NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2019 Jan 20, 11:02 -0800
Brad,
I was a pilot in the USAF for 20 years - most of my time flew the four engine ( jet ) cargo C-141. In the early 1970s I was the co-pilot on a flight from Christ Church, NZ to McMurdo. The airplane was an " A " model, so no INS. We had CN using a Bendix perescope type sextant. We also had ADF, VOR, Tacan, Loran, and Consol. Most of the flight ( the middle part ) was CN. We had a navigator crew menber who did all the CN and Loran. Departing NZ and the arrival, approch into McMurdo was radio nav ( pilot nav ).
The C-141 did not have skies - we landed normal on wheels. The runway was compacked snow/ice about 15000 ft long. If I rember correct the ground crew had put sand or cinders on the runway.
We had a load of mail, food, medicine, some spare parts, and about 15 people. On the ground about two hours then back to Christ Church. Normal flight, not much different than Thlue, Greenland, or Bodo, Norway. I loved going new places so always volenteered for the odd or out of the way places.
On long, normal flights I would bug the Nav to teach me CelNav. By the time the airplane was converted to the " B " model ( INS but no CN ) I had gotten good an CN.
All this is from memory. I'll have to dig deep to find my paperwork - maybe someday .........
John H.
