Monday, December 11, 2017

Small Craft Multi Tool

Pictured is a great value and handy multi tool for use aboard a small craft and is well suited for ground tackle and rigging tasks. This particular tool has been modified to make it airport friendly by removing the knife blade.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Multifunction-Outdoor-Pocket-Metal-Tool-Knife-Pliers-Spanner-Wrench-Screwdriver/192081444256?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Thursday, October 19, 2017

ASA Douglas Style Plotter



The ASA Douglas style 5" by 5" compact plotter is perfect for small craft chart tables. Customize with 1.5mm drilled holes in the center and at the upper scale. This will enable DR and celestial navigation plotting without the need for dividers. Includes reciprocal courses around the perimeter compass rose.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/International-Square-Aviation-Plotter-by-ASA-ASA-CP-P5/221915409138?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3Dfd94b43f76364a768e85b2c413b65a27%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D370550875543&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Otis King Calculator for Celestial Navigation



The Otis King is a basic non electronic calculator with four place precision and is good enough to perform law of cosine sight reduction to 1' for celestial navigation and great circle sailing purposes. Easy to learn multiplication and division routines. Find for reasonable cost on Ebay.

http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Otis-King-Sight-Reduction-Rudzinski-oct-2017-g40309

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsJtK-AVkmA&t=54s

Saturday, July 8, 2017

ADDIATOR



The Addiator is a very clever non electronic pocket summing tool. Works well for running totals or adding a series of leg distances. Ebay has many listings at reasonable cost.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Rate Adjusting a Mechanical Watch



Affordable quality mechanical watch movements such as ETA, Seiko, Miyota, and Orient can be rate adjusted to better than 5 seconds per day using a free program called Audacity. There is a learning curve to it. The how to YouTube videos are helpful. See links. 



An excellent affordable mechanical watch suitable for underway celestial navigation is the Orient Ray II divers model which hacks and hand winds.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Compact Ex-Meridian Tables

Here is a link to a useful Bowditch style compact ex-meridian table PDF designed primarily for Sun observations.

http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Compact-ExMeridian-Table-PDF-Rudzinski-jan-2017-g37815