John McPartlin  GPS  Oct. 2nd

 

One of John's most attractive traits is his infectious enthusiasm. This was clearly evident last Thursday when members were introduced to the mysteries of Global Positioning Systems.

John had done his homework. His clear description of the opportunities presented by GPS was supplemented by an excellent series of overheads. It became clear that a sound familiarity of your GPS should be gained well before venturing on the hill - otherwise the risk of finding yourself on the Cairngorm plateau in a force 9 gale trying to orientate yourself with a GPS set to Standard Eastern Time and the Finnish KKJ27 grid could be significant!

To test us, John put us into teams and set us prowling about the streets of Hillhead, GPSs in hands. Despite all our efforts no one got arrested for loitering with intent, vagrancy, indecent exposure or anything worse and we all returned safely to Wellington Church. In the ensuing discussion it became clear that not everyone was yet prepared to adopt GPS as their primary aid to navigation on the hill. The compass and step pacing will still remain the only way to navigate for some. However, for those prepared to embrace this inexpensive and breathtaking technology  a new, exciting - and safer world is opening out.

The final exercise of the evening - to attempt to find the Aragon; some with and some without the help of GPS - was accomplished with 100% success.