Why The Hell... (random rant)

DR writes:

LOL! How do _you_ do that exactly?

I don't. I know the direction of true north at my location, and I don't go
anywhere else.

--
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"Tim" wrote in message
...

Not all planes have GPSes. In fact, most don't. Many of the haldheld
units fail. \
A bit OT, but I was delivering a sailboat from Ventura to Richmond one
November, and the handheld GPS died in heavy fog under the Golden Gate
Bridge. We replaced batteries, figured out it was not the unit, and
navigated by fog horns to the east bay. Sometimes, you just have to know
how to drive (boat, plane, car). And, you can't _simulate_ the real feeling
when a Golden Gate ferry blows across your port bow assuming (and hoping)
his radar saw you.

-CJ

writes:

You are talking about a gyro compass.

No, I'm not.

A gyro compass is huge, expensive and heavy.

But there is none inside an inertial reference platform. An IRS uses laser
gyros.

They can take hours to settle on a usable reading.

An IRS can find true north in a few minutes, depending on latitude.

An INS system has to be initialized with it's current position and just
tells you where you have moved relative to the starting position.

But it also finds true north on its own, without any need for external data.
It simply detects the rotation of the Earth, and that gives it an east-west
reference, to which true north is perpendicular.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Google for it. You'll be surprised.

--
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writes:

I can't think of any local anomaly that is both strong enough and large
enough to be anything other than a transitory "burble" at most to the
compass of an airplane in flight.

Try flying just outside Reno.

--
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DR wrote:
LOL! My BS meter just went off scale!

Be careful! Exposure to anything over 3 MX posts/m^2/kg/hr (equivalent
to 4,500 Dumbass/kg/hr) is toxic to brain matter.

Declination?

Next I suppose he'll start in on rhumb lines. :P

TheSmokingnu

Jose writes:

"It must be true - I found it on the internet"

I think you'll find that the more you research about the geomagnetic field,
the less reliable you find it to be for navigation.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

DR wrote:
Declination in navigation is actually
something else but I'll let you googgle for it.


I'm not sure that's really true. In aviation we talk about variation,
but when I'm using 7.5' topo maps on the ground, declination is the term
used for the difference
between magnetic and true north. (See the bottom left of a US DOI
Geologic Survey 7.5' topo.)
Variation and declination are defined the same
If there's a more sophisticated use of the word declination in
navigation, I'm willing to be enlightened.

"flynrider via AviationKB. wrote

I can relate. I have a video that I took on a cross country flight, of
my
mag compass doing rapid 360s. It lasted about 5 min. and there were no
magnetic anomolies listed on the chart in that area. There were also no
UFO
sightings reported that day :-))

Well, nobody else has asked, but I'm sure others (besides me) are thinking
it! ;-)

Well, were you in the "Bermuda Triangle" or not? g

Where (about) were you?
--
Jim in NC

Mxsmanic wrote:

In order to recognize the landmark, you need something more than a
compass.

It is called a chart. If you have a chart and a compass, you are
all set.

--Sylvain

On Apr 4, 6:05 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
EridanMan writes:
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?

I think aviation should have started moving towards true north for everything
long ago, but that's just me.

Bwahahwhawhawhawhawhawhawhawhawhahwawhawhawh

OH BTW doooofus, I'm getting closer and closer. Oh wait, you're not
birght enough to even know what a header eeez.

bertie