SAR Fundamentals/Compass practical and pacing

From PCSAR

SAR Fundamentals Manual: Ch.13 "Navigation"

Basic SAR Skills Manual: Ch.7 "Navigation"

Aids

• Pacing and bearing exercise
• Tape measure
• Compasses

Lesson plan

Material Covered:

• Navigation - section 3 - compass use and exercise

Objective:

• know cardinal directions
• know compass degrees
• know what affects a compass
• magnetic declination
• shooting a bearing with a compass
• pacing
• exercises:
  • bearings
  • pacing / bearing
• backbearing
• offsets

Aids:

• SAR Fundamentals - Chapter 13 - Navigation

Lesson plan:

1/ discuss Magnetic Declination

• Where needle points

• Reading declination from map (add grid N)

• North pole moves
  • currently moving north about 40 km / year
  • Magnetic declination for Pincher Creek, 2011: 14deg 47' E.
    • according to http://geomag.nrcan.gc.ca/apps/mdcal-eng.php
    • We track on our wiki: Navigation#Declination

• Adjusting declination on compass

2/ shooting a bearing with a compass

• using compass
  • avoid metal
    • belt buckle
  • avoid magnetic fields

• holding compass
  • hold flat

• sighting
  • using mirror
  • using sighting notches

• reading bearing
  • rotating barrel
  • "red to the bed"
  • parallax problem
    • parallel needle edge, not needle in the middle

• walking a bearing
  • setting bearing
  • how far to look

3/ Pacing

• Step is one foot to the opposite
• Pace is one foot to the same foot (two steps)

• counting your pace

• measure your pace in 10m

• calculating distance from paces

• calculating paces from distance

4/ Exercises: bearings

• hand-out: Pacing and Traverse

5/ Advance

As they come up in discussion, describe:

• back bearings

• offsets