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Old 28th Dec 2008, 14:13
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TopBunk
 
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Typically PLOG = Pilots LOG.

In BA on the 747-400 the display is heading up. I have flown track up as well, but personally believe that heading up is more intuitive wrt drift etc, it is after all what we all start up using.

The True vs Magnetic is a separate debate. Our flight plans are produced with both magnetic and ITT (Initial True Track) data. When we fly in Oceanic airspace we switch to True reference (ie Headings and Tracks shown on the ND will be referenced to True North. We check our tracks and distances vs True for these portions of our flight plan, using the ITT outbound from the waypoint, checked against the flight plan and the NATS track message for the day as necessary.

Personally, I can see a time in the not too distant future when everything will be referenced to True North, after all, all the FM(G)C does is apply variation from a lookup table to determine Magnetic Hreading anyway. Runways usually don't change their orientation, so runway numbering changes would be a thing of the past. At the moment commercial aviation progress in this would appear to be held up be non INS/IRS commercial aircraft and general aviation.
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