Neil BrownCan you navigate reliably with a map and compass?
| Yes | |
| No | |
| You really are old, Neil. We have smartphones now. No-one needs these basic offline skills. |
Poll ends at .
9pfs
Diane
Ryan Walmsley@neil Everyone knows the offline version is digging out the old tom tom instead!
Edwin
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@neil If I have to. But I've never flown anything that doesn't have *some* radio navaids, and I've usually turned them on even when flying a trivially easy route.
Sebastian Crane 🏳️⚧️@neil I could, if I could find a compass. I tried to find a wristwatch with a compass in it a while back - seems like a fairly simple feature to add, at least in a plastic watch - and the only thing I could find was > £200.
Carl 
If it was an analog watch, you could use it as a compass :-) https://www.wikihow.com/Use-an-Analog-Watch-as-a-Compass
How to Use an Analog Watch as a Compass: 8 Steps (with Pictures)
If you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness or adrift at sea with no way to tell which direction you're traveling, an analog watch (or any similar clock face) can act as a compass and help you get your bearings. All you'll need for...
cuan_knaggs
midzer
Nav
Iuri
Stevan@neil Looking for the "-ish" option.
I once got lost in the hills, but using a map and compass found my way to a track from which I knew I could get back. The part of the track I found was a large loop, and I wasn't sure which part of the loop I'd hit, so I wasn't sure whether to turn left or right. There are probably techniques for finding out for sure, but in that case, I just guessed, as I'd soon find out.
So I wouldn't say I could solidly answer yes.
I once got lost in the hills, but using a map and compass found my way to a track from which I knew I could get back. The part of the track I found was a large loop, and I wasn't sure which part of the loop I'd hit, so I wasn't sure whether to turn left or right. There are probably techniques for finding out for sure, but in that case, I just guessed, as I'd soon find out.
So I wouldn't say I could solidly answer yes.
Chris Edsall@neil with a map and a compass I can triangulate my position. (I haven’t done that in decades so am rusty now, also I have maps but not sure if I could find a compass other than my iPhone now)
@hpcchris Grid to mag you add, mag to grid get rid :)
Conor O'Neill
Erik Johnson@neil Is there a “maybe but probably poorly” option?
@distractal Does "reliably" cover that? :)
Pluvia@neil @distractal I went for "Yes" and then remembered that it has been twenty years since I last did that, so hm^^ But a nice skill to refresh
Marcus Marcius Marcellus@neil And indeed with a nautical chart and a compass.
Paul_IPv6i used to think that smartphone map app and GPS backup was fine. but there are places where that isn't an option. we're doing a vacation in July where the host warned us that there will be no internet on the road and that GPS and cellular are very spotty. i'll be printing a map before we go.
holidays with spotty internet/cellular for the the win! :)
AMS@paul_ipv6 @neil GPS will still work, and offline OSM apps work great. Take both.
Marty Fouts@paul_ipv6 @AMS @neil some of those places are here on the San Francisco peninsula in open space preserves where old growth redwoods and steep terrain mean that even a GPS with a good antenna won’t see any satellites.
notsoloud> How does GPS gets spotty unless there's jamming involved?
Being in a place with lots of tall buildings around, in my experience.
HollieKI've voted no, because I doubt I could see the correct lines on the map nowadays, without having to change to reading glasses the whole time. This also means that I couldn't follow a map on a smartphone either. It's not a skill thing, it's a vision thing, which I totally misunderstood when years ago my dad said my mum couldn't map-read. I thought she didn't have the skill, but she was about the same age as I am now, and she didn't have the visual acuity required.
@HollieK72 Ooh, interesting take!
@neil And belated apologies to my mum, for spending years thinking that she was illiterate in map-reading. I'm pretty sure I couldn't map-read for my husband in the car as I wouldn't be able to see both the map and the road at the same time.
@neil It's the difference between "I can't map-read" and "I can't read the map," but in both cases I can't navigate reliably with a map and compass.
Kim@neil I should add that this is more about body than technology. My Stupid Knee isn't really rated for hiking, which was the main context in which I ever used a paper map and compass to navigate. (I use a dedicated GPS receiver for cycling navigation, simply because of the convenience of it being waterproof, backlit and easily mounted on a bike. To say nothing of not having to stop to re-fold it, and it recording a track of where you've been.)
TomTom et al were becoming a mainstream thing at around the time I passed my driving test, so my experience of map-based car navigation is all from being another driver's navigator. That doesn't generally require a compass, of course.
TomTom et al were becoming a mainstream thing at around the time I passed my driving test, so my experience of map-based car navigation is all from being another driver's navigator. That doesn't generally require a compass, of course.
Jonathan B ✈️🪄👨🏻💻
eviloatmeal, resident Death Stranding 2 apologist (arch, btw)@neil I don't know that I've ever needed to use a map while not having any bearings while simultaneously being far enough from an obvious landmark like a named road to need to use a compass.
There aren't that many situations in my life where people kidnap and blindfold me in order to take me to a place where I am uncertain how I got there.
I suppose this is also aided by living in a part of the world wherein if you veer too far off road, the locals will helpfully shoot you dead to keep you from getting lost.
There aren't that many situations in my life where people kidnap and blindfold me in order to take me to a place where I am uncertain how I got there.
I suppose this is also aided by living in a part of the world wherein if you veer too far off road, the locals will helpfully shoot you dead to keep you from getting lost.
Ivor Hewitt@neil 'yes' but not reliably.
Mark ⛵️🏳️🌈@neil at a push I can also navigate at sea with a sextant…
@not_a_label Impressive!
Faux
Stephen Borrill
sollat
Dud and Forgotten.@neil I learned Orienteering when I was an Army Cadet back in the 1970s.
Pete Kirkham@BackFromTheDud @neil I used to go hillwalking in the 1990s. But navigating reliably is a a use-it-or-lose-it skill so I answered no.
@PeteKirkham True. Maybe I should have done the same, since it's not a regular use thing. 😞 @neil
patter
diana 🏳️⚧️🦋🌱I used to walk through wooded areas to and from school everyday, filling my mind with details of the geographic landscape, much like a map with awareness of always relating the direction. I was born to explore.
Tuchowski
Simon ZerafaMy son is learning aircraft navigation for his PPL and that's way more complex.
I see why pilots love GNSS and autopilots 😉
Hiker
Thommy
something called Banur@neil
Probably one of the useful things i learned in my Military service time
Probably one of the useful things i learned in my Military service time
Ed Davies@neil Passed the navigation test for my Private Pilots Licence [¹] so, like many, yes in principle, but I'm sufficiently rusty that “reliably” would be stretching a point.
[¹] just map, compass, airspeed indicator and watch, no nav aids used.
Russell Ramey@edavies
Gives a whole new meaning to “dead reckoning “ doesn’t it.
Gives a whole new meaning to “dead reckoning “ doesn’t it.
Chris Mills@neil @Em0nM4stodon my orienteering compass did not survive the journey from the northern hemisphere to the southern. It has remained most confused as to which way is North.