This stuff is no joke if You are trying to self study and have no clue…where to start, where to start?? I have purchased Capt Joe’s software and Hawespipe and am working my way through the ROR and other easier stuff fine but the Terrestrial is not fun! JUST VENTING!! Thanks for listening, or not:mad:
If you have a strong math background it is mostly trig and calc. The formulas are in bowditch which is also in the testing room.
If not, I can’t recommend strongly enough studying with someone like Capt Bruce at LE Fletcher. He will get you through it. You might not understand exactly what our why you are doing mathematically speaking, but he will get you to the correct answer.
Take good notes while it all makes sense so you can figure it out again come time to upgrade.
I have never done any trig or calculus so that is a problem but I passed the damn state nursing boards…I can do this (I hope). Pep talks are much needed though even if I have to give them to myself! did I sound confident? Because I’m not really after digging into this. I was trying to avoid paying someone to prep plus Captain Bruce at Fletcher is booked up till past May. Believe it or not there are some decent tutorials on Youtube just not for everything. There is a fella in Panama City who teaches celestial who said he would help me through terrestrial if needed. I may have to employ his services when I get home. Thanks for the info.
Has anyone had any experience with the USCG Auxiliary training program/materials? I’m working with some Sea Scouts right now who are using it, and there is a lot of excellent material in them that is well presented.
I thought I pretty much knew most nav methods. I have done DR/RDF/LORAN/RADAR/GPS/CELESTIAL, running fixes, current corrections, etc. etc. plus the same stuff for airplanes and cannot recall using calculus for any of it. You can do celestial with spherical trig, but I did the cookbook method with HO 249. What exactly are you all using calc for ???
[QUOTE=ShawnYoungblood;131474]I have never done any trig or calculus so that is a problem but I passed the damn state nursing boards…I can do this (I hope). Pep talks are much needed though even if I have to give them to myself! did I sound confident? Because I’m not really after digging into this. I was trying to avoid paying someone to prep plus Captain Bruce at Fletcher is booked up till past May. Believe it or not there are some decent tutorials on Youtube just not for everything. There is a fella in Panama City who teaches celestial who said he would help me through terrestrial if needed. I may have to employ his services when I get home. Thanks for the info.[/QUOTE]
Understanding basic trig would be a help, I don’t recall needing any calculus. Almost all the problems individually are relatively simple, together it just seems like a lot. Knock it off a bit at a tilme.
[QUOTE=ShawnYoungblood;131474]I have never done any trig or calculus so that is a problem but I passed the damn state nursing boards…I can do this (I hope). Pep talks are much needed though even if I have to give them to myself! did I sound confident? Because I’m not really after digging into this. I was trying to avoid paying someone to prep plus Captain Bruce at Fletcher is booked up till past May. Believe it or not there are some decent tutorials on Youtube just not for everything. There is a fella in Panama City who teaches celestial who said he would help me through terrestrial if needed. I may have to employ his services when I get home. Thanks for the info.[/QUOTE]
You do NOT need any calculus. Period.
You only need a minimal amount of basic Trig. Mostly you just need to memorize and learn to apply SOH CAH TOA and know where to find the formulas in Bowditch Vol II
For the flying nav tests you can use a circular slide rule (E6-B) or certain approved calculators for wind/current equations. Do you have to do it by hand for the USCG tests? Even if you do, it is all vectors with sign, cosign, and tangent formulas. No calc in that.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;131483]You do NOT need any calculus. Period.
You only need a minimal amount of basic Trig. Mostly you just need to memorize and learn to apply SOH CAH TOA and know where to find the formulas in Bowditch Vol II[/QUOTE]
SOH CAH TOA
Saddle Our Horses, Canter Away Happily, Towards Other Adventures
I’ve never heard that one. I always just memorized SohCahToa the way it sounds. One you might also want to know for Tnav is :
For converting compass from true heading to compass heading :
True Virgins Make Dull Companions (at weddings)
True->Variation->Mag->Deviation->Compass (add west when going from true to compass)
Or the opposite
Can Dead Men Vote Twice? (At Elections)
There’s a variety of books out there I’d suggests you pick up. Dutton’s Nautical Navigation can be helpful. Also pick up and really flip through all of Bowditch, learn it inside and out.
249 isn’t “legal” for a CG exam, and may not be accurate enough for their answers? Not sure maybe both. At the least it’s a slick tool for real world use though. May have to do with not having all the whacky stars they have questions on.
No calc, but trig functions/algebra.
229 is cookbook too, just longer and harder recipes 
IIRC, 249 was invented for airplanes because 229 sight reduction took so long you were past the airport you were trying to find by the time the sight was worked out.
The only thing I can imagine using calc for would be something like going north or south across a river with east-west tidal flow and trying to figure out just one heading to take into account the various offsets from the current as the tide changes back and forth. (it is a really wide river and your boat is slow )
I went to mid Atlantic Maritime Academy and paid a gentleman there to help me with tnav. Best $1000 I ever spent. He is a 20year retired navy Quartermaster. No one knows navigation like a QM!! He will get you on track in 2 weeks. It’s one on one training 8 hours a day.
249 is much easier and faster to use but only has tables for seven stars. 229 has tables for all 57(?) navigational stars. 229 can also be used to solve great circle sailing problems for initial course and distance. The USCG only provides 229 in the exam room.
Hey guys…forgot to mention there’s no calc. Lol. That’s what I get for posting at 0100.
So what You guys are saying is there is no calculus needed…LOL. It was all very tongue in cheek but then again I did take astronomy and couldn’t begin to do celestial yet! I am just a little overwhelmed right now but I plan on eating this elephant one bite at a time. Last night I had a belly full. I’m hungry again now so back at it. There is always some pretty good advice here though thanks for helping in any way.
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BTW, Capt. Bruce and Fletcher have the real winner. He keeps 100 guys on a roll at all times at $1000 bucks a head. We are working too hard!!
Way back in the day I thought this was a great book to learn the basics.
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Way back in the day I thought this was a great book to learn the basics.
If you can do basic trig you are all set. There are a bunch of different formulas that you need to know for the test that are not in any book that is provided when you test. I highly recommend taking a class on this stuff if you are not sure, I did and it was the best 1500 I spent!!! haha