Will be sitting for a federal pilotage endorsement in the near future and was looking to gather some best practices/techniques for drawing the chart from memory. Searched the forums and didn’t really find much in this regard. I know there are many of you on here that have relevant experience with this and would appreciate any pointers you have to offer. Thanks
Depends on what the chart is, but most likely break everything down into x/y in millimeters, memorize. Memorize light list characteristics for each aton.
Study for a while then try and get with the examiner at the REC, they should let you come in and look at a sample chart.
Soundings along the route ever 1-2 inches, and within a mile or so of the route was what I had to provide. Draw in approx Contours along route, I didn’t do soundings below 18’. Rule of thumb the examiner told me was that its one thing to not put it on the chart, another to put it on the chart wrong (don’t put stuff on wrong). Cables, pipelines, light sectors, channel boundaries, wrecks, anchorages and their labels, obstructions, I only drew in a few prominent landmarks though. Same idea, only draw what you will have 100% accurate. I made cross bearings to keep things accurate too, to double check everything else.
They like neatness. Standard symbology. Soundings were the hardest thing for me. Pm with any questions, happy to pay forward some help I got.
I used cheapo tracing paper to get going, then used the RITI Charts to do my last few practice drawings and the exam. Worth the $.
[QUOTE=lm1883;143424]Remember to take a clean unadulterated tracing for your exam.[/QUOTE]
This is VERY important! Now, this was quite a while ago but someone was caught with either VERY Light Pencil Marks or Pin Holes on the BLACK Tracing Paper. While this was pretty hard to see the CG Tester caught it when they held the blank sheet up to the light. The guy that got caught LOST all of his previous pilotage and was lucky to still have his license by the time the CG got through with him.
DON’T BOTHER doing you’re own trace!
www.riti.com either has it OR will do it for you with enough lead time. Pricey? Possibly depending on your perspective but they’ll give you 5 clean traces for one price. GOOD STUFF. I tested just under 4 years ago and colleague a couple months ago in Miami (Successfully) with their traces.
WE didn’t have to get hung up on depths - 18 & 30 fathom curves speak for themselves and the channel depths are covered in the tabulations - memorize THEM.
If it’s relevant to the route memorize it.
X/Y in millimeters from the provided Lat/Long conjunction for EVERY (if possible) item - the leaves you ONE POINT to remember, I ended up with more than that. In the end, counting tabulations I had eight (8) full pages (12-point font) to commit to memory. Confirm EVERY point, draw chart ONCE with everything in front of you. Once you’ve confirmed that your data points are good for you and they work on the chart the way you need them to - MEMORIZE THE DATA POINTS.
That’s ALL I worked on for the better part of six months, TWICE a day. Rolled into Miami, spit out my 8 pages of data and used that to draw the chart for the SECOND and last time. Took me 6.5 hours to draw the chart.
Good luck
I used a clear plastic over the chart.Then tracing paper between it with the known and allowed land masses (Data points) to get bearings from. Mississipi pilots {Back a ways) used two pencils strapped together to draw the channel. Labeling was a effing bear. Drew 3 ports, and passed, not easy, but doable. Still have the drafting table next to my very collectible 33 rpm records. Table goes first.
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