PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Mag, Grid & True North Align
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Old 6th Nov 2022, 11:31
  #33 (permalink)  
Fortissimo
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: London
Age: 67
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Mag2True

There is a team actively working on moving the entire aviation system to True. Canada is shifting its entire airspace to True in 2030 and ICAO has just surveyed state responses to the idea of a global change.

Industry spends ~$2Bn per 5 year magnetic model on keeping up with the movement of the N pole. It used to be a 10 year epoch but the pole is moving too fast now. Cost of change is about $10K per stop bar.

IFPs are designed in True and converted to Mag for display because that is what ICAO decided in 1948, when an inertial navigation system was someone who slept in the rear cockpit. PNT information is derived in True, very accurately, then converted to Mag by using declination values that could be 5 or more years old.

Nav Canada has already done proving flights to show that zeroing the aircraft INS look up tables works seamlessly. The alternative is to simply select True on the relevant switch.

Fewer runways and aids need updating in Europe than could be left as is. Agreed, there is a one time cost for the infrastructure but then nothing for changes TFN.

Why aren’t we doing this now?
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