There are 2 methods of judging
distance:
• The Appearance
•
Method
The Unit of Measure
Method
The
Appearance
Method
The Appearance Method
This method is used to view how a person or their surroundings look at various
distances away from you, the observer.
For example…
At 100m = clear in all detail
At 200m = clear in all detail, skin colour and
equipment identifiable.
At 300m = clear body outline, face colour good, remaining
detail blurred
At 400m = only body outline clear
At 500m = body begins to taper, head becomes
indistinct.
At 600m = body now wedge shaped, no head apparent.
The Unit Of Measure Method
This method uses an object which you the cadet
knows quite well, such as the length of a football
pitch (100metres) or the length of your street.
All you need to do is insert your chosen unit (eg a
football pitch) between you and your target as many
times as you can. If you think that a football pitch
would fit 3.1/2 times then the distance is around 350
metres.
The following slide shows an example of this.
Your
position
350
metres
The Enemy
There are also 3 aids to Judging
Distance...
• These are:
– Halving
– Bracketing
– Key Ranges
Halving
Choose a point that you think is halfway to your target;
estimate the distance to that point and then double it.
Bracketing
Say to yourself “The target is not more than 400m away, but
is certainly more than 200m from me, so it must be about
300m away.”
Key Ranges
If you already know the range to any point in your arc of
observation, you can estimate the distance to other objects
from it.