Historical nav devices

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Display name:
Dave Taylor
sniff. Finally pulled it out. It served me well for many, many years. Can't believe it's gone.
 

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Nice doorstop! Boy, that is old, where do you hook the Bluetooth in at?
 
Northstar M1 LORAN. Pretty much the state of the art in the mid-eighties.
 
flyingron said:
Northstar M1 LORAN. Pretty much the state of the art in the mid-eighties.
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Hmm interesting. With no LORAN system I can see you removing it.

I said the same thing few weeks ago getting into a friends plane. I saw an ADF for the first time in my life.

I wonder how long until 430s and VORs are seen the same way.
 
I had the exact same box in my Bo, and it never, ever let me down; always gave a proper NAV solution, right up until they turned off the (established, robust, reliable, paid-for) system. Could never say that about GPS.

After LORAN went away, and before I removed the box, I'd regularly turn it on, watch it go through its self-test sequence, then forlornly listen for a signal...
 
And I do still have an ADF, intend to keep it. Useful device.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Me too. Useful for listening to AM talk radio.
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My JVC AM/FM/CD is much cheaper and easier to tune. I do admit, spent many an hour listening to 570AM KQRX "K Rocks" out of Dallas on an ADF back in the 80s. In 87 they went to 50/60s format.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Me too. Useful for listening to AM talk radio.
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In the rural parts of the country you can listen to the local swap and flea market shows!! Great stuff, Myrtle has a full stereo set including a tape deck for $35.00 call her at BR-549!
 
I called Myrtle. The number was incomplete. So I asked Sarah and got the full number, which is BR5-4921.

The stereo set has already been sold....
 
If you plane has a skylight...

sextplath1.jpg
 
My students think I am a caveman because I don't have faceclownbooktwitsnap nor a smart phone. I then get to lecture them on how we landed on the moon half a dozen times using slidecrules and radio signals, how we built the sr-71 using slide rules and math. Then we get into the navigation aspects, on how they would use triangular navigation while maintaining radio silence and meet up with their tankers for a refill time and time again. These so called outdated systems worked and they worked well. It is very ingenious how they managed to use radio signals with such precision in the past. It is a shame how "dumb" we have made everything these days. People are amazed and dumbfounded that I can use a road Atlas to drive across the country.
We took our kids to the pioneer museum in town and they had a rotary dial telephone that just blew them away, the oldest boy asked us how we would text on it!
 
My daughter looked at an old rotary phone for the first time and said...."So that's why they call it dialing!"

13335834_10150680850544991_6744128384208628318_n.jpg
 
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Mason said:
If you plane has a skylight...

sextplath1.jpg
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There was a time when I got some instruction on how to use one of these, although I've never used one in practice. I used to crew on boats occasionally as a summer job during high school. They generally had Loran.
 
Here's the "Narco Dream Package", 1962-style. Under 65 pounds (!) and about $65,000 in today's money. This was called a "2-1/2 system" -- two comm transmitters and three receivers, one for comm, one for nav, and one that could be used for comm or nav.

The #1 navcom, the Mark 10, was a "simplex" unit. Dialing in the frequency on the left side sets both transmitter and receiver to the same frequency. In the Mark 5 below it, you have to separately crank in the frequency for the transmitter on the left side and for the receiver on the right. If you're using the #2 VOR for navigation, you can't use the #2 radio for communication unless you happen to be talking to a facility where you can listen on the frequency of the VOR in use.

On the Mark 10 (like the later Mark 12 I used for my instrument training), the VOR indication goes dead whenever the mic is keyed.

narco_6211.jpg
 
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Mason said:
If you plane has a skylight...

sextplath1.jpg
Click to expand...

Actually had a proper aviation bubble sextant for awhile. Sold it a couple of years ago:

s-l225.jpg


I still have my Astro Compass, used for flying long distances through areas near the poles (where mag dip is greater):

8478431_5.jpg
 
The 310 had a LORAN in it when it was first donated. That got pulled out when we did the panel upgrade.

I pulled the ADF out of the 414. Reality is I haven't used one or had cause to use one in years other than to test to see if the thing still works (and when it doesn't, wonder if it's because the ADF is bad or the NDB is inop). In a plane with restrictive useful load, it doesn't make much sense to keep any equipment that I don't see a need for.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
My students think I am a caveman because I don't have faceclownbooktwitsnap nor a smart phone. I then get to lecture them on how we landed on the moon half a dozen times using slidecrules and radio signals, how we built the sr-71 using slide rules and math. Then we get into the navigation aspects, on how they would use triangular navigation while maintaining radio silence and meet up with their tankers for a refill time and time again. These so called outdated systems worked and they worked well. It is very ingenious how they managed to use radio signals with such precision in the past. It is a shame how "dumb" we have made everything these days. People are amazed and dumbfounded that I can use a road Atlas to drive across the country.
We took our kids to the pioneer museum in town and they had a rotary dial telephone that just blew them away, the oldest boy asked us how we would text on it!
Click to expand...

A lot of my friends don't care about all those achievements back in the, so called, "stone age". A lot believe the whole moon thing was fake or think it was a waste. The whole Interstellar "moon landing was faked school history lesson" is starting to come true.....

