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Finding each control effortlessly and quickly may seem second nature for good orienteers but in reality they have worked hard to achieve skills and strategies that make this possible. Traffic light orienteering gives a rough framework which should help you move at the appropriate pace but help prevent getting lost because you have over run the control.
This method breaks each leg of the course into three parts, green, orange and red. The colours correspond to the colours of traffic lights and your reactions / speed should reflect this ( so long as your response to orange is not to accelerate rapidly!)
During the first part (the green section) the idea is to cover quickly as much ground as possible but without getting lost. You do this by simplifying the navigation - use rough orienteering skills. Look for large features which will be difficult to miss. Perhaps there is a track or stream going in roughly the right direction, a ridge you have to cross, a major path junction or bend: something prominent, easily recognised and easily found. Ideally this section should be the major part of the leg. You do need to identify where you will come out of the 'green' phase and move to 'orange'. Also look to see if there is a distinct feature which will stop you from going too far.
(Orange section). Slow down a little as you pass your transition feature. You now need to have a reasonably precise view of where you are on the map so set your speed slow enough to allow you to pick out the necessary mapped features on the ground. This should lead you to your attack point or perhaps even to the control site. The important issue now is to keep fully in touch with the map: be sure that you know what you are looking for and how you are going to know if you have gone too far.
(Red section) By now you should almost be at the control and good speed control is essential. If you are in complex terrain then it may be necessary to walk in this phase - in such areas it is otherwise all too easy to overshoot the feature and waste valuable time. Tick off any features on the map as you pass them but also keep a sharp look out just in case you are a little off course. And once you have seen the feature which the control is on (or better still the kite itself) you can speed up a little as you sort out your direction out of the control.
The first example is the leg from control 6 to 7. The green phase starts immediately as you head roughly east of south to the path shown and then run to the prominent path junction half way to control 7. This could extend to turning right reaching the road and head for the sharp bend.
Alternatively shift to the orange phase at the path junction and head along the side of the thicker vegetation to the ride. This would be the attack point and you then go slowly on a bearing looking for the rising ground: the control is on a knoll one contour line (roughly 5m) above the lower lying ground you are traversing.
You can also see that to get to the control from the attack point you need to cross a small marsh - further information to use as you close in on the control.
In this example the leg is from the start to number one. It has been chosen because there are no line features to follow but the same principles apply as this example illustrates.
The first step is to identify the feature or features that will act as the line feature and hence allow traffic light orienteering. The green phase is achieved by using the prominent feature in the contour lines (the re-entrant) and following the re-entrant up until the shoulder of the hill is reached. T
he orange section is very brief starting as soon as you leave the re-entrant.
The red section starts as soon as the ground drops down into the re-entrant with the linear marsh. On entering the red section make sure you are on the right bearing.
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