Is the navigation over the sea requires BS/BA?

[RedFive]

Wander around hopelessly while Joboy regales his crew with yet another TINS instructor story.

Nothing, right now. All but 2 of them are hard down.

Okay, okay, well played. But seriously, is there a Nav and/or Flight Engineer? And how is the hard-down situation going to affect VR accessions, if at all?

 

[Flash]

Okay, okay, well played. But seriously, is there a Nav and/or Flight Engineer? And how is the hard-down situation going to affect VR accessions, if at all?

No navs anymore in Navy C-130's, they went away over 20 years ago but I am pretty sure they still have FE's. I have no idea what the health of the fleet is other than they have had fleet-wide issues the last few years.

 

[jmcquate]

"Give me a stopwatch and a compos and I can fly an airplane through the Alps blindfolded".

 

[robav8r]

Actual celestial navigation was last taught to US Navy and USAF aerial navigators ~1998.

I think I was in the first class to go through the 562nd FTS in Randolph that did not teach celestial . . .

 

[Flash]

I think I was in the first class to go through the 562nd FTS in Randolph that did not teach celestial . . .

You're old! I went through about a year or so before they did away with it, still younger than you though!

 

[HuggyU2]

You're old! I went through about a year or so before they did away with it, still younger than you though!

You're both youngsters. I'll bet you went through Randolph when I was an instructor there from '93-'96.

 

[Flash]

You're both youngsters. I'll bet you went through Randolph when I was an instructor there from '93-'96.

I barely missed you, not sure if that was a good or bad thing.

 

[jmcquate]

Despite our eastern bloc friend being the OP. Celestial Nav is something that all Naval Officers should know, at least, the shoes. A good watch and a star chart can tell you were you are anywhere on earth............a gift from the gods.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Uh, those were all USAAF officers at the control of those P-38s that killed the worst American enemy up to 1943, IJN Adm Yamamoto. But the crew of that G4M1 Betty that carried him and his staff officers was entirely enlisted, and for the second bomber and all six escort Zeroes as well, all Japs were enlisted personnell. A sign of the dominance of the commissioned officers over enlisted men

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Actual celestial navigation was last taught to US Navy and USAF aerial navigators ~1998.

Thanks, quite informative. Here the naval (all of them) and AF (navigators' ones) colleges are still teaching "stars&suns", even for future engineering duty officers. A kind of the legacy, I think, but the truth is that we cannot overrely on the satellite nav and comm: all those metal things overhead in the space can be hit by some other metal things, which is much harder to do with the Sun and stars...

 

[Brett327]

This presumes that Cel-Nav is the first fallback to a GPS denied environment, which it isn't. It's also not practical in a TACAIR platform.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

It's also not practical in a TACAIR platform.

Maybe so, but most Soviet naval air was not tactical in nowadays parlance. And, honestly, still isn't. I'm far from insisting on its practical side, either. But it can help, though, when something goes wrong over vast ocean.

 

[robav8r]

Maybe so, but most Soviet naval air was not tactical in nowadays parlance. And, honestly, still isn't. I'm far from insisting on its practical side, either. But it can help, though, when something goes wrong over vast ocean.

I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about Brett being lost in his Growler out "in the vast ocean" requiring celestial navigation skills . . . . .

 

[zab1001]

Unless it’s near “an island surrounded by water, big water, ocean water.”

 

[jmcquate]

Old school axis