Why did they put this test in, what is it supposed to simulate? The fact that it's a hard test (pretty difficult for a starting navigator) gets no associated skill tht you can raise and gets no associated gear bonuses that I've seen seem to make every warp navigation's end a crap shoot. Is anyone else a little puzzled/non-plussed by this rule? In a very real way it makes actually leaving the warp the most dangerous and unpredictable part of the journey.

According to my book (I have reprint with the erratas on it) it's a Hard (-20) Navitation (Warp) Test , not Perception.

Yupp. See errata.

(It's a pointless Test either way IMO.)

Hmmm i had presumed since i had a freshly downloaded copy of the PDF it would have the latest erratta, how disapointing, I agree that it's a pointless test though.

Generally pointless indeed, though our GM did use it at some point when we were racing towards an objective vs. another ship.