NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2015 Oct 11, 10:10 -0600
OK. Different animal. I remember the late John Luykx – who was an acknowledged expert on aircraft sextants -- giving a most animated and entertaining description of the operation of one of those models. I have never seen one first-hand.
It is amazing to see the variety of systems that were developed to produce a reliable artificial horizon. In the final analysis, it appears to me that the simple spirit level, or bubble turned out to be the most accurate and reliable. Of course I am not including in this lot, the sophisticated sextants used on the Apollo missions.
Robert
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Paul Brewer
Sent: October-11-15 8:12 AM
To: enoid@northwestel.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: Plath KS 3D
Yes, I think they were but also on surface vessls I understand.
They are spun up with an air pump rather like a bicyle pump.
I have the operation booklet in German. Apparently they were spun up then carried up the conning tower to take a sight. All a bit hairy it sounds.
Mine was badly damaged but I got it working enough to see that it would work, accuracy similar to the bubble version.
Paul.
