The Boeings and just about everything else have a standby magnetic compass, fokker.
What I refer to is the lack of a magnetic compass SYSTEM. There are no flux detectors or compass couplers in the glass cockpit Boeings, nor I suppose in the fly-by-wire Airbus machines either. The magnetic information on modern digital aircraft comes from the INS/FMS. Mag is calculated from True by a using a magnetic variation database contained, on the Boeings anyway, within the IRU and which provides the magnetic variation for any position between latitudes 80N and 80S. Above those latitudes you only use True. The database is updated periodically by software updates.
VOR beacons are aligned to magnetic north, and radials are flown using magnetic headings, these are now commonly derived from True headings by software computations; Although radio coupling to VOR radials is not particularly accurate, the problem as identified by previous posts, is that sometimes only a VOR approach is available and if you can't auto-couple the autopilot, the workload is increased.
My point is that its about time to kill off dinosaur equipment like the VORs and catch up to the technology. Although INS and FMS were too expensive for light aircraft, nearly everyone can afford GPS based navigation systems these days. While the regulatory authorities remain well ahead of aeroplane equipment in some areas, they continue to lag behind in others - there should be some consistancy in application. Roll on GNSS/EGNOS and the twenty first century...
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Through difficulties to the cinema