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Greg R. wrote:
> Which reminded me of something that I've been meaning to ask - I've
> noticed that in marine navigation textbooks DR lines are usually
> labeled as being a "course" (i.e. TC 210, MC 150) - either true or
> magnetic,  depending on personal preference.
>
> But isn't what we're really plotting a heading? I think of a "course"
> as being the path that a vessel tracks over the ground (or over the
> bottom), and heading as the direction a vessel is pointed or steered in
> order to produce that course.
>
I suspect it's tradition more than anything else -- "course" is the
maritime term just as "heading" is the aircraft term.   Maybe the latter
is better - it certainly gives the impression "this is the way the
airplane is pointing" (eg, on crosswind landings).  COG (course over
ground) is again the maritime term for what an aircraft pilot would call
"course"

But then we could also ask why the person who drives an aircraft is the
"pilot" which is the term for someone who navigates a ship in coastal
waters ;-)

Speaking of which, I learned just this weekend why the pilot in a
helicopter sits in the right-hand seat, even though the pilot's seat for
a conventional aircraft had been on the left for over three decades
before the development of the helicopter.   It's because Igor Sikorsky
figured that the helicopter pilot would want the stick in his right hand
(as in an aircraft) but he also needed to manipulate the collective (the
control that regulates the main rotor and therefore lift and thrust)
which is typically located on the centerline of the aircraft.  So rather
than make pilots learn how to fly "left-handed," he moved them to the
right seat.

Lu Abel


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