Comet Real World Navigation question

[Macs]

I found this video on Youtube, and the narrator mentions that the naviagator calculations must be "bang-on", since it is so fast a plane. I am curious now as to what navigation techniques were used for these planes back then? There were most probably few to none VOR's or even NDB's around most places in those days,. not to mention flight into third world countries... :think:
I would like to try one flight using these techniques...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xypEPhX_dzU

regards,
Macs

[DispatchDragon]

Macs

See the seat behind and to the left of the Captains seat on Davids Comet VC? That was originally a navigators
position - and there should be directly in front of the flightdeck door in the roof a fitting for a perismatic
sextant - They used Celestial navigation - somewhere at Avsim or All nodes there is a little add-on that
will allow you to navigate using celestial sights, To late and too tired to remember what the file is called
but someone will tell you.


Leif

[Macs]

Cool. Thanks Leif.
regards,
Macs

[MALTBY D]

It's a bit before my Comet's time that film.
As well as a sextant, they could also get a fix from different radio sources. I believe that in some cases civilian radio stations could be more use than the navaids. And of course they would also be looking for landmarks.
The navigator would have it all plotted out on a map, using ground speed, heading & expected drift. A position fix from any source would be used to correct the estimated position & help work out a better drift component etc.

DM

[johnhinson]

[quote="Macs"]I found this video on Youtube, and the narrator mentions that the naviagator calculations must be "bang-on", since it is so fast a plane. I am curious now as to what navigation techniques were used for these planes back then? There were most probably few to none VOR's or even NDB's around most places in those days,. not to mention flight into third world countries... :think:
I would like to try one flight using these techniques...
[/quote]

Perhaps, if you believe his saying it arrived at Rome Ciampino at 490 mph!

Tasty pair of films, thanks. My uncle lost his specs over those falls.

John

[cstorey]

Actually, by the time the Comet 4 arrived, VOR was the standard navaid, and virtually all overland navigation was performed using VOR+ NDBs. It was only on long overwater sectors ( or some very sparsely populated areas such as the Sahara) that astral navigation was needed. The sextant remained in use for such purposes on the VC10 and 707 fleets until the advent of INS with the introduction of the 747 in 1970, and even after retrofitting the older aircraft retained the periscope in case of failure

[Macs]

Thanks to all for your great input. In fact I have the little bubble sextant add-on for FS and would like to try a flight using it with the Comet ("old school" ). The problem I'm facing now is acquiring navigation plotting charts for the intended route; It looks like I may have to make them myself as real ones seem pretty hard to get, but have no idea how I would go about it (maybe Super Flight Planner?) . There is actually a number of other problems I've found for the FS pilot, but may find a way around them. I am actually not sure what route I'd like to fly either, but am sure that it should be a real one flown by the Comet outside of mainland Europe or America. Any ideas?



regards,
Macs

[MALTBY D]

Not sure how much help it will be, but we have Comet routes that we fly with the CBFS VA on this page.
Select 'COMT' as aircraft type, choose an airport and click 'Display'.
http://www.cbfsim.org/cbfsim/g-cbfs/CBF ... ES_SQL.php

I was on my way to Australia in a Comet when FlyNet (our VA service) collapsed in a heap. I only made it as far as Singapore.

DM

[Macs]

Thanks Dave, I may try one of the Virtual Airline routes
regards,
Macs