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Case Study #1: Last Navigational Line Perpendicular to Leg Line

Case Study #1: Last Navigational Line Perpendicular to Leg Line

Example from the  Wispa O-Cup 2025 (Polan), D 35 course

Organising clubs
Harpagan Orienteering Club 


This leg 7-8 presents a classic example where the final navigational line—represented by a road—is positioned perpendicular to the leg line. This setup increases the risk of losing positional confidence right before attacking the control. The course setter uses this configuration to challenge our route planning and force us to make strategic decisions to maintain reliability.

The network of rides and roads in this area offers no bends or junctions that could serve as positioning points. On their own, these lines do not provide enough information to confirm our location. We can only determine our position with the help of other features located off these lines. However, these offline features are similar to each other (in the diagram, simplified depressions are shown), and under speed, fatigue, or pressure, it’s straightforward to confuse them.


Moreover, since we cross the last road perpendicularly, any movement along it provides no forward progress along the leg—it essentially becomes lost time. Therefore, in such cases, a safer solution is to make a slight aiming off to one side in advance.

In this leg, aiming off slightly to the right is the more convenient option. Doing so brings us to a bend in the path—a highly reliable positioning point. From here, we can begin the bearing section. The bearing should be held parallel to the leg line, ensuring that when we reach the final road, we are confidently positioned to the right of the control point.


While running the bearing, we can compare the visible terrain features against our expectation model to identify the exact location where we reach the final road. If we are still unsure, we can be confident that we are to the right of the control point, which is a good position for attacking it.

Now, consider a scenario where the path at the beginning of the leg was absent. In that case, we could have run along an elongated hill to reach a similarly reliable positioning point. This point would also be located to the right of the leg line and closer to the control. From there, we could confidently identify further features along the approach.

With this method, the increase in the leg’s total length is minimal, but the aiming off significantly improves our confidence at the start of the control approach.

More about Planning Reliable Routes see the my brand new Book 2 of the Confident Orienteering series. 

Aleksandr  Alekseyonok, October 29, 20205.

Source: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/150441/Wyspa-O-Cup-2025-E3



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