Author Topic: Hello from the Forest  (Read 4173 times)

Confused

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Hello from the Forest
« on: December 26, 2015, 06:35:45 PM »
Hi all.

Blimey....a 50 thou map is a shock when you have been out of this for years.  My last intimacy with map and compass was in my Regt orienteering team in the 90s...we won...scary.  I still have a knackered old thumb compass.  That and  bit of air nav (Gliders and the occasional LH seat) and my day job (AAC) and that was it.

Satnav.....Trimpacks in the gulf, kept going ga ga and I have never trusted them since....apart from the one I have for work which I found in a bin....works fine for ambling round Hampshire and saves reading a road map but otherwise, still a dinosaur.

Why am I here?  Well I wont be going round the beacons any time soon (although a mate threatened to drag me out on something silly but I am a KOS now who feels pleased if he runs a few hundred yards) but I have joined the ACF as a CFAV, so I thought I had better get with the program and at least make sure someone can use a compass.

I have started pawing through Mr Bs Book (least I did until a colleague nicked it....arggghhhh...) and pottering round the forest, loving it, learning to trust the compass and map (even if the tracks are missing...doh) and getting very muddy.

So standby for some very silly questions.  That said I was amazed at what Cadets don't learn so if I can make this subject interesting when I have to teach it, and it sticks, or I avoid going 10k out of my way with a bunch of trashed kids,,,job jobbed and thanks.

Cheers

Maggot

Lost Soul

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Re: Hello from the Forest
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2015, 07:14:31 PM »
Welcome to a very useful, polite, helpful and friendly forum.  Its been a bit slow of late but there are many useful threads with lots of very good information.  Si if you don't get an immediate answer to your question you might want to check out some of the earlier threads.

Lost Soul

Confused

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Re: Hello from the Forest
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2015, 09:26:30 AM »
Thanks

My next stop was the questions part LS.  I do a lot of shooting (Competitive) and it can get a bit repetitive answering the same questions ad nauseam.  That said, people do understand things in different ways.  What clicks instantly for some wont for others.

To be fair, what drove me in part to the ACF was the number of despondent youngsters I have had to "Re Orientate" while they were out map reading and lost (ish) while I was on my local patch.  I felt for them.

Having now been over that area with a 50 thou I know why they got lost easily, I had to keep re affirming hand rails and orientation just to be sure I was in the right area.  It is heavily walked and forest managed, so a lot of the seemingly major rides/tracks don't appear on the 50 thou.....Thank god there is a ruddy great railway running through it!! must try harder Maggot!!

My big grey area has always been clarity in GM variation, its a must to understand fully IMHO, whether its needed or not.

Oh well, here goes

Lost Soul

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Re: Hello from the Forest
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2015, 10:02:38 AM »
Do you have to use 50K?  25K is, I am sure you know, significantly more detailed and hence much better for on foot activities.

ianj37

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Re: Hello from the Forest
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2015, 07:08:16 PM »
Welcome Confused.

 I agree with Lost Soul that 1:25k is the map to aim for. As a bit of fun you might also want to have a look at http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm - Where's the Path - it only uses OS 1:50k maps (used to have 1:25k but I guess OS must have stopped that) but you can put a section of OS map next to a satellite view of the same area and, even better, the cursor shows the same location on both maps.

Ian

Confused

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Re: Hello from the Forest
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2015, 08:58:44 PM »
I cant disagree chaps, but all the work the cadets seem to do looks based on 50 thou.  I use 25 for my stuff with wifey etc, either sheet maps or sections from the OS site, but I need to get used to the 50 thou maps again as it looks like that will be the bread and butter from now on.

We will see, but it seems to work....mostly.  It wont do me any harm anyway.  Its a question I had better clarify I guess.

It makes me laugh as it goes.  I remember my first attempt with an orienteering map in 1982 (JLRRA on Cannock chase).  I spent ages trying to find this lake.....turns out it was a soggy patch and I was standing in it....I leaned about scale from that!!