THE AVENUE

[Foureyes]

Realising from the WaterTower discussions that there are many brains mightier than mine on this site, can one of them tell me the compass bearing (magnetic) of the straight stretch of the Avenue, please (i.e., from Thornton to Maine)?
I should explain that I am doing some research on the C.H. site being a navigation aid to aircraft in WW2.
David

[J.R.]

I'm sure there must be some way of doing this on the web, (Google Earth ?).

[Foureyes]

Ahem! Unfortunately that is what has defeated me and why I asked for help from someone wot is cleverer than wot I am!
David

[Jonathan Wheatley]

David
All those years ago we used to refer to an OS map with the scale of 2½" to one mile. Today's equivalent is probably a zoomed version of www.StreetMap.co.uk or 1:25,000.
Assume that orthodoxy prevails and that North is in its usual position at 360° it will be possible to calculate the angle of the Avenue with a simple protractor, which shows a reading of c. 285°. My father was a navigator in Bomber Command and they may have used DR almost as much as a compass!
As you well know magnetic delineation at a given location changes over time. What it was in the 1940s is up to you to discover! This link may help as it appears to cover both time and location but is far too complicated for me to understand!
https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/hist ... eclination.
Goodluck!
Jonathan

[Foureyes]

Jonathan,
Very good to hear from you - I trust that you and yours are well.
I just did not know about 'StreetMap'. I was doing all sorts of contortions and calculations with Google Earth and getting nowhere. The answer is usually on the Web somewhere - it is just a matter of inputting the precise word.
Anyway, thanks very much - problem solved!
On another subject, I take it that you know that David Taplin is still causing waves - even from as far away as the west coast of Canada?
All the best and thanks again,
David

[Avon]

285 deg seems about right.

In a similar vein, the school is right on the corner of Gatwick controlled airspace - surface to flight-level ridiculous. So for a generation of aviators it’s been a useful marker to avoid terse words from the controller. The Water Tower really does stand out for miles around when flying at low level.

What’s Taplin been up to? More Sui Generis?

[brian walling]

Although this may not be of much use for the question originally posted (magnetic bearing of the Avenue), members of the Forum may like to know that there is a dead-simple procedure in Google Earth for finding the bearing of anything (I presume that Google Earth's bearings are true north).

Proceed as though you were going to measure a distance: select the distance measuring tool (ruler symbol in the menu bar). A box cursor will appear, together with a ruler data panel. Centre the cursor over any starting point on the Google Earth image. Click and release and a green dot will appear. Move the cursor away and a yellow line will extend from the starting point. Place the cursor where you want the line to end. Click and the line freezes (and you can save it on the image, if you wish, via the save key in the ruler data box). The bearing of the line, from its starting point, is shown in the Ruler data box, in degrees, to 2 decimal places.

I did a quick check on the straight part of the Avenue and got a result of 287.5 degrees.

One of Google Earth's many, many useful features.

[brian walling]

Referring to my previous post, I just noticed that the latest Google Earth image of CH, which carries the date of 26 Sep 2018, in fact shows an unusually clear picture of Dinner Parade (or is it now Lunch Parade?) in progress, with just a small band present - presumably because the school was just starting up after summer holidays. You can magnify the image quite a long way.