My dad hates how everything is becoming touchscreen this and software that. He taught himself electrical engineering by taking the crap apart and fixing it. He gets frustrated everyday now when he has to get approval from some kid my age, for some multi-million dollar program. All because the kid has the "degree". What's even better is when it gets turned down by the said kid because the method is different from the "textbook way". Lets just say the kid learned a few things that day from my father's age group....
 
ARFlyer said:
A lot of my friends don't care about all those achievements back in the, so called, "stone age". A lot believe the whole moon thing was fake or think it was a waste. The whole Interstellar "moon landing was faked school history lesson" is starting to come true.....

My dad hates how everything is becoming touchscreen this and software that. He taught himself electrical engineering by taking the crap apart and fixing it. He gets frustrated everyday now when he has to get approval from some kid my age, for some multi-million dollar program. All because the kid has the "degree". What's even better is when it gets turned down by the said kid because the method is different from the "textbook way". Lets just say the kid learned a few things that day from my father's age group....
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I would find better friends if they thought we faked the moon landings 6 TIMES!
I am constantly hearing the phrase "just think what we could have done with all this new technology" . I say that is RUBISH! We have been to the Moon, to the bottom of the ocean, built the fastest planes, the biggest rockets, the biggest bombs and did it all without this so called new age technology. We would never be able to do most of that now days because all the info would be leaked or hacked and all this technology has displaced all those specialist jobs, we would be outsourcing most of it to different "contractors" who would have their way with it.

It is fun to reread "skunk works" and see how much of what Ben Rich and Kelley Johnson said would happen has happened and not for the better. They were on time and under budget on most of their projects with superior results. Need we point out the Trillion dollar clusterscrew that is the F-35? Kelley Johnson would have scrapped that program many moons ago after pulling out his slide rule and a b lank piece of paper, doing some maths and using his judgement.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
I would find better friends if they thought we faked the moon landings 6 TIMES!
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There are a rather scary number of people who are rejecting various basic facts. Those who think the earth is flat, people who believe in chemtrails, etc. Perhaps in the past people trusted authority more than they should, but I see a lot of people now for whom the standard is "Automatically assume authority is wrong" or "Every conspiracy theory is right."
 
Well, as much as we can all appreciate the nostalgia of slide rules and celestial navigation, lets not pretend that science (and our society) would be anywhere near as advanced if we hadn't turned in the abacus for a TI-92 (or whichever variant you used). Things get done more quickly and with greater accuracy when technology is used. Weather forecasting makes leaps and bounds annually in their predictive modeling. Instead of meeting for refueling "somewhere in X quadrant of the map", we now show up for refueling within feet of each other without having to make further radio/visual contact. I thing the real gap occurs when so many people can use the end product without understanding in the least how it works. That being said, most of those who drive automobiles couldn't tell you a carburetor from an exhaust manifold, yet they manage to get by just fine. I'd imagine the only time where that knowledge gap comes into play is when you have to revert back to older systems (ie failure of new tech), or are trying to make new stuff play with old stuff (tech integration).
 
SoonerAviator said:
That being said, most of those who drive automobiles couldn't tell you a carburetor from an exhaust manifold, yet they manage to get by just fine.
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You obviously never witnessed my mother driving.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
sniff. Finally pulled it out. It served me well for many, many years. Can't believe it's gone.
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It's not gone!
It is sitting on my shelf at work, right above my LCDs. I am looking at mine right now.
Perfect conversation starter.
Once I explain what the device is, the common follow-up question is "oh, you're a pilot?" :D
 
Shortly after my blockbuster novel gets filmed by Bruckhiemer/Speilberg/John Woo / Tarantino and that Powerball hits, I will get a Beech 18 or Swift or Summat with a all-origional panel.. All GPS / ADS-B yadda Yadda will be hidden.
 
Haven't seen this navigation device mentioned yet. It's historic, and seldom used any more because pilots are too busy watching the flat screen in the panel.

iu
 
Acrodustertoo said:
Kelley Johnson would have scrapped that program many moons ago after pulling out his slide rule and a blank piece of paper, doing some maths and using his judgement.
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Quite often "many" blank pieces of paper are required when using a slide rule. My brother mastered the slide rule, and being a few years behind him I was never required to touch one. LED TI-30 baby.
 
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Norman said:
Haven't seen this navigation device mentioned yet. It's historic, and seldom used any more because pilots are too busy watching the flat screen in the panel.

iu
Click to expand...

I often use Eyedar.
 
Mason said:
If you plane has a skylight...

sextplath1.jpg
Click to expand...
You kid, but when I started flying across the ocean, we used a navigator and one of these.
Sextant1.jpg
Sextant2.jpg

To be fair, we also had a crappy Carousel IV INS and a DNS (Doppler Navigation System) but they were pretty much worthless over the ocean.
 
I learned to use a slide rule because I could. By the time I was a senior in high school (self studying Calc 2) I had a Texas Instruments SR51A that I bought with some of my summer earnings. I still have an HP-16C in my desk somewhere. But I haven't used it in 25 years other than to see if it still worked.

John
 
Well, the TI-83 was the go-to in high school, but I had a 92 by the time I got to college.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, the TI-83 was the go-to in high school, but I had a 92 by the time I got to college.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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TI-30 in highschool for me. Then a HP-11c for most of college. Finally broke down and bought 41cv my senior year. Moved to spreadsheets for grad school.
 
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