Bearing and Course, differences?

You were taught wrong...refer to the P/C Glossary.

Bob Gardner

"BT" wrote in message
...
Bearing "To"
Course "From"
is what I was taught..

BT

"Allen Smith" wrote in message
...
Hey guys,
I am a presolo guy, about 11 hours now and getting close to solo.
While studying tonight I couldn\'t really figure out the difference
between magnetic/true course and magnetic/true bearing.

So as far as I understand it, bearing is a referenced heading to
somewhere you want to go, for example: I am flying on heading of 060
heading and to and the VOR is on a 090 bearing (Heading of 090
required to fly direct)

Course is an intended flight line, so if I plan to fly from a to b
(with a heading of 090 to b) My course throughout the flight would
be 090, even if I am 30 miles off course, the course would be 090
while the bearing would change, correct?

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

Thanks guys!

In rec.aviation.piloting, on Thu 30 Aug 2007 10:38:26a, "BT" bNOtiz2
@SPAM.cox.net wrote:

Bearing "To"
Course "From"
is what I was taught..

I use "heading", which I'm willing to assume is equivalent to the OP's
"bearing". For "course", I'll assume that it is equivalent to "COG -
Course Over Ground".

Bearing starts with a B and Course starts with a C.

-Robert, CFII

I would not equate heading and bearing. Of course, I am an old fogey who
navigated USCG cutters long before GPS was even thought of. When within
sight of shore, we would take magnetic bearings from two or more
navigational aids (buoys, lighthouses, day marks) and plot them...where the
lines crossed was our position. Meanwhile, the helmsman was maintaining
course using a gyrocompass set to true north.

Bob Gardner

"Really-Old-Fart" wrote in message
.. .
In rec.aviation.piloting, on Thu 30 Aug 2007 10:38:26a, "BT" bNOtiz2
@SPAM.cox.net wrote:

Bearing "To"
Course "From"
is what I was taught..

I use "heading", which I'm willing to assume is equivalent to the OP's
"bearing". For "course", I'll assume that it is equivalent to "COG -
Course Over Ground".

On Aug 30, 12:45 pm, "Bob Gardner" wrote:
Can I inject a little sanity to this thread? The AIM's Pilot/Controller
Glossary says that bearing is "The horizontal direction to or from any
point, usually measured clockwise from true north, magnetic north, or some
other reference point, through 360 degrees." It defines course as "The
intended flight direction in the horizontal plane measured in degreee from
north."

Bearing has nothing to do with direction of travel. If a controller says
"You have traffic at three o'clock," that traffic is on a bearing of 90
degrees from you.

That is incorrect, or to say it in a better way, partially correct.
You are describing relative bearing.
Remember the old formula to work with ADF bearings:
Magnetic Bearing = Magnetic Heading + Relative Bearing (to a station).

As it has been mentioned before, the bearing (to a station or point)
refers to which way you need to go from the point you are at, at any
moment, to your destination point or any other point.
The relative bearing is what you just described.
Course is the line from your starting point to your destination point.
If you remain on this line, the course direction will coincide with
the bearing to your destination.

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...)

--
Dallas

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

On Aug 31, 7:38 am, Bob Moore wrote:
Guillermo wrote

"Bob Gardner" wrote:
Can I inject a little sanity to this thread? The AIM's
Pilot/Controller Glossary says that bearing is "The horizontal
direction to or from any point, usually measured clockwise from true
north, magnetic north, or some other reference point, through 360
degrees."
That is incorrect, or to say it in a better way, partially correct.
You are describing relative bearing.

One would do well to avoid the attempt to correct Bob Gardner.

Bob Moore
Graduate, Navy Navigation School

The way you suppressed the text in the middle in my response is very
misleading.
The definition of bearing from the FAR/AIM is clearly correct.
What I was pointing as incomplete is when Bob says that bearing does
not apply to direction of travel, and talks about the traffic at 3 o
clock. In that case the traffic is at 90 degrees relative bearing
(relative to your direction of travel)
But there IS ALSO a "bearing to a station" referenced to the magnetic
north. If I am 10 miles out on the 235 radial of LAL VOR, then the
bearing to LAL VOR would be 55 degrees, which is the direction of
travel (referenced to the magnetic north), that you would need to
travel to get to LAL.

I am very aware that Bob Gardner is very knowledgeable in aviation.
However, that doesn't make him a God who cannot make mistakes.
If I believe somebody is mistaken, I will try to clarify what he was
saying, I don't care who he/she is.

On Aug 31, 2:11 am, 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.


So you are saying that there is not such thing as a magnetic bearing
to a station, which is the direction of travel needed to go directly
to a station (referenced to the magnetic north)?

Let's give this Bob Gardner guy a break and say that his answer was
incomplete.

Bearings taken from a repeater on the wing of the bridge can be either true,
magnetic, or relative. Guillermo is correct in saying that my description
could be interpreted as a relative bearing. As the navigator peers through
the sights, the relative bearing is engraved on a bearing circle (duh), but
a mirror allows the reading on the compass card to be seen at the same
time...kind of floating beneath the target. The true/magnetic thing comes in
when the steering system itself is installed. Most small boats use magnetic
compasses just like the wet compass in the airplane; larger ships use
gyrocompasses which are set to true north. When plotting courses, the
navigator applies variation and deviation to come up with compass course. I
should have been more specific.

Bottom line, though, is that the Pilot/Controller Glossary defines "bearing"
as "to or from" any point.

BG

"Guillermo" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 31, 7:38 am, Bob Moore wrote:
Guillermo wrote

"Bob Gardner" wrote:
Can I inject a little sanity to this thread? The AIM's
Pilot/Controller Glossary says that bearing is "The horizontal
direction to or from any point, usually measured clockwise from true
north, magnetic north, or some other reference point, through 360
degrees."
That is incorrect, or to say it in a better way, partially correct.
You are describing relative bearing.

One would do well to avoid the attempt to correct Bob Gardner.

Bob Moore
Graduate, Navy Navigation School

The way you suppressed the text in the middle in my response is very
misleading.
The definition of bearing from the FAR/AIM is clearly correct.
What I was pointing as incomplete is when Bob says that bearing does
not apply to direction of travel, and talks about the traffic at 3 o
clock. In that case the traffic is at 90 degrees relative bearing
(relative to your direction of travel)
But there IS ALSO a "bearing to a station" referenced to the magnetic
north. If I am 10 miles out on the 235 radial of LAL VOR, then the
bearing to LAL VOR would be 55 degrees, which is the direction of
travel (referenced to the magnetic north), that you would need to
travel to get to LAL.

I am very aware that Bob Gardner is very knowledgeable in aviation.
However, that doesn't make him a God who cannot make mistakes.
If I believe somebody is mistaken, I will try to clarify what he was
saying, I don't care who he/she is.