Measurement of Direction

ATRN 214
Measurement of
Direction
By using the meridians, one can
measure the direction of travel by
measuring the angle between the
your course and true north.

Q: Is there a heading 361?

This means my heading is 60° from true north or simply 060

Why do we use Why this?
longitude instead of
latitude as reference?

longitude
Since meridians of longitudes
extends from north to south, that
means all longitudes always point to
the north. This is important for
consistency.
Example
Which direction is this
aircraft heading?
Let’s complete this
compass rose
True and Magnetic
North
Last lecture, we discussed how
Earth is tilted with respect to it’s
rotation.
The magnetic field is tilted as well!
This makes compasses point to
the “tilted” north.

Now, which north should we be

referring to?
Variation and Deviation
Magnetic Variation
Since we now know that true and magnetic north
in different places, we need a way to measure our
direction using these two, and to convert from
one to another.

Magnetic variation, or simply variation, is the

angle between true north (TN) and magnetic north
(MN). It is expressed as east variation or west
variation depending upon whether MN is to the
east or west of TN.

As you can see, we cannot use magnetic

meridians to measure direction as it is different in
other parts of the globe. Again, this is bad for
consistency. Magnetic meridians (in red) vs latitude and longitude
(in blue)
Isogonic Lines

In a map, it is handy to know

the variation in an area with
just one look. Lines on Earth’s
surface with the same variation
are called isogonic line. The
line with zero variation is called
agonic line.
True and Magnetic Heading

Remember from your first assignment the definition of heading. It is the direction where the
aircraft is pointing to. An aircraft can point into different directions based on which north you
are referencing.

True heading – is the heading with reference to true north.

Given that, what is a magnetic heading?

West is Best, East is Least

Now we are ready for some calculations!

Given a true heading of 010 (remember that it is 10°), and a variation of 2°W. What would be
the magnetic heading?

A good way to remember is using “West is best, east is least”. That means, A west variation is
added to true heading to obtain magnetic heading. The reverse is true for east variations.
Magnetic Deviation

• Physics 101: Iron attracts magnet, and

electricity produces magnetic field.

• Why does it matter to us? Huge parts of an

aircraft is made of magnetic metal. And
components are ran by electricity. That
means an aircraft has it’s own local
magnetic field.

• These components can influence the

compass, giving erroneous reading. This
error induced is the magnetic deviation.
Magnetic Deviation

• Since we measure our direction based on

compass reading we need a way to
compensate with deviation.
• A deviation card is created for every
aircraft that summarizes the correction
needed to be made to have a correct
compass reading.
Compass Heading
Yes. We have a true heading, a magnetic
heading (which accounts for variation), and a
compass heading (which is magnetic heading
accounted for deviation).

Compass heading is what we use to navigate

during flight.

Variation Deviation
True Heading Magnetic Heading Compass Heading
A compass deviation card
This means that if an aircraft wants a
heading 030, it must have a reading
of 028 in the compass. It has a -2
deviation.

Q: What if we want to head to 315.

What is the deviation?
Example

Given a true heading of 045, and a variation of 1°30’W. Referring to the compass card from
the last slide, what would be the compass heading?