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Hello Gary,

I am sure you will have had a pleasant and interesting trip across to Bermuda. 
Lucky chap; I'm green with envy.I wonder if you had a sextant with you to 
take sights for your amusement. You will have taken your Bygrave SR. with you 
no doubt too.
==============

You say:-
Reference Cotinho and Chichester:

"....He used the "single LOP landfall procedure" to find the tiny
Peter and Paul's rocks. This technique is usually attributed to
Chichester for his 1931 flight across the Tasman Sea..."

I think the offset landfall method might be attributed to Sir Francis 
Chichester simply because he became famous, and became well known as a 
navigator for his around the world single-handed trip in Gipsy Moth IV and 
the description in some detail which describes this method of his flight 
across the Tasman Sea in his book 'The Lonely Sea and the Sky'.  He was, 
however, an unashamed egotist and self-publicist taking every opportunity to 
promote himself.  (Which is understandable - it sells books which is what he 
wanted I suppose).

Actually the method is described earlier I believe in a book by Howard Gatty,  
a Tasmanian navigator who was a pioneer in aviation navigation but less well 
known.  I am fairly sure Chichester adopted and adapted Gatty's method for 
his Tasman Sea flight.  

Gatty, if I remember rightly, does not attribute the offset method to himself 
but describes it as being a natural method used by natives for land 
navigation across long distances to ensure a correct landfall. I am going on 
memory here - which is suspect - if I can find the book (I have it somewhere) 
I will scan the relevant bit.

As Chichester was closely interested and involved with anything to do with 
aerial navigation at that period as it was all pioneering stuff, and so was 
Gatty but who had described aviation navigation methods earlier, I believe 
Chichester must have been acutely aware of Gatty's methods. It would have 
been natural to use this method for the Tasman Sea crossing.

For some information about Gatty; See:-
  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A10501543

I like the quote from the above reference:-

Quote: 
Tasmanian Harold Gatty was one of the many pioneers of the golden age of 
aviation (1927 to 1938). Gatty invented or perfected many of the techniques 
of aerial navigation. He was the first navigator to circle the earth in an 
aeroplane in 1931 and he later created a school of navigation for American 
military aviators. Despite his many accomplishments, he is not widely 
remembered, but he was a celebrity in his day.

    "He can take a one-dollar Ingersol watch, a Woolworth compass, and a 
lantern and at 12 o'clock at night he can tell you just how many miles the 
American farmer is from the poorhouse. He can look at the Northern Star and a 
Southern Democrat and tell you if Oklahoma will go Republican, or sane. He 
knows the Moon like a lobbyist knows the Senators".
    - Will Rogers

======================
Original posting:-

We just visited the Maritime Museum in Lisbon and they have many nav
instruments including the actual bubble sextant invented by Gago
Cotinho and used by him on the first flight across the south Atlantic
in 1922. He used the "single LOP landfall procedure" to find the tiny
Peter and Paul's rocks. This technique is usually attributed to
Chichester for his 1931 flight across the Tasman Sea.   They also have
the aircraft used by Cotinho on this flight.

gl




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