PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Will Degrees Magnetic be eliminated eventually?
Old 21st Apr 2006, 07:41
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bookworm
 
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Originally Posted by sstaurus
Reading in my textbooks, I found out that all GPS/Satellite Navigation is in deg True. Even though currently most charts are in Magnetic, it says eventually Magnetic will likely be eliminated as all air-navigation slowly switches over to satellite navigation/GPS.
I think you (or possibly the textbook's authors) are missing the point. In the sat-nav future, once you have a system that tells you where you are and knows where you need to be, the arbitrary zero reference of your direction measure is irrelevant. An autopilot will fly from A to B just as well on magnetic or true, measured in degrees, grades or radians. The concept of flying a particular published track or heading loses its relevance, because you're always flying to an endpoint, regardless of the direction that happens to be.

In the mean time, we might as well pick the easiest/cheapest possibility as the zero reference for purposes like ATC telling you which direction to point your aircraft. That easiest/cheapest possibility probably remains magnetic north.
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