Set Heading Points

[Shiny Side Up]

In all honesty stuff like set heading points, driftlines, tracklines and even the map itself are merely tools that one can put to use while navigating. I'll be bold enough to say that while I always have a map when flying, in many cases I don't use it, if only because the map in my head works just as well. I'll say that If I know I'm going to stray outside of that map, then I'll put the tools to use. For training purposes though, I know that most people don't have that map in their head. At most they have a map to get to the mall and one to get ot Mom's house. Not a very detailed map at that - often block off their main route and they're in unknown territory.

To really make use of the skill to be taught in the PPL one generally needs some basic threshold knowledge.

1) Ruler usage.
2) Protractor Usage.
3) General map knowledge.
4) Basic math.

Many are missing one or more - sometimes all - of the above. This makes teaching them the level that is required to get to the basic navigation extrordinarily difficult. Ruler usage for instance is a skill I've been putting into usage since I could wield a pencil. Any tradesman will be well versed (measure twice, cut once) your average person will generally not be. Go to a hardware store and you'll find all sorts of gadgets designed to be sold to the measurement-challenged. Many don't know basic map conventions. Many are unfamiliar with the common symbol usages (like for towns, roads and railways) so are really befuddled by the additional aviation jumble. Basic math is usually the worst - especially when it comes to estimating fractions. Pick two points on a map, pick a third inbetween those two points and your average person will not be able to tell you fractionally how far you are inbetween. Here's a cue to that thought process - most individuals think in terms of fractions of time when travelling, not fractions of distance. It mucks them up however when they start moving at speeds they're not used to. Barring flying something like a cub, every airplane travels at speeds beyond their usual comprehension.

The real obstacle though is an unwillingness to learn and perfect a skill set. When I teach navigation in groundschool and help students with the excersise, the inevitable question comes up: "Why can't I just use a GPS?" In fact that was one of the big questions I was asked when I had a chat with a local group of pilots recently. Was there courses or training to be had in this regard? I see GPS as a tool to be used, much like the set heading point on the map, but one aspect to aid one in their ability to navigate and it can't be used on its own to its fullest potential without a good basic understanding of finding one's way at the basest level. Many think that it is a shortcut around a longer learning path, but that shortcut short-changes them in the end.

Its been proven that homing pigeons can orient themselves and navigate solely by the positions of the sun or the stars. Surely us creatures of higher thought should be able to up the ante.

[into the blue]

Good post, Shiny Side Up.
I look at traditional navigation in the following way. Yes, it is often a less efficient way of getting from A to B; yes, it is surely more time consuming to prepare to navigate an airplane with only a chart, a navlog, a pencil, a watch and a compass; yes, it can be a lot more challenging, than following a nice magenta line on a GPS. But I don't think anyone will argue that this kind of navigation is a major "feel-good" generator if you know how to do it, and when it is appropriate to do it. People choose flying for many reasons. I am looking to flying for a challenge (not the holy-shit-how-am-I-going-to-get-out-of-this type of challenge, just the type of challenge that can leave me with some self-satisfaction). For me, navigating a small airplane by dead reckoning on a nice day or night over a long distance is probably one of the most satisfying moments in flying.

Its been proven that homing pigeons can orient themselves and navigate solely by the positions of the sun or the stars. Surely us creatures of higher thought should be able to up the ante.

Sorry for off-topic but, actually, I'm starting to seriously doubt that humans are supreme beings in anything. Take just about any quality and you'll be able to find a creature who does it better than us. Eyesight, hearing, sense of smell and touch etc., etc., etc. - we suck, if compared to others. And thinking? Hmmm, well, there are a lot of people who live only by pure reflexes without bothering to think at all, it seems.

[Hawkerflyer]

Whats a map?

[complexintentions]

I don't really have an opinion on track lines or drift lines other than it makes me a bit nostalgic for my PPL days. But I will say, that the ability to interpret information presented on a paper (and eventually electronic) map will ALWAYS do you some good, and thus I would encourage anyone in training to make the most of the opportunity to develop these skills.

As far as paper charts being made irrelevant for navigation...we fly all over the world and have access to every neat toy, triple IRS's and EGPWS with terrain mapping and CPDLC and so on. But on every flight (with the odd exception) we have the chart out for the area we're flying. Why? It isn't for navigation per se, but to enhance situational awareness.

If we're flying over the Himalayas in a twin, we'd like to see the grid MOCA...always. A driftdown escape strategy isn't much use if you don't know which way to turn. Or perhaps we missed a radio call and now we need to find out what the appropriate freq is - the time it takes to pull the chart, locate your position, and find the frequency can be painfully long! Maybe we want to see where the next FIR boundary is, as many require a radio call XX minutes prior to entry. Etc etc.

It's just about having a better "big picture" than the magenta line will give.

