Flight Lessons

"Ed Rasimus" wrote

A lot of guys had the same wistful thought about INS. Simply enter the
coordinates and follow the bearing pointer to the target.

Korean Air 007 comes to mind (if that story is true...)

I recall an ORI out of Torrejon Spain that sent us to a tanker in the
N. Atlantic on a track we seldom used. The "planning cell" in the
command post prepared our flight data cards and transposed two digits
in a Lat/Long for INS coordinates. I was leading with the wing DO on
my wing. When we coasted out from Spain, the bearing point showed 40
degrees left of where the TACAN radial was and where ded reckoning
said we should head. I went to the tanker track while the DO told me I
was wrong and should follow the INS. I told him he was #2 and to
maintain radio silence. We went to the tanker.

Back then everyone was super-chatty on the radios, while today you
very rarely use the radio, so I would assume you could just go ADF or
Air-Air TACAN and watch the range decrease :-)

I agree, you have to have a cross-check, and a simple approximate
before calculation is bound to keep you out of trouble longer.