Sextant calibration

[zoidberg]

I was intrigued to note this offering from the Celestaire company, at $39.95, to help resolve Perpendicularity Error.
'When ah were a lad' we was taught to use a half-crown, or a large stainless Metric nut.....

 

[Refueler]

For years I just used the arc itself ..... as did every other MN Officer I knew ....

 

[zoidberg]

Aye, laddie, but HerMaj's Royal Air Force wanted us to be just that wee bit more precise - and reduce the admittedly-small incidence of parallax by simply 'eyeballing the arc'.

You didn't know our/your Royal Air Force had half a warehouse stocked with marine sextants? Hundreds of them...!

All you needed was an 'Aircrew Flying Clothing Issue' logbook - and the Section/Reference Number of the item wanted. ( which was a closely-guarded secret restricted to paid-up Members of the Navigators' Union! )

HerMaj wanted the one I had on loan returned when I went onto work on Puma helicopters. The argument that we could always just stop and read a roadsign or ask a policeman was difficult to contest. Anyway, her Dear Daughter made up for it a few years later when she presented me with a brand spanking new one, at the last Earl's Court Boat Show. And she told me she knows how to use one, 'cos her Dear Dad taught her.

 

[Refueler]

Until my brother nicked it of me ... I had my Fathers Bubble Sextant that he used to fly one of the B17's from Canada to UK for the movie "War Lover" ...

In fact I was taken onto that B17 as a very young toddler when my Father and crew flew it back to Canada.