Map folding and flight planning

A glass of malbec at the ready, I set about folding my shiny school-issued half mill chart this evening, which was less straightforward than it should have been…

Having already bought a used chart from eBay, one of the problems I was trying to overcome was that the “normal” folding technique where you have 8 even panels across and 4 vertically puts Blackbushe right on the bottom left corner of a panel. Just about useful if you’re heading North East but infuriating if you’re planning to fly in any other direction. A bit of creative folding later, I have Blackbushe mostly centred (old and new):

My triumph was short-lived though: having plotted the likely route my first nav-ex - EGLK -> Hungerford -> Wantage -> EGLK - the Hungerford to Wantage leg lands just about bang on the left hand crease on that panel :evil: :oops: 🤡

I didn’t learn to drive until about a month before our eldest was born 12 years ago, so the age of navigating the road network through a combination of maps and divine inspiration passed me by. Aside from some orienteering in the Forest of Dean and various other school/scout excursions, this is my first working encounter with a physical map (okay, chart) and it feels entirely alien. This thing is massive, and yet I’m plotting a route that takes up less than 1/4 of a single panel (or would if I hadn’t messed up the folding), which is itself 1/32 of the whole thing, and then having to squint to try to pick out salient details. Madness!