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Like, what does "come to new course 330" or "new course [any three numbers]"? How are those three read? What's the system? How does it work?

Think of a Compass and a circle
0-90 North/Eastern approach
90-180 South/ SOuth Eastern
180-270 West/ South western
270-360 North/ Northwest approach

Now that I most likely described it wrong, wait till a preofessional soldier logs on to explain.
<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>



Edited by - tritonal on Sep 18 2003 4:12 PM

Thanks.

So it is just degrees on a circle, I think I get it. So I guess 000 is North. 090 is east. 180 is south. 270 is west.



Edited by - ViperTTB on Sep 18 2003 5:21 PM

To my understanding yes, but wait till the soldiers and airmen reply because I may be backwards( I doubt it).


However, yes, that is the general concept of understanding.

I just found a great website with tons of info.

http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/index.htm

There is also some stuff like "Relative" Bearing and "True", like a compass. True uses true North as 0 degrees. Relative uses the ships bow as 0 degrees.

You're info was 100% correct/.

When applied to LR shooting and Artillery, the 360 degree circle is broken up into mils. There are 64 mils to a degree, and 7000 mils to a circle. This is an obviously far more precise system.

"If we are not victorious, let no man return alive."

Gen George S. Patton

When you are flying there are two different headings; true, and magnetic. If you look on an aviation sectional you will see in the northern hemisphere what are called isogonic lines of variation. This is the difference between where north really is and where a mag compass tells you it is. In the northen hemisphere you must add a certain number of degrees to a course if you are flying VFR to compensate for the difference. In new England I believe it is an add of 15 degrees. I may be off a bit though. In the southern hemisphere you subtract a given number of degrees from true south to obtain mag south. If you look on a mercator projected map it usually will show you where both the north and south poles exist in either form. But that changes every year as far as mag poles concern.

north pole is 90.00n 0.00
south pole is 90.00s 0.00

The magnetic north and south poles rotate at different points around the arctic and ant-arctic and very greatly over the years. It actually changes as much as 85 kilometers a day.

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

Edited by - Hawg166 on Sep 19 2003 06:19 AM

_________________
YGBSM !

It's almost that simple, but then we make it hard again. A 'course' is different from a heading in that it's degrees relative from a navigational aid (NAVAID).

You have radials inbound and outbound, and courses. Radials are like degrees, and they indicate your position from the navaid with nothing to do with your heading. You can track the 090 radial inbound, which means your heading will be 270, or the 090 radial outbound, and your heading will be 090. Either way you'll be directly east of the station.

A course is (almost) always going to be the radial outbound. I have never gotten a clearance to track a course inbound that was the reciprocal radial.

The way it would happen is the controling agency (the guys on radar) will give you a heading ("turn left heading zero three zero") to intercept a course ("to intercept the zero nine zero radial outbound") and you follow that course until given another clearance. Most of the times we are given a clearance like that is when we are entering a victor airway or jet route, which are like highways in the sky. It's a designated course out of a navaid that the controller can give you a clearance to, and everyone knows exactly where you are going to go with that.

Well, i'd say this subject has been pretty thoroughly explained, lol.

"If we are not victorious, let no man return alive."

Gen George S. Patton

I thought he was asking about military bearing....I still don't know what that means!! <img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle>

Ugly but well hung!
http://www.warthogpen.com

Military bearing is just as Tritonal first explained it.

"If we are not victorious, let no man return alive."

Gen George S. Patton

Dice was refering to the Professional Conduct and
Mindset of a Military Serviceman<img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

Ah, the old moral compass thing.

I never did quite get that down <img src=icon_smile_tongue.gif border=0 align=middle>

"If we are not victorious, let no man return alive."

Gen George S. Patton

Me neither, mine is the Kick ass take names approach, get the ass chewing in the rear by the C.O and not in a 3rd world POW camp.

[quote]
Like, what does "come to new course 330" or "new course [any three numbers]"? ---------

The real biggie in aviation is knowing where the navaid or airport is. Then it's easier to orient yourself on what course or radial your taking. It sounds easy, but learning the basics is a tough one. At my local airport, folks always screw up right or left base etc.

Headings are always 3 digits and runways are 2 digits in readbacks. Runway 5=zero 5, etc. ( Exception being dual or triple runways, then you add left, right or center).

In Antarticia we used grid navaigation. It felt really weird to be headed North to hit South Pole. Upon departing South Pole, it was all North.

Jack