Educational Videos about Orientation and Navigation with Map and Compass

[Erbswurst]

Please let's collect in this thread the best educational videos about orientation and land navigation with map and compass.

Thank you for keeping this thread clean from other comments, unless you find real faults that are shown in the videos that others did link to here.

 

[Broch]

Loads of good resources here - reading material and videos.

But, my advice, over something as important as navigation (especially on foggy mountain tops), is ditch the videos and get out with an instructor or a very experienced person; it's too important a topic to rely on random 'self proclaimed' experts on Youtube.

We even have our own BCUK navigation course provider @nigelp

Map reading skills - beginner's guides

These simple beginner's guides will teach you the basics of map reading so you can learn how to read a map. Includes a selection of short videos to help you brush up on your map reading skills.

getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

 

[Erbswurst]

I have seen that generally 90% of the bushcraft videos at YouTube and such with related content show heavy technical faults.
That's why I ask the experts here which videos about orientation are really good.

I assume that it's possible to teach all that in a film as well.
You need to practice that of course afterwards and before you disappear in the tundra.

 

[cbrdave]

Please let's collect in this thread the best educational videos about orientation with map and compass.

Thank you for keeping this thread clean from other comments, unless you find real faults that are shown in the videos that others did link to here.

Fantastic idea, i have been watching youtube videos to try and learn exactly this.

 

[nigelp]

Loads of good resources here - reading material and videos.

But, my advice, over something as important as navigation (especially on foggy mountain tops), is ditch the videos and get out with an instructor or a very experienced person; it's too important a topic to rely on random 'self proclaimed' experts on Youtube.

We even have our own BCUK navigation course provider @nigelp

Map reading skills - beginner's guides

These simple beginner's guides will teach you the basics of map reading so you can learn how to read a map. Includes a selection of short videos to help you brush up on your map reading skills.

getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

The National Navigation Award Scheme is an excellent way to build up navigation skills. Not to detract from the original thread idea but I have seen numerous very ‘questionable’ videos about how to orientate a map and how to use a map and compass.
If I get time next week I’ll make one and upload it to YouTube.

 

[TeeDee]

R.M have produced a nice series.

 

[Robson Valley]

You have got to buy a good forestry compass, get out on the track and practice. The videos are never as good as plain old familiarity. And, a good compass is a pleasure to use.

 

[GSW]

Loads of good resources here - reading material and videos.

But, my advice, over something as important as navigation (especially on foggy mountain tops), is ditch the videos and get out with an instructor or a very experienced person; it's too important a topic to rely on random 'self proclaimed' experts on Youtube.

We even have our own BCUK navigation course provider @nigelp

Map reading skills - beginner's guides

These simple beginner's guides will teach you the basics of map reading so you can learn how to read a map. Includes a selection of short videos to help you brush up on your map reading skills.

getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Totally agreed. Apart from land nav, I did the RYA course on Astro Nav (+ World Met) and went on to teach the subject. I was a regular RYA instructor at the time. Indeed, I still have my Sextant which I am toying with the idea of selling - to a buyer perhaps accepting hard work!

I even designed a form for Sextant use which simplified use of a scientific calc. without the Admiralty Tables.

Fond memories..................

 

[GSW]

R.M have produced a nice series.

Fond memories of the course on Woodbury Common many years ago (and the inevitable speed march back to Lympstone)

 

[TeeDee]

Fond memories of the course on Woodbury Common many years ago (and the inevitable speed march back to Lympstone)

'Its only Pain'

 

[knowledge=gain]

This Compass Mistake Can Get You Killed!!​

 

[GSW]

This Compass Mistake Can Get You Killed!!​

'Its only Pain'

Not solely along Red Barn Lane.............

 

[nigelp]

This Compass Mistake Can Get You Killed!!​

That ‘type’ of compass and those techniques of navigation are used rarely, or not all in the UK.
It’s a good point about interference from devices etc. Also magnetic hydration tube holders, magnetic closures and more importantly than the phone itself are the range of ‘MagSafe’ accessories for newer iphone models.
I cover those as soon as we start using compasses on my courses - which is straight away!

 

[Erbswurst]

That's why the old aluminium field bottles had far less capacity than the modern hydration bladders with magnetic tube holders!

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I was bored a couple of years ago and worked out a reliable method of navigating by the sun. It works on the principal that you can equate the elevation of the sun from horizon, to its horizontal distance from either east or west where the sun nominally rises. But of course this is subject to two errors:
1. The sun does not rise in the east or set in the west other than at the equinoxes
2. The elevation of the sun does not exactly equate to the horizontal distance from where it rose or set. This error varies with time of day and time of year.

I wanted my method to account for these errors in a usable, practical way.
To do this I got from the internet the azimuth at sunrise and sunset and sun elevation throughout the day, on various days throughout the year, and put this into a spreadsheet. I could then work out the difference between elevation and horizontal distance traveled from sunrise (or yet to travel for the afternoon) throughout each day, and how this varies. E.g. a difference 2 means the sun has travelled horizontally twice as far as it has elevated.
I also entered into the spreadsheet the difference (in degrees) between sunrise/set azimuth, and actual east or west.

This involved a lot of numbers, so I then condensed the numbers into something usable and memorable and in which any remaining error is acceptable to me.

My process in the field (in the morning):
1. I measure the sun's elavation using my hand, and apply that same distance horizontally back towards east.
2. I then apply the first correction (in this example it would be 1.5 fold correction in morning between March and November i.e half the distance again correction in the morning is 2 fold in the winter months). Then I apply a further correction using my feet as a protractor to account for the difference between sunrise position and actual east (difference is 0 at equinox 21 march, 20 degrees at 21 Apr, 35 on 21 may, 40 degrees at summer solstice, then it reverses as the year continues.

With a bit of practice I can figure out east and west in under a minute using this method. Much quicker and more accurate than stick shadows and analogue watch faces. I'd be happy to type out my set of condensed numbers if anyone is interested.

 

[Erbswurst]

That's worth the effort of a video in my opinion.