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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 .
A magnetic compass aboard an aircraft displays the current magnetic heading of the aircraft, i.e., the aircraft's directional orientation relative to the Earth's geomagnetic field, which has a roughly north-south orientation. The compass can be used in turns to verify the aircraft is travelling in the desired direction at the conclusion of a turn.
In aircraft navigation, an angle is normally measured from the aircraft's track or heading, in a clockwise direction. If the aircraft encounters a target that is not ahead of the aircraft and not on an identical track, then the angular bearing to that target is called a relative bearing. [clarification needed]
The wind triangle is used to calculate the effects of wind on heading and airspeed to obtain a magnetic heading to steer and the speed over the ground (groundspeed). Printed tables, formulae, or an E6B flight computer are used to calculate the effects of air density on aircraft rate of climb, rate of fuel burn, and airspeed. [9]
A general aviation (GA) pilot will often make use of either a flight computer – a type of slide rule – or a purpose-designed electronic navigational computer to calculate initial headings. The primary instrument of navigation is the magnetic compass.
The heading indicator is arranged such that the gyro axis is used to drive the display, which consists of a circular compass card calibrated in degrees. The gyroscope is spun either electrically, or using filtered air flow from a suction pump (sometimes a pressure pump in high altitude aircraft) driven from the aircraft's engine. Because the ...
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The mathematical formulas that equate to the results of the flight computer wind calculator are as follows: (desired course is d, ground speed is V g, heading is a, true airspeed is V a, wind direction is w, wind speed is V w. d, a and w are angles. V g, V a and V w are consistent units of speed. is approximated as 355/113 or 22/7)