Dead Reckoning
Over the years I owned a couple of airplanes, a Cessna 172 and a Cessna 140 and as the president of a military aero club, I got to fly a variety of other aircraft. In many ways the Cessna 140 was my favorite aircraft. Its only piece of navigation equipment was a magnetic compass, not even a clock. And also no radio. I was never surprised by the difficulty of dead reckoning navigation, only the accuracy. As long as I watched my drift and checkpoints and had the mental discipline to hold a heading for an extended period, it was usually very accurate. I found that following a VOR was pretty dull. I am not saying that any sailor should forget that the conversio to nm to sm is 1.15...etc, but that generally it makes little difference. A quick mental conversion is more than adequate.
Over the years I owned a couple of airplanes, a Cessna 172 and a Cessna 140 and as the president of a military aero club, I got to fly a variety of other aircraft. In many ways the Cessna 140 was my favorite aircraft. Its only piece of navigation equipment was a magnetic compass, not even a clock. And also no radio. I was never surprised by the difficulty of dead reckoning navigation, only the accuracy. As long as I watched my drift and checkpoints and had the mental discipline to hold a heading for an extended period, it was usually very accurate. I found that following a VOR was pretty dull. I am not saying that any sailor should forget that the conversio to nm to sm is 1.15...etc, but that generally it makes little difference. A quick mental conversion is more than adequate.