Book feedback

[dave]

 I have had the book a couple of weeks and i am just going through the basics section again and again just to reiniforce my learning.I intend to get out and practice next week and then i will start to look at the other sections in more detail has i am a GPS virgin apart from getting a grid ref from my etrex.I am finding the book hard to put down and the expert tips are excellent and add to the learning process.I view the book already as a reference book i will refer to on a regular basis and do feel it should be given a wide audience via some endorsement by the National training centres like Glenmore lodge who run courses.I am unsure what they use at the moment and the book has relighted my interest not only in getting from A to B on the hill but doing it using the range of skills Lyle describes.

A great book from a man who i assume never gets lost and i would hate to have to navigate a leg with him on my shoulder Further i know Jen well who is in the book too and helped train her dog Hamish when she was with SARDA Southern as a body and now i have a dog to train myself!.Dave

[Lyle Brotherton]

Hi Dave and welcome back Pete, 'feel good' feedback you both posted made me feel good as I get over my man-flu -thank you

1. Yes I do get lost, more than I admit to
2. Yes I am a nightmare to navigate with but probably not for the reasons you might suspect:  as soon as somebody else volunteers to do it, I completely switch off.

1. The Rainforest trip referred to (P UNM) after which I got lost was a classic. It had taken nearly a month to lead a specialist air accident investigation team to the site of an air crash, using primarily aerial photography and map & compass techniques, it was probably the most difficult trip I have made navigationally. Some days we only averaged a total of 8km travel due to the dense undergrowth, flooding and darkness created by forests heavy canopy.

I came home wrecked, with a skin fungal infection that took a year to clear and the remnants of a burrowing ant still beneath the skin on my shoulder.

Overjoyed to see Judy, we drove over to St Mary’s Loch for a ‘wee stroll’ to be completed with a visit to the then brilliant Glen Cafe, run by Ian and Barbra (ex Kendall MRT). 

It was a bright, crisp December day and we walked for miles and miles, talking and catching up, until we realised sunset was closing in and we were lost, genuinely lost, in that yes we knew which range of hills we were on but had no idea whatsoever which hill. Judy is a brilliant navigator, like most women she can multi-task, but on this occasion we both assumed the other was navigating.

It took is 20 minutes to confirm our location after we made all of the classic mistakes: making the map fit the environment, thinking our compasses were bust and heading off on a hunch. 

2. On another hike, with the same wonderful woman, Judy agreed to navigate. Like most of our walks they are quite long (circa 25km) and also in common with most of our walks tea and cakes at the end motivates me. It was getting late when I said to Judy, not far now, the cars is just over the other side of that hill, yep, you are ahead of me, wrong hill and worse still we had driven over in my old Land-Rover, not our car!


L a c k  o f  C o n c e n t r a t i o n  k i l l s  n a v i g a t i o n !

[Callum]

The organisation I work for is a charity and our Patron is a member of the Royal Family.

He, to his credit, takes a very active interest in our work and on one occasion had asked if he could join a group of youngsters we were working with that day in the forests.

I was leading the party and frankly a bit overwhelmed by his presence, for reasons that I still can’t think of to this day, I got lost! Total respect to the guy, he could see that I was struggling with the map and politely asked if I would let him navigate for a while.

I think you are right Lyle: Concentration!

[Egg]

Excellent review of the UNM in the February issue of TGO mag by John Chivall. (johnchivall.co.uk)
He starts of by saying that the title and cover were off putting and that he was expecting a rehash of basic techniques by yet another wannabe SAS type.

However, he goes on to say, "UNM is the most comprehensive, clear and detailed navigation reference I have ever seen."

After detailing the various sections he signs off with. " This is an excellent reference for all navigators, both amateur and professional, and I recommend it highly."
And tagged right on the end is a plug for this site and its contents. 

[Lyle Brotherton]

Missed this one Bob, thanks for flagging it up, will go into WH Smiths today and grab a copy!

There are five big articles to be published soon

In three instances the magazines have asked that I do not reveal the details until the articles are published. It appears that competition is fierce in the specialist magazine world and since scoops are rare the angle taken on a story becomes central.

• Mountain Rescue Magazine is the excellent quarterly that is distributed to all MR Teams in England and Wales and this month, in addition to a great review, I have written an article about a specialist navigational technique adapted for mountain rescue.
• CasBag, the Scottish equivalent of the aforementioned Mountain Rescue Magazine, I am informed have a good review of the book this month too.
• This month I am spending a couple of days with a journalist and photographer from a very well known countryside magazine navigating in the Southern Uplands.
• Another well known outdoors magazine have asked me to write a special series of articles, with an unusual perspective, to be published over several consecutive months
• Lastly I am also featured in a Land-Rover enthusiast’s magazine in another story with a different take in a six page feature.

Immediately these articles are published I will post copies on this site.

The TV production company who approached me last year are keen to progress their idea with a view to start filming later this year.

Lastly, two BBC TV programs are still discussing features with me for this Spring.

I have also updated this information in the Publicity sticky in the General Discussion section.

[Alan Breck]

Any idea Lyle where one could purchase one & two.

Good news on the book front. Got to be aDVD out next surely or perhaps a novel perchance?

[GrahamC]

Firstly - easily the best land navigation book, justly deserves the term Manual.

On MVAR, I was taught aviation navigation and the term declanation was not used, instead it was called magnetic variation, MVar.  Maybe air based forces use this as a distinguishing feature? It was noted that aviators were superior to all others and by using the term variation you would be recognised as one of the "club"!!!

 I am now a boaty person - probably the lowest of the low (sea level!)

Graham

[Skills4Survival]

Question about page 118 of the manual (sighting compass). Why is in step 1 the bezel rotated to 270 degrees? I must be missing something.