Dallas wrote:
On 30 Aug 2007 05:00:02 GMT, Allen Smith wrote:

Can somebody give me easy examples to understand? My next flight
lesson is scheduled for next week...

First, Bob Gardner's post is very clear and correct.

If you are talking about creating a flight plan and flying a course, the
term bearing is a bit out of place. For flight planning you'll start with
a line on a chart which will be the True Course and end with Compass
Heading.

You use Compass Heading to point the aircraft in a direction that will
result in moving you along the True Course.

The steps to calculate Compass Heading a

True Course - The line on the chart expressed as a True North based course

True Heading - True Course corrected for Wind Correction Angle

Magnetic Heading - True Heading corrected for magnetic variation

Compass Heading - Magnetic Heading corrected for Compass Deviation Error

(I feel your pain... I just went through this stuff too...)

Many new student pilots are confused by the many different terms used in
the basic navigation glossary. Although mentioned and demonstrated
every time instructors are dealing with this issue, many instructors
fail to emphasize the single most important point for the student to
understand.
If this single point is EMPHASIZED early on in the learning curve, it
can save a ton of confusion down the line as the student ponders basic
navigation problems.
That single fact that should be emphasized early on is that a heading is
always corrected for wind! You can deal with the courses straight
through the chain without a wind correction which can be very confusing
to a new student.
TC -+ Var= MC -+ Dev= CC Notice no wind correction there, but the
student has to deal with wind.
You insert a correction for wind anywhere in this chain and you change
from dealing with courses to dealing with headings.
TC-+ (WCA)= TH-+ Var= MH-+ Dev=CH
It's the misuse of the term heading when dealing with charts where the
term course is indicated that confuses many students. They fly a heading
to make good a course so the whole problem is one of correcting a course
on a chart through variation and deviation AND a wind correction to
achieve a final compass HEADING.
I don't know how many times I've seen something in print that reads like,
"What is the heading of that runway?" or "what is the heading of that
VOR radial?"
It's VERY confusing for new students!!


--
Dudley Henriques