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C J Campbell > Why bother with heading when you can know your ground track directly? The problem is that you can directly control heading, and only indirectly control track. As long as the difference between heading and track is relatively small (say, less than about 20 degrees), you can adjust N degrees of track error by making N degrees of heading change and do just fine. But, yes, in general, given a choice of only having heading info or only having track info, Ill take track any day. Both is better, of course. Fortunately, in airplanes, its extremely rare to have WCAs larger than 20 degrees. A 30 degree WCA would imply a crosswind component of half your airspeed, which is rare (unless youre flying a Cub on a windy day). If you really want to see a situation where theres a big difference between heading and track, try sailing in a place with lots of current. Ive been in NY Harbor on a light-wind day where the current was faster than our boatspeed (i.e. speed through the water, analagous to true airspeed in a plane). Heading up-current, youre making 2-3 kts through the water, but going backwards over the bottom. Cross-current, your heading and track might easily differ by 45 degrees. In a situation like that, taking away visual clues and only giving you ground track for navigation would result in a very confused and frustrated skipper. Heck, even when you can see where youre going, you get a very confused and frustrated skipper in a situation like that :-) |
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