Land Nav skills

last thought, intersection & triangulation can be used to emphasize basic skills that are less technological. a scenario may involve getting personnel to particular points, who then see the quarry or objective in the distance. asking that they precisely locate that location on a map and relay coordinates for an approach team will require elements of compass work, range estimation, terrain association, and so on. if the quarry is not easily spotted from nearby, the approach team members will emphasize the need for accuracy for you. being accurate may not be easily done with gps alone.
 
Sptpr Thanks a million for your input! It is greatly appreciated. All of your guy's advice will be put together and used in some of our teams up coming training!


Mike
 
Learn pacing as a method of keeping track of distance. 1 pace =2 steps. Take a 100' tape and count how many paces it takes to cover the distance. Repeat in a variety of terrain/ vegetation conditions. Eventually you will get a feel for your pace in a variety of conditions. As you are walking long distances, count, or use a clicker to keep track of how many 100' segments you have covered. 53 segments = 1 mile. If you are pacing - don't talk with companions - you will lose your count.

While you may not want to do this all the time, it can be very useful for tracking your position in areas without landmarks or topographic features. It is also useful for finding a specific location from a known position.

A compass gives you direction. Pacing gives you distance.
 
Land nav in a swamp is a PITA, and best done as a team. The lack of contour or identifiable landmarks, and constant deviation from your azimuth make maintaining both course and pace count difficult, especially navigating solo. I'm almost 20yrs removed from training in that environment. You might hit up Jeff Randall in the ESEE forum for more suitable suggestions.
 
I think everybody got everything I was going to say.

GPS is great--I love it, and would never bash it.

That said, learning to navigate without it is essential. And if you learn to navigate by compass and by stars and sky, you'll blow people's minds when you do have a GPS unit up and running. GPS is a tool: no more, no less. And when you have the basics and intermediate skills down for navigation, the stuff you can do with GPS is more powerful.

That said, there's no substitute in my experience for getting out a compass and a map and doing it. It will be tedious at first, and even dumb at times, but it all adds up.

As everyone said, practice basic bearings, drawing yourself out some waypoints and following them to a destination. Easy? Sure--but you can teach yourself how accurate you are at counting paces and estimating differences. By getting out there and doing easy orienteering tasks, you build a foundation by which you can do very advanced things. Like dead reckoning, which is the ultimate test I hope you never need! ;) But if you're in the middle of an open field, dense jungle, empty desert, or on the wide open sea, you'll be glad you learned it.

Then, learn the intermediate techniques, like resection and intersection. These are incredibly useful things.

Finally, look to navigation without a compass. Learn to read shadows, identify key stars, etc., and you'll be adding immense skills to your skillset. You may never need them--but like I said, if you learn them, they make the stuff you already know so much more powerful.
 
on all training exercises, turn the GPS systems OFF.

batteries can die and GPS sattelites can fall out of the sky. but things have gone much more seriously awry if a compass no longer works.
 
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  • Learn & practice UTM with some topo maps.
  • Learn & practice handrail & backstop techniques.
  • Learn & practice pace counting over different terrains with beads.
It's easier than you would think, but you still have to:
Learn & practice
 
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