In rec.aviation.piloting EridanMan wrote:
Are VOR's all MH based?

I was flightplanning the other day (I must be one of the few poor
souls left who flight-plans by hand... I guess I just haven't been
flying long enough to get sick of it yet, I consider my flight
planning to be 'part of the experience') And I got to thinking-

Why in gods name are VOR's Mag heading based?

You got a true north compass in your airplane?

I know, ideally, that means that you can sync your DG and your VOR
indicator to fly to a waypoint... except that most VOR's around here
have long since fallen behind Magnetic drift... so - now, not only do
you have to flightplan in True Heading, convert to Mag Heading to get
your vectors, THEN you have to get the corrective factor for each of
the VOR's your using for navigation and note that as well? huh?

Center the needle and keep it centered?

I'm sorry... call me lazy, but if your not going to keep them all
updated with Magnetic north, then at least stick them on a standard
baseline... True North, for example?

If the drift is sufficient ( 2 or 3 degrees, I forget the number; it's
in the AIM ) they are supposed to be recalibrated.

The uncertainty in the wind drift angle is usually a lot more than
that.

There are lots of free flight planners that do all that for you.

Golden Eagle for DUATS corrects for everything but your compass
error and is free.

--
Jim Pennino

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