Navigating on Pacific Crossings and the Pilots B314

[Brian Smith]

Back when I flew FS2002, I purchased an add-on that was the Pilots Boeing B314. To navigate through the pacific islands, it had a gauge that followed AM radio broadcast station signals from the various locations. That seems like an idea for potentially navigating the Pacific if anyone can find an alter that gauge for FSX. No weather ships in the pacific. So other than a sextant and following AM broadcasts, how would they fly a B377 or a Connie in the Pacific. I know PanAm and TWA had post-war routes to HawIi. Anyone?

[Jacques]

Well, at a certain point, LORAN stations became more useful in the Pacific for navigation. I think navigation across the Pacific was always a mix of sun and/or star sights with a sextant, calculating wind drift with a driftmeter, and then adding in the other tools as they became available. I'm fairly certain there were weather ships is the Pacific, as well, just not as plentiful. What tools were available depends upon the timeline to which you are referring.

[DC3]

There were definitely weather ships in the Pacific. One was in the vicinity at the time a B377 went down on the way to Hawaii. I can't remember the name but I believe it might have been the Pontchartrain or something similar. (a quick search shows it was the Pontchartrain that did rescue survivors of a ditching on 16 October 1956 of a PanAm Clipper flight to Hawaii.)

[Brian Smith]

I wonder what we need to do to place weather ships in the pacific and use the gauge. Are they part of the gauge, or are they in a file we can edit?

[Jacques]

Brian,

Search the 377 forum for the weathership gauge created by Wothan (Finn). Downloaded it, unzip it, read the documentation and install it! Between the East coast of Japan, south of the Aleutians and the West coast of the US there are Nine weatherships. A further 14 are situated i the Atlantic. You do need to read the documentation that is included.

[wothan]

Brian,

Search the 377 forum for the weathership gauge created by Wothan (Finn). Downloaded it, unzip it, read the documentation and install it! Between the East coast of Japan, south of the Aleutians and the West coast of the US there are Nine weatherships. A further 14 are situated i the Atlantic. You do need to read the documentation that is included.

Link for the Weather Ship Radio gauge is in this thread: http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 33&t=57235

In the install guide there is also the necessary entries for it´s use in the PMDG DC-6B.

[paradoxbox]

I am not sure if you're interested in doing this, but why not try making a star-course?

Using the method of ancient pacific island navigation, all you need to do is pick out stars on a specific heading at the horizon (be that the ground or the cloud horizon, but you have to know the altitude at which the star sets). Since stars always set at the same point on the horizon, and always rise at the same point, they are like a kind of GPS you can use to navigate.

Use a star that points to your island to steer, and when it sets, hold your heading until another star sets in the same location. If you are clever, you can use software or math to find the next star that will tell you the next star that's going to set at a certain location on the horizon at a given position on the planet. If you know the star-course already (From a book or the internet, or your own calculation) you can follow it forever, it will never change, the stars will just set 4 minutes earlier the next day. You can follow the course in reverse too.

I have managed to navigate from Tokyo to Guam and the Philippines in the B377 many times using nothing but this method. It is especially effective if you have radio navigation aids available because then you can get a little lax in your headings and still hit the right target. With no navaids, you have to be strict about calculating your crosswind drift etc.

Check out a book called "We the Navigators" on amazon if this kind of thing interests you. It is an account of the ancient sailors who did this in canoes, but the principles can be applied to aviation just as easily. I would say it's even easier in the air because you can get above the clouds and never have your stars blocked.