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Old 18th Feb 2008, 11:55
  #289 (permalink)  
Desert Dingo
 
Join Date: May 2000
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Tracks

SR71
Might be "Great Circle Magic'
Going from A to B, the track leaving A will be different to the one entering B. Some flight plans will show both. Spherical trig can really hurt your brain.
Plane geometry no longer applies.

However, you may have discovered another flight plan error.
I have just run the co-ordinated through an on-line GC calculator and get
191.4 / 343 nm
187.0 / 336 nm
which would be more to your liking.


(BTW, flight plans intended for NAV systems don't usually bother to calculate a wind corrected heading. It is left to the box to use whatever heading it needs to maintain the desired track. It just nails the track and doesn't care too much what the actual heading turns out to be.)

Interesting to see that the track and distances on each flight plan are damn near identical. Even less reason to expect Captain Collins to "spot the difference" as some say he should have.

Last edited by Desert Dingo; 18th Feb 2008 at 12:13.
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