[Andrew]

If i do this seminar do i get the 105?

[Cindi]

As a PNT (GPS) professional who is also a Master Mariner/Master ASA instructor, my opinion is “yes.” Too much reliance and watching a screen vs using true skills on the water (or hiking on land or general way-finding). Electronic signals should augment, not dominate. Also too is a false sense of security because no matter what constellation provides those signals (GNSS, GPS, GLONASS…), not only are those signals open to spoofing (deliberate corruption), even the Sun burping disrupts the electronic signal-flow. The end result corrupts the receiver data. My advice is yes to study 105, but add in weather and radar, then apply a mixed skillset to navigation which is augmented by electronic signal reception.

[Robert]

This issue is not new to aviation. Training has improved greatly, but there are still plenty of pilots who have diminished skills because of this new technology. Pilots at all levels must complete a flight review every two years where, I believe, there must be more emphasis on those skills required without GPS and autopilot technology. Would something like this work in the marine world? Perhaps on a voluntary level?

[Joel]

I wrote an article on this in the early days of Professional Mariner magazine, but the problem goes back a very long way before that. Long before GPS, long before SatNav, long before Transit. The development of black box displays from as far back as when ARPA first came out (we knew it then as NTDS) were the first indication of where human distraction was heading. But it didn’t explode when GPS came out; not even when GPS graduated to DGPS, because we were still plotting on charts. It really exploded when nav plotters came out. People stopped looking out the window and started staring at the pretty lights on computer screens. Dark bridges and pilothouses became insanely bright and night vision essentially went out the window. People even stopped coming up early to let their eyes adjust. Cell phones just made it all go straight to the Nth degree. People walking through busy shopping mall parking lots staring at their phones. The insanity is off the charts now. I’m rather glad I’m retired.