USCG Exam PracticeVisual piloting — three-bearing fixes, danger bearings
You observe a lighthouse bearing 045°T and a water tower bearing 315°T at the same moment. What do these two observations produce?
- A. A running fix, because two objects were used
- ✓ A fix, because two LOPs were taken simultaneouslyCorrect
- C. A dead reckoning position advanced from the last known fix
- D. A single LOP, because compass bearings to two objects cannot be crossed
Why B is correct
Bowditch Ch. 7 §701 defines a fix as the intersection of two or more LOPs taken simultaneously. Two simultaneous compass bearings to charted objects produce two LOPs whose intersection is a fix, not a running fix.
Cited:Bowditch Ch. 7 §701