Re: GPS Vs COMPASS

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:49:57 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Baker"
<richard.baker24@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I love them both, but you don't need batteries for a compass :) When your
>GPS fails, the compass is still there and working fine. Use the GPS, but
>never totally rely on it
>
>Richard
>
A sweeping assumption. Compasses can fail, be affected by certain
rocks and local anomalies rendering it useless. You also tend to need
a map with a compass.
I'd thought we had progressed in newsgroups from such arguements.

I have never used my compass since my first purchase of a Trimble GPS
in 1992. Today the GPS receivers available are far superior to my
original one both in performance and battery life.

At 1410 on 5 December 1945, five TBM Avengers comprising Flight 19
rose into the sky above NAS Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Turning east the
formation headed out over the Atlantic on the first leg of a routine
exercise from which the 14 men of Flight 19 were never to return.

Interestingly each of the pilots of the planes were using the 3
compasses they had on board to navigate the triangular NAVEX. It would
seem that all 14 crew became disorientated and being unable to make
use of their aircrafts compasses to locate their position had to ditch
in the sea and were lost.
Had these chaps had the cheapest functioning GPS available now they
would have had a 99.9% chance of getting back home because their
position would have been known to them relative to their base
airfield.

What you can't do with a compass is find your position in featureless
terrain or on the sea out of sight of land.
Therefore I would always rely on my GPS in preference to a compass any
day. It is easy to put new batteries in the GPS and take enough spares
with you to last the period of your trip.

I would think that in another 10 years no-one will be using the
magnetic compass and it will go the same way as the slide rule and
logarithms when the pocket calculator became available.

Norman

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: GPS Vs COMPASS
    ... If I am still walking in 10 years time I will still be ... >>>using my compass to orient my map and to take bearings when it is not ... A GPS ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: GPS Vs COMPASS
    ... >> seem to recall that GPS compasses are not terribly reliable, ... >problem is, ISTM, that they munch batteries a lot quicker than plain use ... which leaves the compass on most of the time. ... If you read the manual you discover that it's quite easy to switch the ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Basic navigational skills badly missing
    ... Will survive on 1 set of batteries for the weekend ... Compass and altimeter would be nice, but I already have a compass, ... >>and my watch has an altimeter on it, so these functions are not essential. ... I think the GPS altimeter is in most? ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: GPS Vs COMPASS
    ... > using my compass to orient my map and to take bearings when it is not ... > Clearly you must be using your GPS merely as an emergency device ... > checking your route is correct by consulting your map in combination ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: GPS Vs COMPASS
    ... >>using my compass to orient my map and to take bearings when it is not ... A GPS ... And if you happen to have chosen a route that does not lead almost ...
    (uk.rec.walking)