Lyle Brotherton, navigator extraordinaire and author of The Ultimate Navigation Manual demonstrates how to use pacing and your personal pace count to gauge distance in the field, particularly at night or when visibility is poor.
Hello Lyle, What a great series of videos you make for a simple guy like me, interested in navigation. However I have a question. In this video you established your pace count on a hard and level surface road, but what if you walk uphill or downhill or on soft surfaces like snow and mud? How do you adjust your pace count for that? Greetings Evert
This entire video is theoretical... What month you walk on that blacktop road will change your pace. In August when it's hottest, you will need to carry more water (weight) than you do in March, therefore you will go slower.
Hi Evert, thanks for the feedback on our videos and sorry for the delay in replying! Pace counting is just one tool you can use. The other is timing and by using either or a combination of both and with practice you can become proficient. We've created a timing tool which you might find interesting and we are in the process of setting up our own RU-vid channel with a load of new videos in the process of being filmed so please subscribe (click on our logo to visit our channel). Our first video should be coming in the next couple of weeks. shavenraspberry.com/shop/navigation-aids/navigators-timing-card/
I’m in America. So if you’re saying that 300 paces is about 500m, that means 1000 paces is about 1,666m, which is 1.03 miles. So 1000 paces is damn near exactly a mile. Miles are better. It’s based on a natural human pace. America wins. And you’re a slightly bigger guy, so an average guy would hit a mile on the dot at 1000 paces.
Miles are from the roman _mille passuum_ (thousand paces) so yes Roman wins. And five feet to the pace of course that's 5000 to the mile Except it's how many feet to the mile in the US?
The only issue I see with this method is that the distance you obtain by scaling off such a small-scale map can be quite innacurate, particularly if the ground slopes considerably. These days it'd be a lot better to use a GPS GIS like Google Earth, Etc. to measure the distance before pacing it.
No technique worked for me in the heavy bush of Georgia. Slowed down too much from crawling, hacking, sneaking, cursing through that serious undergrowth. :P
