Inverted compass

[bigflyingrob]

Having learned on the dash mounted small compass I'm finding the upside down one in my Auster a bit confusing! Can someone post me link to how to drive this wonderous beast? Even having a taxi yesterday was a bit ooh err in the compass department!
Rob

[Fitter2]

Think of yourself as sitting in the top of the compass looking down on what you see.

It's analogous to flying a radio control model coming towards you - b****y impossible for the first few minutes and then you wonder what the problem was.

[bigflyingrob]

Ah the RC model I can do! It's the swingable dial and the three needles in a T that's confusing me especially as one has a little tailplane on it!

[Tee Emm]

If you have ever seen the Australian designed Winjeel trainer it looks something like Piston.Provost. The Winjeel had a neat little E2 compass in the windshield area as a standby magnetic compass. Looked like a typical car compass that is held on by a rubber sucker. Some wag wrote that in event of a forced landing on water, the aircraft should be rolled inverted just before touch down so that it landed on the canopy.

The pilot should then jettison the aircraft and row away on the upturned canopy. However, there was a caution that the E2 magnetic compass could have gross errors when upside down. Well, I thought it was funny, anyway.:ok:

[Fitter2]

It's the swingable dial and the three needles in a T that's confusing me especially as one has a little tailplane on it!

Ah, I see the problem. So, you didn't learn to fly in a Tiger Moth or similar vintage jobbie and the compass type is the problem.

OK:

1. Rotate the dial until the required heading is aligned with the cursor.

2. Rotate the aircraft in the usual way until the compass needle 'T' is lined up with the 'T' box on the compass glass. (Easier to draw a pic than describe in words).

3. That's it.

[India Four Two]

Remembering from my Chipmunk days (WD292 and WP900 where are you now?), exactly as Fitter2 said, with the added complication that when flying in IMC, having to look down at the compass could induce vertigo.

In the case of the mirror compass, that wouldn't be a problem, but then you have to deal with the mirror-image issue.

Did military Austers have a mirror compass or was it on the floor like the Chipmunk? [Edited to say if I had re-read the first post, I wouldn't have asked this question!]

I42