(Tag changed)

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 17:48:12 -0400, John Ferrell wrote:

> You would be surprised how well you can read a compass in a light single engine airplane on an overwater
flight out of radio range.

Yes I may well be surprised, but it's academic because I never *would* fly a single over water out of radio
range!  :-)  My family crest is a yellow chicken on a background of white feathers...

I find that in flight reading the compass to 5 degrees is about the best I can do, with turbulence and so on
making the darned thing wander at least that much anyway.

>I suppose GPS changes that now days, but not enough to rid the cockpit of the compass!

> BTW, unless things have changed, in the US every aircraft needs to have a compass correction card but there
is no rule that requires that it be filled out!

Yes, the legal position in the UK is that there must be a functioning compass with a correction card, and GPS
doesn't count for anything at all yet.  I think the card does have to be filled in here, though!

> In all fairness, compass navigation to any real accuracy requires you to know a lot more about the wind than
you usually do.

Indeed, and of course you usually aren't flying on the compass, but on the DI set to it now and then, so you
can choose a calm moment to set the DI, and that's when the "guess within 5 degrees" happens.  However on an
amazing flight I did over France once, at about mid-point of the trip I looked down and said to the RHSeat: "I
reckon we're ten metres right of track".  He looked down and said "Eleven".  "Ah. but you're looking out of
the other side!"  :-)))  I don't know how, but that flight went absolutely spot-on from a navigational point
of view - something I've never done before or since.  I spoiled it by making a complete mess of the approach
to Belle Isle (sp?) and had to go-around...

Cheers,

Howard Winter
St.Albans, England

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