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Compass swinging?



 
 
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  #32  
Old December 20th 06, 12:37 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
[email protected]
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Posts: 1,130
Default Compass swinging?


Newps wrote:
wrote:
IFR minima require a flight altitude 2000' above
the peaks.


Above the terrain, not necessarily the peaks. You may be in a valley
several thousand feet below the peaks at a legal IFR altitude.


Yup. Canadian IFR reg 602.124 (2) says:

(2) When an aircraft referred to in subsection (1) is not being
operated on an airway or air route or within airspace in respect of
which a minimum altitude referred to in paragraph (1)(b) has been
established, the pilot-in-command shall ensure that the aircraft is
operated at or above

(a) an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle located within
a horizontal distance of five nautical miles from the estimated
position of the aircraft in flight;

(b) in a region designated as a mountainous region in the Designated
Airspace Handbook and identified therein as area 1 or 5, an altitude of
2,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance of
five nautical miles from the estimated position of the aircraft in
flight; and

(c) in a region designated as a mountainous region in the Designated
Airspace Handbook and identified therein as area 2, 3 or 4, an altitude
of 1,500 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance
of five nautical miles from the estimated position of the aircraft in
flight.

Nobody (sane) is going to take off with the intention to
navigate that way with just a magnetic compass, because other regs
require sufficient and appropriate radio gear to track such a course
clear of the granite. However, if all the electrical goodies failed, a
mag compass is better than nothing in such a place. But not much
better.
Here in the Rockies the peaks are many and close enough
together that to be legal a pilot isn't going to be IFR in the valleys.
Not legally, anyway. A few try it but usually come to grief. And their
ELTs don't often work, either. Even with a good ELT they hit so hard
that everything shatters.

Dan

  #34  
Old December 20th 06, 05:23 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
Drew Dalgleish
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Posts: 143
Default Compass swinging?

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:47:50 -0700, Newps wrote:



wrote:
Newps wrote:

wrote:
IFR minima require a flight altitude 2000' above

the peaks.

Above the terrain, not necessarily the peaks. You may be in a valley
several thousand feet below the peaks at a legal IFR altitude.


Here in the Rockies the peaks are many and close enough
together that to be legal a pilot isn't going to be IFR in the valleys.
Not legally, anyway. A few try it but usually come to grief. And their
ELTs don't often work, either. Even with a good ELT they hit so hard
that everything shatters.



We are on the edge of the Rockies and have several airways that go
between mountain ranges and have MEA's many thousands of feet below the
peaks.


I guess the FAA trusts avionics a lot more than the Canadian DOT.
  #35  
Old December 20th 06, 05:34 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
Drew Dalgleish
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Posts: 143
Default Compass swinging?

On 18 Dec 2006 11:40:07 -0800, wrote:


Matt Barrow wrote:
wrote in message
ps.com...

M wrote:
RST Engineering wrote:
C'mon Roy, you've been around airplanes long enough to know the real
answer -- "Why that compass card has been in the airplane since I
bought
it."


Same reaction here. Doesn't everyone here have at least two GPS's
onboard that show a ground track bearing 10 times better than the
compass?

No, and you won't either next time your alternator decides to go
south.

Gee, Dan! Do you sleep in a house? You know, you'd be squashed like a bug
when your roof collapses!



Don't be dumb. The magnetic compass is legally required because it
operates independently of any electrical supply, unlike any other
navigational doodad you might have. And in some areas we fly here in
Canada, the mag compass has saved a lot of lives when the rest of the
goodies failed. An accurate compass and a pilot able to use it is
absolutely necessary for finding the way home when other stuff quits,
especially the GPS. There are no other navaids in much of this country.
When the visiblility is low, you can miss your airport by a mile or two
and never see it. A one-degree error on a 60-mile track is a mile off
course, so we teach some of our navigation exercises in an airplane
with nothing more than a compass. We have had alternator failures
several times over the years, even with carrying out the 500-hour
alternator inspections.
On the other hand, the compass is mostly useless in the far
North due to magnetic dip. Up there pilots sometimes keep the "sun's
true bearing" tables aboard.

Dan

I've flown all over ontario wit just a map and compass in an old
champ. If you're reading the map the compass doesn't have to be ver y
accurate. In fact unlessyou're spending half your tme playing with
your E6B you can't correct for wind drift within 1 degree so why even
try. I now fly with a portable GPS and I like it a lot. It makes me
very lazy about plotting my course but I still have to know where I am
on the map.
 




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