Math & Science Explained - (part 2) continued from Post # 106
(not for UPT students - IP eyes only)
Teaching Temporal flight techniques (like fix-to-fix) at Moody UPT, or at Mather AFB Navigator training, meant getting challenged by critics from time to time.. Students didn't care how it worked, but instructors did, and some seemed offended at the ridiculous suggestion that navigation could be performed without math.. Some instructors felt that even if the technique did somehow voodoo mystically work, it had to include math or it just wasn't respectable.. So, for the math addicts, I tried explaining it something like this........
Digital to Analog Conversion (Math meets Zen) - Your telephone takes an analog signal (your voice), converts it to digital information, and then transmits it to another telephone.. Since the person holding the receiver of that phone can't understand digital, his/her phone converts the digital signal back into analog information (your voice).. Neither of you care how its done, you just want it to work.. But if you did care, that's how its done.. Radio, your laptop, and lots of other devices we take for granted work the same way, by converting one type of information into another, processing it, and converting it back again.. Well, that's what Temporal/Time processing does.. We're taking the mathematical/geometric (digital) information from the fix-to-fix problem, converting it into an analog form (time), and processing it in analog form.. (Note: during the 60s and part of the 70s they didn't have electronic digital processor controlled simulators.. They were run by analog computers, using a labyrinth of motors, wheels, discs, shafts and gears to process and transmit data...
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~hsauro/Analog.htm )
Using Temporal flight techniques (like fix-to-fix) involves converting digital to analog.. The math & geometric information is still there, and the pilot still calculates using that information.. However, the form of that data is converted (digital to analog) so that the information can be processed by a different processor (that part of our brain that tracks and analyzes Time related data,) It's all very similar to the kinds of functions your laptop can do.. Whether its photos, videos, audio, Skype communications, or just keeping track of time, conversions are taking place and useful information appears where and when you need it.. Digital to analog and back to digital.. You don't care how it works, as long as it works..
Let's Visualize the Conversion from Digital (math/geometric) into Analog (speed and motion) -
1) Place the drawing of a polar coordinate grid, and the photo of an HSI, side by side..
2) Draw an aircraft on the
160@20, heading due North/360.. Place an X on the target fix at
030@20..
3) Draw (or visualize) a series of aircraft symbols flying north. (You'll be cutting through a lot of radials and arcs on the way to this fix.)
4) Visualize the BP in the top half of your HSI, pointing at the TACAN/VOR.. Now visualize the BP
Falling towards the wingtip as you fly north.
Digital Perspective (quantitative, spatial, mathematical/geometric) - As the aircraft flies closer and closer to the station, the TACAN/VOR
radials converge.. As the radials get closer and closer together, the aircraft crosses a
greater and greater number of radials.. Thus the BP registers a greater and greater
number of new bearings to the station... That
bearing data will be plugged in to fix-to-fix update calculations.
Analog Conversion Perspective (qualitative, temporal) - As the aircraft flies closer and closer to the station, the
BP falls faster and faster as we cut through radials
faster and faster. . By observing the
relative speed of BP fall, we will compare that with our observations of the
relative speed of DME change.
The math is built in and hidden in the motion of the HSI's indicators. Therefore, the HSI's indicators (BP and DME) MOVE at a rate which is commensurate with, and indicative of, the aircraft's Position, Direction, and Velocity thru the polar coordinate grid. . In other words, the needed quantitative math & geometric data is converted to qualitative motion information.
5) Now visualize the BP in the bottom half of your HSI, pointing at the TACAN/VOR.. Visualize the BP
Falling towards the tail of the aircraft as the aircraft flies past the TACAN/VOR, approaching the fix.
Digital Perspective (quantitative, spatial, mathematical/geometric) - As the aircraft flies further and further away from the station, the TACAN/VOR
radials spread out.. As the radials undergo further and further
separation, the aircraft crosses a
fewer and fewer number of radials.. Thus the BP registers a
fewer and fewer number of new bearings to the station.. All that
bearing data will be used in fix-to-fix updates.
Analog Conversion Perspective (qualitative, temporal) - As the aircraft flies further and further away from the station, the
BP falls slower and slower as we cut through radials
slower and slower . . By observing the
relative speed of BP fall, we will compare that with our observations of the relative
speed of DME change.
The math is built in and hidden in the motion of the HSI's indicators.. Therefore, the HSI's indicators (BP and DME) MOVE at a rate which is commensurate with, and indicative of, the aircraft's Position, Direction, and Velocity thru the polar coordinate grid. . In other words, the needed quantitative math & geometric data is converted to qualitative motion information.
6) Now take yourself through the rest of this mental exercise.. Run through the same fix-to-fix again, but this time compare the number of arcs you cut through with the speed of the DME movement.. Ask yourself why the DME slows, and then comes to a full stop as the BP falls to and reaches the wingtip. . When you are done visualizing this fix-to-fix, fly other routes in the grid and take note of changes in BP and DME speed as your location and headings change..
You will note that there are always predictable consequences to location and heading changes, consequences that show up in BP and DME speed.. Let me repeat that:: predictable consequences.. The mind of "experienced" pilots eventually records those predictable consequences and learns to make subconscious use of them..
The math is built in and hidden in the motion of the HSI's indicators.. Therefore, the HSI's indicators (BP and DME) MOVE at a rate which is commensurate with, and indicative of, the aircraft's Position, Direction, and Velocity thru the polar coordinate grid. . In other words, the needed quantitative math & geometric data is converted to qualitative motion information.
Conclusion - So the first time you are called on the carpet, criticized for utilizing a fix-to-fix method that isn't 'math and sciencey' enough for a respectable military pilot to be using, take your critic through this explanation. .
Temporal navigation is all about math.. But the digital math data is converted into analog motion information before it is calculated in the brain.. That data is then fed to different portion of the brain (as it would be in a dual core Intel chip) where temporal data is processed.. After you have mastered the Zen-like experience of navigating on nothing but analog motion information (which takes Sim practice to master), you can go back and double-check/verify your Zen-Temporal senses by using your other brain section to run a math/geometry calculation.. (this is right-brain vs left-brain stuff) A totally new concept in navigation?. Not in my opinion. .
The Moody AFB T-38 IPs (and the never published laboratory study that verified their theory) came to the conclusion that the predictable consequences of HSI behavior within a polar coordinate grid is what "experienced" pilots call "experience", but can't figure out how to explain to their math-saturated, information overloaded, struggling students.. The Moody IPs found they could
pack a year or two of HSI pattern recognition "experience" into the brain of a T-38 UPT student, in about an Hour. (see Post #85 and #97) Then they found that by perfecting these principles of "HSI predictable pattern recognition", and consciously practicing Temporal Only navigation, they could perform highly complex instrument maneuvers previously believed to be impossible.. Maneuvers never before contemplated.. Hyperbole? No.. Just never before published..
qutch1234567 @hotmail.com
Advance to
Math & Science Explained - (part 3)
Sadly, something tells me that if I show up tomorrow morning and tell my IP's that I just kind of "feel" it to get my F2F done, it may not go over very well...
