PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - 'Time to station' question
View Single Post
Old 29th July 2009 | 19:21
  #4 (permalink)  
DFC
 
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,814
Likes: 0
From: Euroland
Ah the old "double bow method"!!

Wish I could draw the answer but I hope you can draw what I explain and see the reason behind it.

At "A" the relative bearing of the Station "C" is 015

The aircraft flies on a constant heading until the relative bearing has doubled (030 in this case). Call this position "B"

Draw a line from A to B to C and back to A which makes a triangle.

The angle at "A" is 15 degrees.

By simple geometry, the angle at "C" is also 15 degrees.

If two angles of a triangle are equal then the sides opposite them are also equal.

The line A-B is opposite angle C which is 15 degrees

The line B - C is opposite angle A which is also 15 degrees.

Therefore A to B = B to C

So if it takes 6 minutes to fly from A to B then (assuming constant groundspeed) it will also take 6 minutes to fly from B to C (the station).

Far easier with a diagram but I hope that helps.

Regards,

DFC
DFC is offline  
Reply