SurClaro Flight Simulations Resources

Whats the difference between heading and Course. Are they the same thing, although I have seen that they have separate dials in Autopilot.

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 7:19 pm Post subject:

Heading just holds the magnetic heading showed on the compass

Course is the same a NAV hold and it is used to hold either the GPS route, meaning the heading and the left/tight position (<--- --->). And for aligning yourself on the runway approach, or deciding what's the wind correctional angle.

I hope I've been helpful

ATR_flyer

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 9:16 pm Post subject:

As stated above, if there is a cross-wind, you have to turn the nose of your aircraft into the wind in order to maintain the correct course. For example, if you want a HEADING of North (360 degrees) and the wind is blowing from the West (270) degrees, you will have to set your HEADING a few degrees to the West in order to maintain a Northerly COURSE Cool

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 9:39 pm Post subject:

You might want to study "VOR Tracking" to get a good idea of the course info. Basically, the Course has to do with VOR tracking. On the 172 it is called the CRS knob located on the VOR gauges.

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:33 pm Post subject:

nrkazmi, check this link out, it describes navigation in some fairly easy to understand terms.

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/index.htm

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:50 am Post subject:

If I fly exactly north from a runway, and the the runway on which I have to land is named 25R, located 350 kms northwest of the current runway, does that mean the Course as well as Heading for this runway would be 250. And if the same runway lies 350 kms to north east, then what becomes of the heading and course.
I mean to say that do these both need to be the same????

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 2:47 pm Post subject:

Ok, that was just the most confusing question ever. Very Happy

I have no idea what you are asking. Could you give us another hint? Laughing

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:13 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure if this is going to work but here goes, in the simplest terms I could come up with:

You take off from Red Airfield going to Blue Airfield. Wind is out of the North so you take off on RWY 36 and go straight to Blue Airfiled on a 360 degree HEADING and land on RWY 36. Pretty simple unless ATC has some other routing for you. You got lucky here, in this "world of make believe" your COURSE was short and straight, both RWY's lined up perfectly and presented no navigational challenges.

Now, you're taking off from Red Airfield and want to go to Green Airfield. You take off on RWY 36, now obviously things are going to be a little different at Green Airfield. You can't expect to stay on a 360 degree heading (from Red Airfield) and land on RWY 31 at Green Airfield now can you? So, you alter your COURSE by changing your HEADING to the East and eventually to the Southeast until you find yourself somewhat parallel to the RWY you're going to land on (this is known as the DOWNWIND LEG), then you begin to turn your HEADING around (thus changing your COURSE) to the Northeast to put you on the BASE LEG, then turn to the Northwest to line up on final approach to RWY 31.

Got it?

EDIT: For the completely clueless, I forgot to put the RWY numbers in. In the land of make believe, the wind is always out of the North (360) to Northwest (hmm, say 310) so using the handy-dandy big N and arrow in the middle of the picture, you should be able to figure out what the RWYs are.

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:20 pm Post subject:

Heres a pic to understand it better:

The blue line is the FLIGHT PATH, with the runway frequency tuned and the right COURSE, that will guide the plane on the runway centerline.

The bright blue line is the right frequency, but the wrong COURSE, and you can't land that way.

The red line is the heading, just to go straight, be changing the value of the heading, you make turns.

With changing values in the COURSE part, you change the flightpath heading, and the position (blue and bright blue lines)

The big black thing is the plane Laughing

Don't make fun of my seven year old looking drawings Wink

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:33 am Post subject:

Millions of Thanks Ricktobin and Atr-Flyer.
The most easy and understandable post by both of you which made the things very very clear in my mind. That was great... I like getting taught this way.
Thanks once again. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:56 pm Post subject:

Come on nrkazmi, admit it: my drawing is better, hehehehe Laughing

Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:18 am Post subject:

Ok...Admitted.... Laughing

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject:

I have just googled this question. I have often pondered this very question even though IMHO I am kind of ok with most navigational stuff. Would it be right to say that your heading is what you have to do in order to navigate a certain course ( maybe later in a flight?)

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:54 pm Post subject:

I can just hear GroundSquirrel laughing right now. However, since he has such a great sense of humor, I am going to make him laugh one more time.

Please read the documentation from the following link. It will tell you all about Heading, Course, etc.

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/index.htm

Here is the part where GroundSquirrel laughs and says, "Skipper, do you really expect them to read"?

The answer to his question is "YES" because this is the only way to learn.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:26 pm Post subject:

Wow look at the date on that one Shocked