Possible to island hop south pacific without GPS?

[iainso]

Currently practicing VOR navigation, in preparation for a round-the-world trip (will cross atlantic via iceland and greenland). To cross the pacific, is it feasible to island hop from Santiago to Auckland without GPS or ATC vectors? There are some tiny islands there, but I'm not sure if enough VOR coverage.

[simonevans]

You can use the ded reckoning approach via an E6B or `WhizzWheel`
http://www.highflightsimulations.com...ewDoc&docId=15

Or you can use celestial navigation - sextant available from the library
(search bbsxa.zip and dc3_bbsx.zip)

That's how it was done IRL before GPS and long-range radio navaids, but also look for the ADF's. These can offer a substantial range for island-hopping, some of which are contactable from a couple of hundred miles away.

[ReggieF5421]

Is it possibled to island hop across without a GPS?

Sure - real pilots in real airplanes did it for years before the GPS or INS systems were invented.

However, it does take navigational expertise with wind drift gauges and/ or a sextant and a bit of luck. You have to do your planning and it cannot be done only in FS. You have to be able to follow the sun, moon or stars across the legs.

The distances are long - over 2,000 nm and no land based radio system like VOR has that range. LoranC is not modeled/ simulated in Flight Sim.

I've made similar distance flights across the Atlantic using only NDB and DR navigation in FS. Once you get in the practice of such navigation, you learn how to make such trips successfully.

[iainso]

Doing it with astronomical navigaton? Wow, those pre-GPS pilots must have been courageous to cross the pacific. Imagine missing the next tiny island you need to refuel at!

[loki]

Search the Outer Marker forum for a thread on flying to Hawaii pre-GPS. It takes a bit more work, but isn't that risky. Polynesians had been sailing around the Pacific, and very likely to North and/or South America, for centuries before Europeans got there.

[Paxx]

Doing it with astronomical navigaton? Wow, those pre-GPS pilots must have been courageous to cross the pacific. Imagine missing the next tiny island you need to refuel at!

Years ago two people were doing it and missed the island, but may have landed on another island.