1NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

Night Navigation

Developed as part of the National Emergency Services Curriculum Project

2NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

What’s Different?

• Typically teams move much slower

• Why?– Vision impaired

• Seeing Black and White Mostly

– Simply not comfortable

• Is there a solution?– Not total, but workable

3NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

What do we do?

• Wear reflective vests

• Use Red Lens in Flashlight

• Avoid especially dangerous areas

• Only send experienced personnel to the field at night

• Wait until daytime if necessary - Use the Night for planning and crew rest

4NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

How do we do it?

• The point person moves on a reasonable distance in the general direction of travel.

• The point person stops at a point where the compass person can direct them left or right by voice or signal until they are directly marking the proper bearing for travel.

• The group moves to the point person and the procedure takes place again.

5NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

• While you can follow your compass- there is less chance of drifting by using steering points.

6NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

Why use a red lens?

• As light decreases, the sensing tasks are passed over from the cones to the rods of the eyes.

• The sensitivity of the rods involves a pigment called visual purple (rhodopsin) which is bleached in bright light and takes time to re-constitute

• Because the rods are less sensitive to red light, we use red lenses in our lights to keep our limited night vision

7NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

Why else should we use a red lens?

• It takes on average 40+ minutes to regain your night vision

• Younger people tend to adapt quicker than adults to the dark

8NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

9NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

Vision

• While the red lens will protect night vision for navigation and other tasks- remember white light might be needed for search tasks, medical tasks, tracking, and in some terrain, even for travel.

• Red lens flashlight, head lamp, glow stick, spot light- pick your equipment to meet your need.

10NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

Be careful out there!

Less visibility means less time to react to environmental and other

hazards!

11NIGHTNAV..PPT

LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

QUESTIONS?

THINK SAFETY!