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Thank you EV. Only learned from the best!

Thank you!

That's so awesome! I definitely admire flying mathematicians like you who've done this in real life!--especially since you had to know where to point your "periscope" in the first place (unlike the app). Though not nearly as hard, (and something I didn't explain in the video); the app does actually require you to maintain the bubble level next to the star--moving the scope in elevation angle as the star "drifts" upward or downward)--which is a nice added feature by Electron Volt; and makes it hard to look around outside the cockpit while taking the shot at the same time. I don't suppose you had access to a spreadsheet either, in order to help with such things as "motion of observer" and "motion of body" and refraction calcs. I found trying to interpolate that information from tables to be rather frustrating and time consuming.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to MSFS2024 too.

Glad this subject interests you. I learned everything from "ElectronVolt". Even if you don't have flight simulator, you can download his zipped file which comes with a PDF tutorial that guides you through the process here: flightsim.to/file/17738/celnav-for-msfs-celestial-navigation-sextant He also has a discord server, that you can find linked to from that PDF as well. He's very knowledgeable and helpful with any questions you might have there.

Yes, you can find it on flightsim.to flightsim.to/file/13745/strawberry-ridge-airfield

@@SkyborneVisions thanks, haven’t tried it yet but I found it!

Thank you! That recent sonar image by Deep Sea Vision? I have my doubts. I'm not sure where they found it. Some sources say roughly 100 miles west of Howland Island. Others say near the Marshall Islands which seems ridiculously far off course. Thanks to WW2, there are a lot of aircraft on the seafloor (though perhaps not as many near Howland), and it's probably just a rock formation, but will be interesting to see what they find. I think the International Date Line theory has no bearing at all. You only ever use Zulu time (which was around back then), when referencing tables. In any case your position east or west of the IDL, has no bearing on your calculations, nor tables used. The only IDL "phenomenon" which I mentioned in the video was that you get to land in Howland "before" (local time) you take off from Lae (local time). Crossing the anti-meridian [not IDL] (from the East to Western Hemisphere) may have caused a problem, if Noonan forgot to use MINUS for longitude AFTER crossing the 180 degree meridian. I may look into that and see what a possible error that may provide. The main issue I have with that theory is that Noonan would have to repeat that mistake more than once (like selecting his Assumed Position); where your LHA will not result in an integer, when out of "phase", but I'd assume that is something he would have been well aware of, being considered one of the best navigators of the time, and would have been a primary focus of his when initially planning the flight. I think the most likely (and final) reason (in a long chain of bad decisions that were made) was that they had low overcast skies most of the flight. Flying below the low overcast when getting near Howland could have made it impossible to see the tiny flat island beyond a "shorter" horizon (due to the low altitude). Even with plotting a "perfectly executed" fix above the clouds prior to descent, the "normal" tolerances (accuracy) of aerial celestial navigation is still +/- several miles. They planned to use the Coast Guard's radio as an NDB, (a necessary component for this specific unique destination in my opinion); but some speculate that the ADF they had on board couldn't tune to the lower frequency used by the ship (though my memory isn't clear).

Thank you!

Thank you! No I'm not using VR. I've not invested in the equipment--yet. But for making videos, I think VR recording doesn't look very good. I just use TrackIR that amplifies my head movements, by using an IR camera to monitor 3 reflectors on a ball cap I wear. There are other headtrackers out there for use with 2D monitors like Tobii (which does eye tracking as well), and some apps like SmoothTrack make use of your smartphone's accelerometers to track your head movement too. I haven't tried any of these though.

Haha... yes their hospitality is out of this world.

Yes, it's very annoying. Your comment just prompted me to look into this, and sure enough there's a Circuit Breaker to disable it! Thanks! Ha. Not sure why I didn't even look to see if it was modeled before.

I wondered if anyone would notice... 😜 I got a strike on this channel (and shadowbanned) thanks to his allies; so just giving them the finger in a subtle way.

The aerial navigators of that era were truly an exceptional breed.

the tablet in the DC-6 cockpit didn't have GPS... but yeah, there's other virtual ways to effectively use GPS in the simulator regardless of the aircraft. But for the challenge, I avoided accessing any of that information during the flight. Hence all the dumb mistakes I made... 😬

@@SkyborneVisions it was the no gps and the playback which made the video. You inspired me to get my own msFlight stimulator. Ps, I fly a220 IRL, all the bells and whistles, so it’s a kick to go back in time.

