Navigation tips

Q I’ve sometimes heard the expression ‘aiming off’ used for navigation. But I have no idea what this actually means. Please could you explain it to me? Linda Boothroyd, via email

Paul says When you are navigating to a feature such as a path, stream or wall junction, human error can easily creep in and we can all miss our target point. Especially if we’re out walking in hill clag or at night under the cover of darkness. Thankfully there are a number of navigation techniques we can use to minimise these errors and help us find our target, and aiming off is one such method.

Aiming off means to use a compass bearing to aim for a target feature, but rather than aiming directly at it, purposefully aiming off to one side or of the feature at something obvious to ultimately lead you to your target.

It is common to be a degree or two out with a compass bearing, and over rough terrain in poor weather you may struggle to be bang- on your target. So, by aiming for a ‘catching feature’ (perhaps a stream or fenceline) 100m to the right of your target, you know you will have to turn left once you’ve hit that catching feature and walk approximately 100m to reach your target point.

Let’s say our target point is the path at the footbridge (in the picture above). If we aim directly at it, we may miss the target and not know if it is to our left or right. If we aim off 100m to the left and use the stream as a catching feature, then once we reach the stream we know we need to turn right and walk 100m to locate the footbridge and the path.