The Navigating with GPS seminar teaches students how to navigate
safely and efficently to any destination, using primarily a GPS receiver and conventional charts.
The seminar is restricted to only the navigational aspects of GPS, and may suggest when additional
skills are required as a backup.
To select a route to follow, utilizing a GPS receiver, requires knowledge of basic navigation principles.
Without such knowledge, the navigator must place complete reliance and blind trust upon complex
equipment and the ability to use it properly, under all circumstances.
When properly installed and operated, modern electronic navigation systems are generally very reliable.
These inexpensive systems are available to serve as primary, back-up, or lifeboat
navigation systems.
Although the controlling authorities go to great lengths to ensure reliability and accuracy
the signals upon which all such systems depend are not always available.
A more common cause of navigation failure is human error. Many mistakes are made in entering and in
sequencing of data. Incorrect positions or commands are often inserted and wrong waypoints
selected, sometimes with disastrous results, as the computer does precisely what it is commanded to do.
The GPS seminar outlines procedures designed to minimize the possibility of human error in the
operation of electronic navigation equipment.
