Why are headings still magnetic?

Roy Smith wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote:

I certainly won't quarrel with using magnetic navigation as a back-up,
but I do question basing normal navigation on a compass, which is
relatively unreliable compared to more modern methods.


Unreliable? The magnetic compass is about as reliable is it gets. There's
one moving part, no power source, and the Earth's magnetic field is good
for another few thousand years. What's unreliable about that? Of the
cannonical "watch and compass" navigation kit, the watch is by far the less
reliable of the two.

I suspect he was talking about accuracy or precision more than
reliability. Although, if you are talking about finding a distance
point with a high degree of reliability, then that term might be
appropriate. The inherent lack of accuracy of dead reckoning as
compared to GPS means that you will be much less likely to find a
precise point in the distance, and thus you could consider the
reliability of consistently finding that point.

Matt