New Weathership gauge V1.3 now also with land based HF stations

[Wothan 173]

I have uploaded a new version of my Wearhership radio gauge that now also includes land based HF radiostations:

Prestwick, Scotland

Shannon, Ireland

Foynes, Ireland

Lisboa, Portugal

Azores, Portugal

Bermuda, UK

Gander, New Foundland

New York, USA

Alameda, USA (San Fransisco Bay

Anchorage, USA

Honolulu, USA

Midway, USA

Wake Island, USA

Guam, USA

Manila, Philipines

 

Download link can be found here:

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=133&t=57235

 

NOTE !!

If You use my previous versions, then read the install guide and update the Panel.cg accordingly.

Install guide describes the installation for the PMDG DC-6B, A2A, L049 Constellation and A2A B377 Startocruiser, but can be used in all kind of aircraft, if desired.

 

Best regards

Finn Jacobsen

[cavaricooper 2,614]

Finn-

I have bookmarked this and plan to try it out soon.  THANK-YOU FOR THIS!  I enjoyed the return to sextant navigation earlier, and keep developing a deeper appreciation for the pilots of yesteryear.  They were able to do so much, with so little.

Ta!

C

[Wothan 173]

You can use theBubble Sextant in combination with the Weathership/HF gauge, either as supplement, or when out range of the Weatherships / HF stations.

Here is my describtion on how You can get Your position if not overflying a Weathership, but having it pasing You to one of the sides:

 

A less precise methode to find Your position, is if You know Your ground speed and having the Weathership to one of Your sides, but You must know to what side the Weathership is.

-Take Your first bearing to a Weathership and notice the time when You did so.
A good starting point could be when the loop antenna is at 10 or 2 o'clock.

-Note Your course.

-After f.ex 15 mins, take the next bearing to the same Weathership.
Ensure that if the starting point was at 10 o'clcok then the loop antennes bearing must go counterclockwise, and if the starting point was at 2 o'clock is should go clockwise.
Otherwise Your assumed Weathership position is wrong and You most probably have found the "fake" 180° bearing.

-Calculate the distance over ground You flew in those 15 mins.

-Draw the two bearings from the known position of the Weathership with a ruler.

-Now place the ruler so it intersects the two bearing lines and aligned with Your course.

-Find where the distance between the two bearing lines equals the distance over ground that You calculated.

-Now You can see Your appriximate position and course You flew when You took the measurements.


Not deadly accurate, but still accurate enough to do the job.
In rare occasions You might be able to tune two Weatherships and do the cross-reference, which is more accurate.
If taking two bearings to those two stations, You can get Your position and course by drawing a line between those two cross-references.

 

Finn Jacobsen

[Bachian 10]

@Wothan, you did an excelent job!

I'm panning a transoceanic flight with the DC-6B, crossing the Atlantic from Noronha (SBFN) to Nelson Mandela Intl (GVNP) in the Cape Verde islands. It will be a very challenging flight, since I'm willing to use only convetional navigation from the 60's.

Wearhership stations seems to be a very good aid for this flight, but as I saw in your KMZ file, they are only located on the north hemisphere. Do you know if there were any Wearhership available in this part of the atlantic?

 

[Wothan 173]

1 hour ago, Bachian said:

@Wothan, you did an excelent job!

I'm panning a transoceanic flight with the DC-6B, crossing the Atlantic from Noronha (SBFN) to Nelson Mandela Intl (GVNP) in the Cape Verde islands. It will be a very challenging flight, since I'm willing to use only convetional navigation from the 60's.

Wearhership stations seems to be a very good aid for this flight, but as I saw in your KMZ file, they are only located on the north hemisphere. Do you know if there were any Wearhership available in this part of the atlantic?

 

As far as I have been able to find, they mostly - or maybe even exclusivly where used in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, since they where run by countries adjacent to the North Atlantic.

Here is an article from 1977 about the Weatherships history: http://www.weatherships.co.uk/images/Docs/Doc25.pdf

Here is an article from 1948: http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/6th-february-1948/10/ocean-weather-ships

And one from 1956: https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V51/V51_N04/V51_N04_P152_156_A028.pdf

 

It has been difficult to find detailed describtions on how the Weatheships whee used for trans oceanic flights, but my Weathership gauge should reflect this to a certain realism. F.eks the radio beacons are only transmitting 5 mins and the pauses for 10 mins. The reason for this was to prevent other ships from homing in on them blindly causing collisions.

The Huff DUff part of my Weathership gauge (the Landbased HF stations) are less realistic. I don´t have any precise positions for them, neither the right frequencies. As StearmanDriver also has explained on the A2A forum, the way they where used where opposit of how my gauge work. Instead of having a loop antenna on the aircraft, the radio station had a loop antenna instead. Aircraf would call the station and the station would give back the bearing from their loop antenna to the aircraft.

Later on loop antennans on the aircraft could be used to find bearings to commercial radio stations, though not as accurate as we know it from NDB's and VOR's.

 

So my Gauge actually try to cover two periods - Pre WW2 with the HF stations and the time during and after WW2 with the Weatherships, while I still think some kind of landbased radio beacons aka the HF stations must have existed also during and after the war, supplementing the Weatherships and other navigational means.

 

[Bachian 10]

6 minutes ago, Wothan said:

As far as I have been able to find, they mostly - or maybe even exclusivly where used in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, since they where run by countries adjacent to the North Atlantic.

Here is an article from 1977 about the Weatherships history: http://www.weatherships.co.uk/images/Docs/Doc25.pdf

Here is an article from 1948: http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/6th-february-1948/10/ocean-weather-ships

And one from 1956: https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V51/V51_N04/V51_N04_P152_156_A028.pdf

 

Thanks for the articles Finn!

[Wothan 173]

9 minutes ago, Bachian said:

Thanks for the articles Finn!

 

Please re-read my post - I have updated it after Your reply :)

[Bachian 10]

Thanks Finn. My challenge is to find a good way to cross the South Atlantic. All Weatherships seems to be located in the north Atlantic so I need to find another solution. Maybe a sextant like this one.

Here I found very good material about dead reckoning techniques, as well as celestial navigation and sextant use:

http://aafcollection.info/items/detail.php?key=198

[Wothan 173]

On 31/1/2018 at 5:37 PM, Bachian said:

Thanks Finn. My challenge is to find a good way to cross the South Atlantic. All Weatherships seems to be located in the north Atlantic so I need to find another solution. Maybe a sextant like this one.

Here I found very good material about dead reckoning techniques, as well as celestial navigation and sextant use:

http://aafcollection.info/items/detail.php?key=198

I use the Sextant too supplementing my gauge or vice versa.

Reading the manual carefully, and You will find that the Sextant isn´t that hard to use.

[randomTOTEN 13]

On 1/31/2018 at 11:37 AM, Bachian said:

Here I found very good material about dead reckoning techniques, as well as celestial navigation and sextant use:

This is also well explained in the FAA Flight Navigator Handbook, which can be downloaded for free.
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/FAA-H-8083-18.pdf

Robert Toten

[Bachian 10]

5 hours ago, randomTOTEN said:

This is also well explained in the FAA Flight Navigator Handbook, which can be downloaded for free.
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/FAA-H-8083-18.pdf

Robert Toten

Thanks Robert!

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Finn,

This is a magnificently geeky and cool idea.

I shall try it at my first opportunity!