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Old 9th March 2004 | 18:39
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FlyingForFun

Why do it if it's not fun?
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Joined: Jul 2001
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From: Bournemouth
The easiest way of doing it is to draw a line on a map. Assuming that the aircraft speed/direction that you have are a ground speed and a track (rather than an airspeed and a heading) this is trivial.

Or are you looking for a mathematical formula that you can use? In this case, you can probably use some basic trigonometry, as long as you're not talking about huge distances and you're not too close to the poles. One minute of lattitude is one nautical mile. One minute of longitude is (cos lattitude) nautical miles. There's no need to worry about your altitude. Then just use the sin and cosine of the heading, multiplied by the total distance (calulated from speed and time), to work out the distance travelled east/west and the distance travelled north/south, convert from miles to degrees and minutes, and add to your starting position.

If you are travelling long distances (especially north/south) or you are near the poles it gets very much more complicated - I wouldn't know where to start.

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