@@tonymcflattie2450 Awesome you're an A220 pilot! The biggest plane I was ever PIC for, was a Baron 55, 30 years ago. Definitely get yourself MSFS. Just wish someone would model a virtual sextant that would require aiming at the right star.

Thanks. Interesting suggestion: I just tested in the sim by slewing 13nm away (the distance I was in the video when I caught sight of the island from 12,000') at 1,000 feet. The only thing visible is the cruise ship (barely visible rendered as white dot). The cruise ship is much larger than the USS Itasca, so doubt I would have seen a ship that size from that distance. Plus the island itself isn't visible from that low angle.

Thank you! FWIW, the Bobblehead comes with the plane, but definitely helps with the silliness.

Yes, took off from Strawberry Ridge.

Wtf

Yes, I regret not having more time to photograph the area. Sounds like you have some great memories living there!

Yes, this really makes one appreciate just how difficult and how much skill was required being a celestial navigator in a relatively fast moving aircraft was; before LORAN. I can't imagine the stress involved with doing so much math (without a calculator or spreadsheet) in a timely fashion. Yes, I'm surprised at all the features LNM has, compared to pretty much anything else out there, and it's FREE!

Can you explain with a little bit more detail, how you measured the winds at 15:10 ? You mention turning the aircraft by a certain amount of degrees for a certain amount of time and then waiting another set amount to take the measurement; what are you measuring here exactly? And how can I replicate this with the dc6

@@pacitoman9721 So, instead of trying to turn exactly 45 degrees off course, I decided to use the constant 4 minute turn rate (the time it takes to make a full 360 degree turn) of the autopilot for 30 seconds. I found this easier, then trying to chase a specific heading; especially to minimize the time flying off-course. I would then roll the plane with the autopilot the opposite direction for a full minute in order to head back to the course line. Each time the autopilot would roll wings level, I'd then write down the actual heading I was flying, and use that with my wind drift reading. I used the Driftmeter (created by ElectronVolt at flightsim.to/file/19402/simple-driftmeter-for-msfs ) It's not very accurate over water, and in retrospect I think it caused more confusion than it was worth (though I also made a silly mistake with my calculations too; as I detailed in the video at the end). But it basically measures your drift angle. So, once you've stabilized after a turn (flying a consistent airspeed in level flight); you can use ElectonVolt's app that simply takes a snapshot, and records the angle of drift (crab angle) relative to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. This crab angle (left or right) compared to your actual heading is then plotted to determine the wind vector. The real wind drift meters were basically like bombsights, where the operator would rotate the scope to align crosshairs with the apparent motion over the ground. The angle between the crosshairs and line (aligned with longitudinal axis of aircraft), would be your crab angle.

@@SkyborneVisions Hey thanks for taking the time to explain. It took me about a week on and off to understand almost everything but the landfall procedure. At 23:55 you show the filled up values for the calculated Hc at the 12 min intervals. I get the values for Hc at the 1hr intervals or half hour intervals, with the correction tables. But where do you get the values for the 12 min intervals to make a straight line for the sun at the destination? My blue line has only 2-3 points; the Hc values for the hour or half hour precalculated ones. How do I get the 12 min or any other min interval values? Do I use the motion of body tables to correct the degrees? Or do I need to find the LHA and declination for every 12 mins from the correction tables and calculate the Hc that way (that seems like a lot of work)

@@pacitoman9721 Good questions. As you suggested, you can get the values for Hc at 12 minute intervals by using the "Increments and Corrections" table (like you would for 30 minutes). Notice, however, that for every +4 minutes, the correction is exactly +1 degree? So, for 12 minutes, that's simply adding 3 degrees to your LHA (no need to recalculate from your GHA). Yes, it's still a LOT of work, and something I could never do on-the-fly WITHOUT a calculator or spreadsheet (at least as an inexperienced virtual navigator). The aerial navigators of 80 years ago were definitely cut from a different cloth! In reality they might not have calculated as many points; or done the calcs before the flight and hoped their ETA didn't vary by more than hour or whatever window they gave themselves. I personally set up a spreadsheet using the formula given on page 5 of the Sun Almanac, another formula I found for refraction error, and another formula for density altitude, and using some logic parameters (referenced in the tables) that will spit out an Hc for me, simply by inputting Ap Latitude, LHA, and Declination. When it comes to the landfall plotting, the only values of input that change is the LHA. Well, declination can change somewhat, but usually not more than a minute in an hour. You can look up the declination for the top of each hour, then interpolate as necessary.