That is an excellent observation BL. As a RC pilot I can tell you that becomes second nature once you are one with the plane while flying it and not just watching it fly. Coming from a commercial printing family my early days where spent learning to read upside down and backward as that is how Linotype is. It's not hard but it does take practice.blueldr wrote:I would think that flyers of RC model airplanes would be good at being able to read a chart oriented top north in view of their ability to fly their models in all different directions.
As an Army Aviator I was trained to read a map in any direction. Sectionals of course were used up high at 1000 ft agl but when we got low and on a topographical map you always turned it to the direction of travel.
Today I fly EMS as many of you know. My job is to throw in a coordinate and fly directly to it. It is amazing how hard it really is to find an emergency scene with fire trucks and ambulances with their lights flashing. Hard to believe but it's true. Anyway I've been caught once or twice when the scene was in a northerly heading, getting to the scene, not being able to find it and looking at the GPS for situational awareness of my position in relation to the coordinates, and by this time the zoom on the GPS is at 1 mile, and no matter which direction I think I should turn towards the coordinates, it's wrong. It is that moment when I really don't need the extra pressure, I realize some darn Marine before me set the GPS to North up.
