Navigation Course - Midlands

Lynda wrote

Quoted message said:

Looking at the internet, the National Navigation Award Scheme looks
like a possibility. Does anyone differ in this opinion - if so what
would you recommend? Also, does anyone have any particular
course/tutor they would recommend? I live in Nottingham and obviously
would be prepared to travel.

Lynda

White Hall near Buxton fits your bill.

http://www.derbyshiresport.co.uk/sport-in-your-area/high-peak/facilities/white-hall-centre

Chris

Lynda said:

Looking at the internet, the National Navigation Award Scheme looks
like a possibility. Does anyone differ in this opinion - if so what
would you recommend?

Not familiar with the NNA scheme so no comment on how good or otherwise
it is, but I would recommend some orienteering to get your navigation
work up to speed. http://noc-uk.org/ looks like it's probably your
nearest club. Judging from an article not too long back in Scottish
Mountaineer, the MC of S seem to agree with the above assessment in the
usefullness of orienteering for navigation training and practice.

You set your own pace so no need to worry about the other folk running
the courses. There will be folk to lend a hand when/if you need it and
you'll have a selection of courses with graded navigation difficulty to
work your way up. IME a typical orienteer will be generally better at
map-work than a typical hill walker, because you *must* use the map for
pretty much the whole time when orienteering and the more difficult
courses require you to eke everything you can from the map.

If you've not done any reading yet, "Mountain Navigation" by Peter Cliff
is something of a standard text.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Lynda said:

Hi

I am fairly new to wallking. I would like to take a course to give me
at least basic navigation skills so that I can enjoy walks safe in the
knowledge I can read a map and compass, know where I am, where I've
been and where I want to be!

Looking at the internet, the National Navigation Award Scheme looks
like a possibility. Does anyone differ in this opinion - if so what
would you recommend? Also, does anyone have any particular
course/tutor they would recommend? I live in Nottingham and obviously
would be prepared to travel.

Many thanks

Lynda

Why a course? It's easy enough to teach yourself. These downloads will
get you started.

http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/shop/Map-Reading-Made-Easy-p-8199.html

Just get out there and start using a map.

Rod said:

Lynda said:

Hi

Quoted message said:

I am fairly new to wallking. I would like to take a course to give me
at least basic navigation skills so that I can enjoy walks safe in the
knowledge I can read a map and compass, know where I am, where I've
been and where I want to be!

Quoted message said:

Looking at the internet, the National Navigation Award Scheme looks
like a possibility. Does anyone differ in this opinion - if so what
would you recommend? Also, does anyone have any particular
course/tutor they would recommend? I live in Nottingham and obviously
would be prepared to travel.

Quoted message said:

Many thanks

Quoted message said:

Lynda

Just get out there and start using a map

That's what I did BUT that's not to say it's the best way!

David.
--
Last fell: Glaramara
Nuttalls 219/441 49.7% Wainwrights 200/214 93.5%
Non-Scottish Marilyns 170/340 50%
http://www.fenrunfellwalk.co.uk

214Fells wrote

Quoted message said:

That's what I did BUT that's not to say it's the best way!

We all have our preferred learning styles. Most people
like to be shown how to do things. A smaller number learn
best on thier own.

Chris

Chris Gilbert said:

214Fells wrote

Quoted message said:

That's what I did BUT that's not to say it's the best way!

We all have our preferred learning styles. Most people
like to be shown how to do things. A smaller number learn
best on thier own.

Quite so: what is particularly important however you learn is *practice*
to consolidate and improve. My suggestion of Orienteering is made in
part because it requires concentrated use of the map to find things you
might not have looked for setting your own agenda: in short, it forces
you to get lots of practice, whether self taught or tutored.

Another point is it underlines the importance of planning a route. Too
many people seem to think navigation stops at knowing where you are,
ignoring the aspect of how best to get where you're going.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

Chris Gilbert said:

214Fells wrote

Quoted message said:

That's what I did BUT that's not to say it's the best way!

We all have our preferred learning styles. Most people
like to be shown how to do things. A smaller number learn
best on thier own.

Quoted message said:

Quite so: what is particularly important however you learn is *practice*
to consolidate and improve. My suggestion of Orienteering is made in
part because it requires concentrated use of the map to find things you
might not have looked for setting your own agenda: in short, it forces
you to get lots of practice, whether self taught or tutored.

Quoted message said:

Another point is it underlines the importance of planning a route. Too
many people seem to think navigation stops at knowing where you are,
ignoring the aspect of how best to get where you're going.

There's also the business of keeping track of where you are. In
conditions of very poor visibility that can be difficult, and can
involve you in moving in such a way as to reduce position
uncertainties. For example, if your plan is to head north east until
you reach a small bridge across a stream, if you head straight at it
when you hit the stream you con't know whether it's upstream or
downstream, whereas if you deliberately headed to one side of it you
know when you hit the stream in which direction the bridge is. And the
more special tricks you know for keeping to a straight line in heavy
fog the closer you can aim at distant things.

There are also skills involved in keeping track of where you are when
visibility is good but distant landmarks are infrequently visible, so
that finding out where you are from scratch, while always possible,
will take some time if you lose track.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Chris Malcolm said:

There's also the business of keeping track of where you are. In
conditions of very poor visibility that can be difficult, and can
involve you in moving in such a way as to reduce position
uncertainties.

<aol>Wot Chris sez...</aol>

And again, orienteering is good practice. Courses are graded for
difficulty and the trickiest ones (Technical Difficulty level 5 in
o-lingo) will often /not/ have a "catching feature" so there's really
not much way to find them except knowing where you are the whole time.

Spent quite a while on Sunday coming last on a course up on Deeside, but
I did find everything so not that disheartened. It demonstrated to me
that I've still got a lot to learn, and where I need to work at things
to get better. Before I took it up 4 years ago I used to think I was a
pretty useful navigator...

While a GPS will tell you where you are, it doesn't let you milk a map
for maximum information about the ground you'll encounter as you go, and
thus enable you to plan an optimum route. Aside from the practical
angle, I've also found the improvement in my map use has been a
distinctly rewarding thing in itself as I simply understand the local
geography better.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/