Drifting off the "set heading point" question, I know, but I think it's related. There seems to be a movement away from map-reading skills and I would submit that even with all the technology these skills are still really important, even in airline ops with all the equipment redundancy.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Map reading is the foundation skill of all navigation. Before you can properly employ set heading points, drift lines, course correction methods etc etc right up to using sophisticated GPS units , you have to be able to look out the window and then stick you finger on a map and say "We Are Here". Unfortunately when navigation is taught at a flight school it usually immediately starts with drawing lines on a map. Map reading is a skill and methods to improve map reading skills can be taught and should be practiced. They will in my opinion have a far more enduring usefullness than than the type of machanical drafting exercises that comprise the navigational procedures required to pass a flight test.

Question for the newbies: How many were taught the differences between looking map to ground and looking ground to map and the best system for visually locating your position on the map when you are not sure where you are ?

[iflyforpie]

Question for the newbies: How many were taught the differences between looking map to ground and looking ground to map and the best system for visually locating your position on the map when you are not sure where you are ?

This is the thing that gets missed most often even by experienced pilots (including myself ).

After years of following a position on a map and using GPS, I was being evaluated on my map reading and navigation by a Missionary Agency last fall in the US. Was quite simple really, we are here, divert over here. Time enroute was going to be 15 minutes.

Well... not that simple. We have no nav or GPS (they were 'broken') and I had a 'ceiling' which prevented me from taking a direct course. To add further complication to this, it was in an area I had never flown before (McCall, Idaho).

So I got my distance, heading, and time and I started working my way as good as I could to my destination, which was the Oxbow Airport in Hell's Canyon. I thought that it would be a piece of cake to find the canyon--and it was, but I had overcompensated my northern correction for my southern deviation. Reaching the canyon, I couldn't see the airport (due to the depth and windiness of the trench) so I decided I was going to go north for ten minutes.

At which point I was informed by my evaluator that in ten minutes I was going to be off the map and deep in Hell's Canyon, and that if the trip was only suppose to take 15 minutes, why would I go on for another ten? We turned around and headed south and soon found the Oxbow airport.

The next diversion was a tiny strip in the middle of some scrub in the middle of nowhere (near the Owhee Reservior in Oregon). I was super nervous, but kept checking ground to map for my progress. Once the distinctive features disappeared, I was checking clock (ET/ETA) to map, to ground. My ETA came and went with no sight of the strip, but I knew from other landmarks that I was going south in an easterly wind. So I decided to go east and lo and behold, there was the strip.

GPS is great and anybody who doesn't use one because they are a 'purist' is out to lunch. But basic map reading, pilotage, and dead-reckoning skills can come in handy. Use them or lose them.

[loopa]

Map reading is the foundation skill of all navigation. Before you can properly employ set heading points, drift lines, course correction methods etc etc right up to using sophisticated GPS units , you have to be able to look out the window and then stick you finger on a map and say "We Are Here". Unfortunately when navigation is taught at a flight school it usually immediately starts with drawing lines on a map. Map reading is a skill and methods to improve map reading skills can be taught and should be practiced. They will in my opinion have a far more enduring usefullness than than the type of machanical drafting exercises that comprise the navigational procedures required to pass a flight test.

Question for the newbies: How many were taught the differences between looking map to ground and looking ground to map and the best system for visually locating your position on the map when you are not sure where you are ?

You are so right. I think map reading should be one of those exercises that is tossed out RIGHT from the fam flight. It's not hard to get their attention in the plane and be like hey pal, so you see that thing down there, well here's what it looks like on the map. You see that there? That's this on the map... you see that peak? Want to know how high it is... wait a second... THERE 4300.

And this should be something on going so that by the time they get to the "Drawing" lines portion of the training, they know the basics of reading a map and as you said, point to where they are.

[Shiny Side Up]

Sorry for off-topic but, actually, I'm starting to seriously doubt that humans are supreme beings in anything.

People, for all their failings, have proven in the past though that they are capable of amazing feats. Keep in mind that people managed to colonise all of the liveable land in the Pacific ocean, with nothing more than a canoe and the sun and stars to guide them. Direction finding is a very basic skill that's available at the core of our being, and the most basic one that is related to being able to navigate. To make use of any navigational tool, be it a simple map with a line, a VOR or ADF or even a GPS, one needs first to be able to figure out this one piece of knowledge.

Pop quiz: From where you are sitting at your computer reading this now, do you know which way north is?

[208Drvr]

Whats wrong with the good old Finger and Map? why would you need a line drawn on a map? if anything circle where you are, circle where you want to go, and then fly there.

Depending on where you are in the world. This method works in 95% of Canada.

[SAR_YQQ]

Lines on maps don't work too well in the rocks - also makes a mess of your map.

Map reading skills should be second nature - you should be able to strap on your particular form of aircraft, go airborne and then look at the map.

[RatherBeFlying]

Doing a declared cross country in a glider, there ain't no SHP. You go looking for lift in the general direction of the next turnpoint or destination. The lines on the map are only for a general idea of where you'd like to end up, but the cumulus tells you where to go for the next few minutes.

A major function of the map is telling you where the controlled airspace is -- the good lift on bad days has a nasty habit of scuttling over to Class B Mode C mandatory airspace.