Jackdaw, I learned this trick from my father who was a WWII pilot who flew a spotter plane to include over Utah Beach On D Day and D Day plus 1directing naval and Army gunfire using that but he carried a backup AM radio listening to the British broadcasts. He had a backup radio as everything had been shot up from enemy fire. Even when he was flying the earliest helicopters advocating their use for the Army, he always carried one as a backup. That is where I learned that trick flying with dad. Last May at Ft. Rucker, I was walking thru a 132,000 sq ft. building (maintenance complex repair facility newly built dedicated to my father, Bldg 1001) I was talking with a repair tech. in avionics, we were laughing so hard talking about the use of an AM radio as an RDF, even the youngsters a couple of them Apache pilots, did not know that trick.
However, I always carried a highway road map which no one was allowed to touch as one time a kid left the batteries on which I was unaware of and dropped the maps overboard. I was caught in the fog in the Ches. Bay at night and if it were not for that AM radio and the insert of the Bay on the Virginia road map, I would have not made it back to Willoughby Spit that night. I use to tell that to my customers.
JSsailem, thank you for responding.
