Terrain Features
Name the five major terrain features.
Hill, ridge, valley, saddle, depression.
How do you use a military protractor?
right and up
Your azimuth is 283°. What is your back azimuth?
103°
What is a backstop?
A recognizable feature beyond the destination that indicates you've traveled too far.
You reach your backstop without finding your point. What does that tell you?
You likely passed/missed the point.
Contour lines form a V pointing toward higher elevation. What terrain feature does this indicate?
Valley
What accuracy does an 8-digit grid provide?
Approximately 10 meters.
Your pace count is 64 per 100 m. Your point is 650 m away. Approximately how many paces?
416
What is an attack point?
A recognizable location near the destination used to begin the final approach.
You expected to cross a road at approximately 600 m. You've traveled approximately 800 m and haven't crossed it. Name three possible causes.
Pace-count error, directional drift, wrong azimuth, incorrect starting position, missed feature, plotting error, etc.
How can you distinguish a cut vs a fill?
What are the three types of north shown/used on a military map?
True North, Grid North, and Magnetic North.
Your route has three legs: 550 m, 875 m, and 1.1 km. What's the total distance?
2.525 km
What is a handrail in land navigation, and give one example.
A linear terrain feature that runs roughly parallel to your direction of travel and helps you maintain your route. Examples include a road, trail, stream, ridgeline, or other identifiable linear feature.Greater navigational certainty may outweigh the additional distance.
You realize the terrain you're seeing doesn't match the map. What's your first priority?
Stop and reestablish/orient your location rather than continuing and compounding the error.
You're moving along a ridgeline toward your point. What terrain change would indicate you've entered a saddle?
Terrain descends to a low point between two areas of higher ground before rising again.
Where on a military map would you look to find the information needed to convert between grid and magnetic azimuths?
The declination diagram / marginal information, which shows the G-M angle.
What is a panic azimuth, and when would you use it?
A predetermined magnetic azimuth that leads to a recognizable recovery feature or location. It is used when a navigator becomes disoriented/lost and needs to safely recover from the course.
What is a catching feature, and how is it different from a backstop?
A catching feature is an identifiable feature used to help confirm your location or progress along a route. A backstop is specifically located beyond the destination and tells you that you've traveled too far.
You're searching around your point and can't find it. You know exactly where your attack point is. What is usually more useful than continuing to wander?
Return to/reestablish at the known location and re-attack the point.
What are the three minor terrain features, and how would you identify each on a topographic map?
You determine a grid azimuth of 240° using your map and protractor. Before using your compass to navigate that azimuth, what additional step may be required, and where do you find the information to do it?
Convert the grid azimuth to a magnetic azimuth using the map's G-M angle, found in the declination diagram/marginal information.
You are navigating on the correct azimuth and reach your expected distance, but you cannot locate your point. Name three things you should check before continuing movement.
Any of the three (trainer discretion)
Question: You have two routes to your point:
Which route should you take?
There is no automatically correct route. The cadet should consider time, terrain, distance, identifiable features, and navigational certainty. A longer route may be faster or more reliable if it reduces the chance of becoming disoriented or missing the point.
You're on a timed land-nav course. You've spent several minutes looking for one point. Your pace count says you should be there, but the terrain doesn't match what you expected. You know your last confirmed location. Walk us through what you do next.
Stop → orient map → identify last known location → compare expected vs. actual terrain → check direction/distance → reestablish location → return to a known feature if necessary → develop a new approach.