What's
What - The BlueDome guide to outdoor qualifications
Navigation
Without doubt the single most important skill for
all outdoor professionals. Here is some information on the current state
of avaialble navigation training in the UK
Land Navigation in the UK
This is another one of those areas that can cause confusion.
Firstly, there is no governing body to oversee the provision of navigation
training and standards for the UK land user. The sailors are covered
by the navigation training that is part of almost all RYA courses but
there is at present nothing for the walkers, cyclists, adventure racers,
climbers or outdoor group leaders.
The subject of navigation does have a mass of related
organisations up to the Royal Institute for Navigation but no one offers
a national ticket. All the major providers of outdoor qualifications
from the D of E to the MLTB provide an element of navigation training
but none of them have managed to provide the outdoor community with
a nationally accepted qualification.
The nearest thing to a national standard is the range
of training and accreditation provided by the National Navigation Award
Scheme. The scheme was founded by the late Peter Palmer who was a major
figure in UK and World Orienteering and one of my personal heroes.
Peter felt that orienteering training did not fully exploit
the skills required by hill walkers. The NNAS scheme is targeted at
providing a carefully staged series of levels from a simple range of
basic skills up to a very high level of mountain navigation training.
The current board of the NNAS is composed of people from
a wide range of related outdoor organisations - AALA, MLTB, commercial
providers and BOF. Hopefully they will steer the NNAS towards becoming
the National Governing body for this essential skill.
If you have any doubts about your skills in this area
then get in touch with the NNAS providers in our courses section and
seriously consider taking some training.
Marine Navigation
Sailing does not suffer from the same lack of recognised
qualifications that land navigation does. The Royal Yachting Association
has developed a range of training courses that will turn you into a
skilled navigator.
All RYA training takes into account your ability to use
charts, tide tables, plotting instruments and simple mathematics to
steer a safe course. Because of the serious nature of taking to the
seas the information provided to a navigator is aimed at the skipper
of a supertanker as well as the lesuire sailor.
Chart information is updated on a regular basis and the
charts themselves contain so much data that a seperate chart - chart
no' 5011 is actually a large A4 book of all the various symbols that
can appear on admiralty charts.
Navigation at sea brings into play elements which may
have little or no concern to the land based navigator. Tides rise and
fall, they are also under the effect of the winds and weather. Your
vessel will perform differently under varying types of sailing conditions
and you need to understand and apply corrections for all manner of magnetic
influences.
The best way to begin is to look at the current Day Skipper
courses both shore based and practical. Most providers will want you
to undertake both courses. The shore based can often be done at evening
class and is intensive in it's navigation and tidal sections. Once you
have passed this course you are ready to put it into action aboard a
boat.
Providers of bothshore based and practical training for
RYA courses can be found in our courses section.
GPS
Regardless of your area of activity you will find that
electronic navigation is becoming common. Once an expensive and not
too accurate toy the small, hand held GPS set is almost a 'must have'
item.
Not only will a modern GPS function in it's own right
as a stand alone unit it will 'talk' to other devices and greatly expand
it's value and uses. To match the development of cheap and reliable
GPS sets we have company's such as Memory Map providing us with fantastic
electronic versions of our familiar Ordnance Survey charts.
Put them all together and you have a system that can copy
routes from PC to GPS, or into a Palmtop device and back again. You
can email route data between friends and then print out copies for group
use.
I would not wish to be without my GPS but without a full
understanding of what a map and compass do it is of considerably less
value. Do your formal training first and always back up your travel
with a compass and an old fashioned map!
At present there are few formal training courses for GPS
users.
David Lynch - BlueDome
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