My nephew asked me to “train” him and his buddy like the Army would. I wrote up a whole outline of all sorts of field craft, heavily laden with land navigation. Naturally, he didn’t want to be bothered! When I was in the Army in the 80s, we didn’t have GPS. We had this stuff. I perfected my skills throughout my time, doing more advanced land nav in PLDC, and getting more into nighttime ops (I never got to Jungle Warfare School, but I hear that’s the apex of land nav skills). By the time I got out, I could shoot an azimuth off of a leaf or a rock, had a perfect pace count down, and with a compass could call for fire on a manhole from a mile away! It was, in my opinion, the most important skill for a soldier to master. I wonder if the Army still places such high priority on these skills?
They don't. Land Nav was removed from PLDC/WLC/BLC as they call it now because the POGs were failing land nav so badly and now they have more writing and presentations instead.
@@chaddawg1084 Sad...I was in the Army in the 80's, in PLDC we would screw with the admin type people and ask them if they knew how to compensate for the wind when shooting an azimuth. LOL
Please keep this series going. Ive read the army manual as well as seen countless videos - Im fairly familiar with land nav and your series by far is the best I've seen on this in terms of information and simplicity. Well appreciated and received.
Thank you for producing this very through presentation. One point I want to note: at 47:08 you refer to the edge of the map as grid north, but in fact the left and right map borders are aligned to true north. Grid north is the adjusted UTM grid for that quad and deviates from the map edges by (grid north declination) degrees.
Hi Rick. My name is Lambert and I’m in South Africa. I have done my military service for the SADF but that was over 30 years ago. Currently I’m studying your Land Navigation and found it to be very comprehensive and accurate. Thank you. If you don’t know much about the South African political situation… We are days away from a election and those who have the knowledge ( formal high ranking SADF personnel) warns of a serious threat to safety. We ( family) are retreating to one of the last natural reserve in my country. Away from big cities and the anarchy, riots and violence. My question to you please??? As How do I find part 2 to 4 of your videos
Question at the 31:43 mark regarding cliffs. Let's say each contour line is 20 feet apart just like with all the prior examples. To make sure I'm reading it correctly, the first contour line is right at the top of the cliff and the second contour line that makes contact is the bottom. That would indicate 2 touching contour lines is a 20 foot tall cliff? And if 3 lines are touching, also indicating a cliff, that would be a 40 foot tall cliff?
I am halfway into the video and stopped at your recommendation to pause before you got into the declination breakdown portion. I have to say, this presentation is really great so far! Thank you for taking the time to do and share it. You've *really* helped my understanding grow. You may get into it during the second half, but now that clarity is ensuing, I am hoping to get information on established field exercises that progressively level up in safety. Say, from thoughtfully plotted to designed with 'limited disregard'. ☺️ I'm also going to teach this stuff to my boys so I am looking for doable practice scenarios for myself and them. I've tried looking up orienteering groups, but there are no obvious / findable ones in my area. Is there some phrase, program, or book I should be searching for online that can point me in that direction (i.e., to find the exercises, I have given up on the groups)?
I got confused, bc another video I watched, said to remember “rank promotions/demotions”, when figuring out the formula. G to M (General to Major) is a demotion. M to G (Major to General) is a promotion. That has me all discombobulated.
If you have scale 1:25000 remove two zeros then it says 250. 1cm on the map is then 250 meters in reality. it works the same regardless of scale, two zeros away and you get it in meters.
I noticed that under the declination it had a 1993 date and I know that the declination changes over time so I tried to look up the current decl. for that map and I could not get very exact. I had to sort of guess where to put a flag on the map on a website. It said currently it is 9º 4’. Now I have to find out what 9º 4’ minutes means.
WHY do you wish to go GN? does not one always want to go true north? If Im hiking and wish to go to a destination doe I not want to find the true north azmith and walk that? Not the GN. Isn't GN for military work or something? So If Im on the CDT shot an azmith of say 26 degrees. I am going to subtract the MN bearing (say tis 12 degrees) and come up with the bearing I should walk which would be 14 degrees. Would that not be right?
I have done a lot of land surveying using TN as my line of march with the MN being captured in the box on my compass. So I appreciate your question. One thing though that is not being discussed, is the year the map was published. The declination between TN and MN changes by a full degree approximately every 10 to 12 years,
Hey White Mexican Hikes. The simplest answer is understanding what you have to work with. If it's just a map and compass, then they only work with one time of "North". Compasses only "talk" in Magnetic North, it can't point to True North. Maps only "talk" in Grid North, because the grid lines run parallel forever. (If grid lines went to the north pole, they would slowly get closer and closer, on the map, as you head North or South from the Equator.). That is why you have to translate the "Norths" between each other. A Map can not tell you Magnetic North, unless you translate it to Magnetic North. In the end, you will be able to use the compass and map with what they both provide and what they don't. Hope this helps.
Sorry, but your math class went downhill really fast. The string idea is ok, but I’ve always used my map pen or ... my compass, or just draw a line on the map from A to B. Also, if you use map pens and a case, you can write directly on the clear surface or on the map if you laminate it, and you can get maps printed on ‘write in rain’ paper (waterproof). Or you can go old school and have it printed on silk. 🤓😎
