36
votes
Accepted
Why would a pilot need to change their heading when flying through a cold front?
In the Northern Hemisphere, wind usually veers to the right when a cold front passes. If you fly through a cold front, the wind also veers to the right. To maintain a constant track, a correction to ...
- 36.8k
18
votes
What is the meaning of “American 755, turn right, heading 320"?
American 755, turn right, heading 320.
Aviation phraseology is direct, specific, and concise. The three items here:
The controller is instructing the aircraft identified as ...
- 5,281
18
votes
Is the Garmin G1000's heading indicator based on a Magnetic compass?
The Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) rosette display on a G1000 works in a similar fashion to a conventional HSI operating in slave mode. It is slaved to a 3 axis magnetometer which gives it ...
- 70.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Why Heading Indicator is not magnetic itself and need magnetic compass?
Compass readings during turns are inaccurate and sometimes display turns when you are heading straight but accelerating. As such you need something that is referenced to the airframe turning itself. ...
- 99.2k
15
votes
Accepted
How to calculate the heading correction with a circular flight computer?
1 - First I calculate the track deviation angle:
To find the track angle:
outer scale: distance off track (NM) in this case 5 NM
divided by
inner scale: distance already travelled(NM) in this ...
- 1,148
15
votes
Do aircraft carriers always face into the wind?
During flight operations, the aircraft carrier strives to maintain 30 knots of wind down the angle of the flight deck. Generally speaking, the carrier will adjust its speed and course through the ...
- 8,718
14
votes
Accepted
What is the use of heading bug?
Bugs simply make instruments easier to read with a very quick glance.
If I need to steer exactly 162 degrees, which is easier? To read where the needle is pointing or just see if the needle is ...
- 31k
14
votes
Accepted
Does ATC use True Course or Ground Track?
A heading is the direction the plane's nose is pointed. A course is the direction it is actually traveling. The difference between the two depends on wind.
A true heading or course is corrected for ...
- 27.4k
13
votes
Do autopilot headings consider the earth's shape?
Yes, almost all modern computer navigation systems take this into account.
The track between two points along the "spherical" earth is called the great-circle track. Except for a N/S heading (or a E/...
- 3,010
13
votes
Accepted
Is the heading used near the pole?
Near the poles 'polar grid navigation' is used. By placing a rectangular grid over the pole, aligned with the prime meridian, a local coordinate system is created. Aircraft fly constant grid courses ...
- 78.1k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of “American 755, turn right, heading 320"?
It is quite simple if you look into the answer linked by Steve V. to understand what the headings are. Here is a simple example: aircraft flies at 290. Controller instructs right turn to 320. The ...
- 6,940
11
votes
Are aircraft pilots required to fly runway heading for a certain distance?
The initial turn should be made at 400 feet AGL.
Unless otherwise specified in the departure procedure, the initial turn should be made when reaching an altitude of 400 feet above the runway elevation ...
- 52.8k
10
votes
Accepted
What trajectory do I fly if bearing angle is constant?
The term bearing is not so clear, as the link to another answer in the comment shows.
But let's say bearing means the angle between the track (over ground) of an aircraft and a fixed location. This ...
- 7,207
10
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between azimuth and heading?
A heading (in the general case of moving "forward") is the direction your nose is pointed in. This may not be your course (as discussed here).
Headings are measured from onboard a traveling vehicle or ...
- 68k
9
votes
Accepted
How quickly should heading changes be accomplished?
According to Wikipedia, a "Standard Rate Turn" is three degrees of heading change per second.
The bank angle required to achieve this depends on your true airspeed; at a low TAS a standard rate turn ...
- 47.5k
8
votes
Do autopilot headings consider the earth's shape?
You wrote:
On a flat map, point A might be to point B at, say, heading 060. [...] Is there a formula to determine the optimum heading at the outset (even though it may not 'seem' correct), thereby, ...
- 7,207
7
votes
How heading bug is calculated during cross wind and tail wind?
First thing first, let's go over some concept: heading is which way the plane's nose is pointing at, track is which way the plane is travelling on the ground. E.g. if your heading is 360 (North), and ...
- 39.5k
7
votes
What is the meaning of “American 755, turn right, heading 320"?
The basic answer is that the controller is instructing American 755 to turn right in order to point the airplane a direction which is 320 degrees clockwise from due north (basically northwest)
For ...
- 22.8k
7
votes
Accepted
What are Altitude, Attitude and Heading Hold?
These are generally 3 different auto pilot modes. The first two are related to pitch and the third to heading/roll a nice overview can be found here
Altitude Hold: Generally speaking setting an ...
- 99.2k
7
votes
What is an autopilot washout filter?
A washout filter is used in a yaw damper autopilot to remove the steady state component from the yaw rate sensor. Feedback from the rate sensor is used to damp dutch roll mode, but during turns ...
- 18.2k
7
votes
Does the radial needle of a HSI automatically deflect to the correct position when tuning the NAV radio to a localizer / ILS?
It depends on your instrument suite.
If you have just a radio with connected HSI, you have to set the course yourself, because on the radio you only set the frequency and there are hundreds ILS ...
- 55.8k
7
votes
Accepted
How do you realign a directional gyro in an area of magnetic unreliability?
You initially align it while on the ground, using a known reference like the runway. While in flight, you'll need to use an astrocompass or sextant, if you have one and know how to use it and can see ...
- 122k
7
votes
What does the number in degrees indicate on an approach chart?
An approach plate is a map, so the directional values presented are always magnetic track angles (except near the magnetic North Pole). A heading is where the airplane points when it's flying. So, ...
- 122k
7
votes
Is the Garmin G1000's heading indicator based on a Magnetic compass?
A good way to figure this out is to look up the annunciation modes of the Garmin display. Here's a Cessna-specific version of the G1000 that I grabbed.
This page shows the red X will happen from the ...
- 1,715
6
votes
Do aircraft carriers always face into the wind?
Not answered yet is this part of the question:
How often do they rotate the ship if this is the case?
First, just a nomenclature alert: ships don't rotate, they maneuver, steer, or change course. ...
- 10.3k
6
votes
Accepted
How do I determine which radial intercept angle to use?
There is no definite answer to this question.
If you are far away from the beacon radials are far away from each other and thus small intercept angle would be insufficient to reach desired track in ...
- 3,143
6
votes
Can a commercial pilot decide where to make their turn after departure?
The short answer is yes, a commercial pilot can make a decision when to turn.
To clarify a few points though, there really isn't such a thing as a "published vector". If a departure procedure with ...
- 22.7k
5
votes
What's the difference between True vs Magnetic headings?
The true north pole, aka the celestial north pole, is the point on the Earth's surface intersecting Earth's rotational axis on the northern hemisphere (and thus the axis around which all stars appear ...
- 22.6k
5
votes
What principle does the attitude indicator in the G1000 use?
G1000 is a multi-unit system. The attitude information comes from a specialised unit called AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System), typically GRS 77. AHRS uses two solid-state gyros (vertical ...
- 8,863
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