NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: course, heading, track
From: Brian Whatcott
Date: 2002 Feb 7, 18:12 -0600
From: Brian Whatcott
Date: 2002 Feb 7, 18:12 -0600
At 07:04 AM 2/7/02, Trevor Kenchington wrote: >... aviation terminology does not >distinguish between what we surface-bound types call "heading" and >"course". Are aircraft so stable in yaw that the distinction is not needed? >... >Trevor Kenchington Trevor here asks a leading question. This does seem to be a salient difference between air pilots and sailors in general. For the airborne, a persistant yaw is a symptom of ineptitude, or much worse, a consequence of asymmetric thrust. Their object is to cross country without yaw. Their higher speed exacts a bigger penalty for yawing. For the sea-borne, a persistant yaw is an unavoidable consequence of sailing at any point off a following wind (if then). For one then the difference between the bearing of a destination and the heading is a compensation for cross wind: the other needs to compensate for yaw due to wind sidethrust, and for tidal/current set as well. One supposes that an air pilot might undercompensate for cross wind when sailing, and a sailboat skipper might overcompensate for cross wind when flying. Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!