Test Today...help......

[tennm1980]

Major ground school test today, I cant seem to get this Navigation Plotter down completely. Anyone have any tips on how to find the True Course? This is confusing, and the instructor at the academy didnt say much of anything. ANY help is appreciated.

[Brett_Henderson]

You don't find a true course.. you start with that as a know (straight line direction that you want to travel).

To fly a true course by magnetic compass you need to account for three factors. The difference between true north and magnetic north (variation)..

[Nexus]

Umm..True Course?
What you draw on the map is your TT (True track)
And the MT (Magnetic Track) compensates the variation. Then you have the CT (Callibrated(?) Track) which is the corrected track for the aircrafts magnetism (deviation)

[Nexus]

DoH!
Brett's answer is basicly 100times better than mine  ;D

[tennm1980]

OK....thats a great explanation, thanks for the time. I think that I am completely turned aroundin my head on how to find the magnetic heading on the plotter.

[Brett_Henderson]

What you draw on the map is your true course.. What you end up flying is your track..

Think of course as want you want.. Track is what you do.. (hopefully they're close)

[C]

(hopefully they're close)

Hopefully!

[Nexus]

Brett, I've always been taught that you plot your TT on the map. In fact...I've never heard about the expression "true course"

But mind you, I'm educated here in Sweden...we tend to be a little weird at times  8)

[Brett_Henderson]

Yeah.. the terminology gets tossed around pretty loosely and trans-Atlantic differences don't help. You can get two different answers to this from two different instructors standing right next to each other. How I remember it is:

[beefhole]

Brett, I've always been taught that you plot your TT on the map. In fact...I've never heard about the expression "true course"

But mind you, I'm educated here in Sweden...we tend to be a little weird at times  8)

Yeah, we call it TC, and we plot it on our maps...

"I am from Shveden-isn't that vierd?"

[Nexus]

Must be a trans-atlantic thingee. I consulted some of my friends (aeoronautical engineers and IRL pilots aswell) and they weren't familiar with the "true course" either.
What we did agree on, was that we all associated "course" with radio navigation.  ;D

[beaky]

 What tennm needs (or needed, I guess, at this point) is some help using the plotter to find the true heading of a straight line between A and B, which is known as "true course", "true track", or "truly just the path you'd like to take through the air".  ;D
It's very simple, really- although I recall getting bewildered by it a few times early in my training. Assuming your plotter is like mine, you lay the bottom edge of it on your line, then slide it so the hole in the center is on a vertical grid line (longitude line; they're black lines spaced  half a degree of longitude apart on a US sectional) on the chart.
Remember- use a vertical grid line, not a horizontal one. Keep the plotter parallel to the line you drew... it can be touching at the bottom or top edge, or wherever- as long as its straight part is parallel to your drawn line and the hole is right on the vertical grid line.
 Your plotter should have two numbered scales, each with an arrow showing the rough direction of flight (to the left of your vertical line or to the right).
Choose the scale whose arrow matches your general direction, and where the vertical line falls on that scale, the number there is your true course, or true track, or whatever... think of it as your desired path, the line over the ground you would like to follow.
If you want at that moment to know what your course heading imight be going the other way along the same line, just look at the other scale... the number there will be exactly 180 degrees different. Amazing, isn't it?
If you are still unsure of what to do next, refer to Brett's post...