NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2015 Nov 9, 14:08 -0800
Frank,
It comes from my days in pilot training. Every morning the captain would tell everyone to set their watches. " 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - HACK ! "
For 20 years in the Air Force every pilot would set his watch or at least check it for error every day. The term " time hack " was used to mean when you pushed the button on your watch. We were issued a watch that stopped the second hand when the winding knob was pulled. In movies they will say " syncronize your watches ". The pilots I knew ( 1970s and 80s ) called it a time hack.
Also when we still had navigators often they would ask another crew member to give them a time hack on the minute. They stood on a stool in the cockpit to get a sextant shot and if there was turbulance they had to hold on for dear life and could not look at their watch.
John H.
