Officer Aptitude Rating (OAR) Practice Test 2025 - Free OAR Practice Questions and Study Guide

The method of determining position that relies solely on visible references is piloting. Piloting involves using landmarks, navigational aids, and other visible elements in the environment to navigate. This approach is particularly useful in coastal areas, rivers, and close to land, where mariners can observe recognizable features such as buoys, lighthouses, buildings, or geographical formations.

In contrast, electronic navigation uses various electronic tools and systems, such as GPS, to determine position, which does not rely on visible references. Celestial navigation relies on the positions of celestial bodies observed in the sky, requiring knowledge of astronomy and perhaps not always providing immediate visible references if one is in a poor viewing area. Dead reckoning uses a vessel's last known position, speed, direction, and time traveled to estimate current position, which means it does not depend on visible landmarks at all. Thus, piloting is the only method among the options that is grounded strictly in visible references from the environment.