Old Style Navigation

[Richie]

Hi Everybody.

I was talking about this in another thread with someone about using a circular protractor to navigate. Either hold it up to your screen or print out your map. The best use for one of these is on a water map with no land marks at all. Or a snow map. Long distances can be set out while you're sitting in your aircraft at base. Jot the heading down and stick to it and I bet you'll find your way. It's easy to do I've found a great pic, that's why I put this thread up. It works Use a clear protractor as pictured.

[CaptainDoggles]

Bear in mind this sim models magnetic deviation, which is I believe 10 degrees West on the BoB map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_deviation

[Richie]

Didn't know that

So head 180' that would be tricky. Witch way will it twitch. But 270' you would head 280' and 90' you would head 100' and so on?

[SlipBall]

• "My eyes are dim I cannot see, I have not got my E-6B with me, over the Valley of the Ruhr".

edit: not many pilots here I guess

The E-6B was developed in the United States by Naval Lt. Philip Dalton in the late 1930s. The name comes from its original part number for the U.S Army Air Corps in World War II.
Philip Dalton (1903–1941) was a Cornell University graduate who joined the United States Army as an artillery officer, but soon resigned and became a Naval Reserve pilot from 1931 until he died in a plane crash with a student practicing spins. He, with P. V. H. Weems, invented, patented and marketed a series of flight computers.
Dalton's first popular computer was his 1933 Model B, the circular slide rule with True Airspeed (TAS) and Altitude corrections pilots know so well. In 1936 he put a double-drift diagram on its reverse to create what the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) designated as the E-1, E-1A and E-1B.
A couple of years later he invented the Mark VII, again using his Model B slide rule as a focal point. It was hugely popular with both the military and the airlines. Even Amelia Earhart's navigator Fred Noonan used one on their last flight. Dalton felt that it was a quickie design, and wanted to create something more accurate, easier to use, and able to handle higher flight speeds.
So he came up with his now famous wind arc slide, but printed on an endless cloth belt moved inside a square box by a knob. He applied for a patent in 1936 (granted in 1937 as 2,097,116). This was for the Model C, D and G computers widely used in World War II by the British Commonwealth, the U.S. Navy, and even copied by the Japanese and Germans. These are commonly available on collectible auction web sites.

[CaptainDoggles]

What it means is that there is a difference between straight "up" on the map, and 000 on your compass. I don't have a link but it was in the change logs for one of the patches and was stated to be 10 degrees westerly.

Since bearings go from 0 to 359, you can just subtract 10 from your heading and always arrive at the right answer.

Compass says 180? You're actually flying 170.

Need to fly 040? Fly 050 on your compass.

[Richie]

In 2001 IL-2 you couldn't get rid of your mini map path witch was one of the rare things I didn't like about it. So my friend Pope would go down the straight road many times without looking at the in game map just to see if we could keep track of ourselves. This is when every thing was new so it was a big deal to find your way by a printed map and roads. Me and him going down that road over 10 years ago. I'm getting choked up LOL

[jf1981]

Determine your speed base factor : 60/Speed
e.g.
BF109@300km/h bf=0,20
SPIT@240mph bf=0,25

ETA (min) = distance x bf
e.g.
10 km at 300 kmh => ETA 2 min
10 miles at 240 mph => ETA 2,5 min (2 min 30")

Use any tool to calculate true route on map e.g. 315°, add 10° for magnetic route, follow 325 mag compass.

Since you can roughly pick up the distance with finger or anything from the map scale and report it on the map, you can have anytime with the help of your fingers that distance to waypoint or target.

As well you can use a tool (I have one) or the map ruler/compass (right click on map -> tools) - this is longer however - to measure the route to newt point, or you can estimate which works fine when accuracy is not a big deal or if route is short (eg. less 20 km / 15 miles).

Navigation is easy, pick a route, convert to magnetic by adding 10°, a distance, convert to time by multiplying by your base factor and start a stopwatch, follow your magnetic compass.

With some experience, the only issue you will encounter is wind, the method is perfect.

[CaptainDoggles]

That's a good method but honestly I find dead reckoning to require less attention and is just as accurate, esp. on this map where there are lots and lots of easy landmarks.

If we were over Lvov or vast expanses of water it'd be a different story however.

Maybe in the moscow expansion?

[ATAG_MajorBorris]

Check the map tools, it has a protractor in game.

Takes a minute to figure out but you can get bearings and distance.

[jimbop]

Originally Posted by jf1981

Determine your speed base factor : 60/Speed
e.g.
BF109@300km/h bf=0,20
SPIT@240mph bf=0,25

ETA (min) = distance x bf
e.g.
10 km at 300 kmh => ETA 2 min
10 miles at 240 mph => ETA 2,5 min (2 min 30")

Use any tool to calculate true route on map e.g. 315°, add 10° for magnetic route, follow 325 mag compass.

Since you can roughly pick up the distance with finger or anything from the map scale and report it on the map, you can have anytime with the help of your fingers that distance to waypoint or target.

As well you can use a tool (I have one) or the map ruler/compass (right click on map -> tools) - this is longer however - to measure the route to newt point, or you can estimate which works fine when accuracy is not a big deal or if route is short (eg. less 20 km / 15 miles).

Navigation is easy, pick a route, convert to magnetic by adding 10°, a distance, convert to time by multiplying by your base factor and start a stopwatch, follow your magnetic compass.

With some experience, the only issue you will encounter is wind, the method is perfect.

Nicely explained, thanks.