On Apr 4, 2:52 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Early ships navigated using a compass as one important instrument, but a
compass along was never good enough. It wasn't enough four hundred years ago,
and it's not enough now. If all you have is a compass, you're in deep
trouble.

Sorry, I have to mildly disagree as far as flying goes, that you'd
automatically be in "deep trouble". Many pilots use just the
compass / DG for cross-country flying.

For cross-water... an airplane, at a sufficient area altitude, does
not have to worry about running aground. Therefore a simple compass
was "good enough" for winged flight across the Atlantic starting in
1919. which is not "four hundred years" ago.

True, when crossing longer distances towards smaller targets (such as
islands in the Pacific), star sightings were important, or even on
shorter distances with unknown wind, but the compass was still the
main direction finder.

Kev