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Ignoring set and drift can cause a mariner to get off their desired course, sometimes by hundreds of miles. A mariner needs to be able to steer the ship and compensate for the effects of set and drift upon their vessel while underway. The actual course a vessel travels is referred to as the course over the ground. The current of the ocean ...
The course is to be distinguished from the heading, which is the direction where the watercraft's bow or the aircraft's nose is pointed. [1] [2] [3] [page needed] The path that a vessel follows is called a track or, in the case of aircraft, ground track (also known as course made good or course over the ground). [1] The intended track is a route.
The navigator plots their 9 a.m. position, indicated by the triangle, and, using their course and speed, estimates their own position at 9:30 and 10 a.m. In navigation , dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix , and incorporating estimates of speed ...
The drift angle (shaded red) is due to the wind velocity (W/V, in green). In navigation , the heading of a vessel or aircraft is the compass direction in which the craft's bow or nose is pointed. Note that the heading may not necessarily be the direction that the vehicle actually travels, which is known as its course .
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This type of problem arises when determination of heading and true airspeed can be done by reading the flight instruments and ground track and ground speed can be found either by measuring the direction and distance between two established points of the aircraft or by determining the drift angle and ground speed by reference to the ground.
One can also use the 1 in 60 rule to approximate distance from a VOR, by flying 90 degrees to a radial and timing how long it takes to fly 10 degrees (the limit of the course deviation indicator). The time in seconds divided by 10 is roughly equal to the time in minutes from the station, at the current ground speed .
A diagram of a typical nautical sextant, a tool used in celestial navigation to measure the angle between two objects viewed by means of its optical sight. Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the ...