Compass turns.. (quick and dirty)

Ask questions about flying techniques here. Real or Simulated - the principles are the same!

Compass turns.. (quick and dirty)

Postby Brett_Henderson » Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:59 am

If you've ever wandered through the woods with a compass in-hand; you've figured out that it only reads accurately, when you're either standind still (or walking at a steady pace), and it is help perfectly level. Same deal for compasses in airplanes.

I won't get into the techy mush about how, bank/pitch/accelleration skew compasses. All you need to know for simming, is that anything other than level, constant-airspeed flight, can make a compass read erroneously. The only variables worth noting; are that banking has more of an effect on the north/south readings.. and acceleration (speeding up OR slowing down) has more of an effect on east/west readings.. and of course those two factors overlap
Last edited by Brett_Henderson on Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Brett_Henderson
Major
Major
 
Posts: 3403
Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:09 am

Re: Compass turns.. (quick and dirty)

Postby flaminghotsauce » Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:24 am

If I recall correctly, the degrees of error in the N/S turning is affected by latitude. Where I am it's about 30 degrees like you mention, but  I don't recall whether it gets more or less when the latitude changes north or south.

Nothing like a partial panel IFR approach with no ATC vectors.  ;)
flaminghotsauce
2nd Lieutenant
2nd Lieutenant
 
Posts: 181
Joined: Tue May 04, 2004 6:59 pm


Return to Flight School

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 159 guests