressure hull of the P3 Orion – there was no capability for an Astro-compass – my mistake.
Regards Howard G
From: NavList@fer3.com <NavList@fer3.com>
On Behalf Of David Pike
Sent: Friday, 1 July 2022 2:00
To: Howard George <HHG@raptorbusinessservices.com.au>
Subject: [NavList] Re: Compass correction using sunrise
Robin, Howard
Of course, if you have an astro compass, you really need an aeroplane to demonstrate it with. I christened this one ‘No Sun Dorma’, because every time I tried to use it, the Sun went to sleep.
Howard
I noticed that the side windows of the Shackleton MR3 at Newark Air Museum have what look suspiciously like astro compass mounts fitted. As the aircraft already had apertures in the roof, I’m assuming that that the ones at the side were for use by additional
crew member/observers reporting surface sightings. Did you have similar fittings in the P3 Orion? DaveP
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