Flyzolo Team Update - Day 96
Zara is still stuck in #Ayan, #Russia. We hoped for yesterday, but it did not happen. Next weather window is probably Friday... She is using her waiting time to enter university-applications.

Meanwhile, how about a little series on Navigation?

So, how does a pilot know where she/he 😜 is, but also, where she/he needs to go?

Originally, long before cockpit instruments, radio, GPS or satellite systems 🛰, pilots were navigating by sight only. 👀 They were following roads, train tracks, and easily recognisable structures or natural features such as rivers and mountains... 🛕🏔 Gravity and a set of keys 🗝 dangling off the dashboard, were sometimes used to indicated if the plane was "straight & level". With no airports around, a low flight may have been required to shoo off a bunch of cows or sheep 🐂🐑 before landing in a field. It actually still happens today on some African dirt strips or Scottish private airfields ;-).

Later, pilots 👮‍♀️ would use a compass, map and timer ⏱⌛️📜 to allow for dead-reckoning. Dead what 😅😂? Dead-reckoning. It's basically an estimation method of one's position based on an earlier known position and taking in account one's heading and speed. Whilst it can give a good indication, it is subject to significant errors of approximation as it does not account for drift i.e. from a side-wind 🌬. These errors tend to compound themselves over greater distances, making dead reckoning a difficult method of navigation for longer journeys. 🤯🤓😬😅

During their "Flight of the Rodina » ✈️ from Moskow to the Far Eastern Siberian borders in September 1938, it was thanks to dead-reckoning that Marina Raskova was able to roughly locate a position on their meager charts before they crashed nearby Ayan (see earlier post).