Are there any 'straight-line' flights?

[LadyL2013]

As in are there any commercial flightpaths were you stay on the same heading the entire flight and don't have to change heading except for slight corrections on landing for example?

[Dash8driver1312]

No heading change...that would mean either pure East/west along the equator or North-South. Any other great circle will result in heading changes. Small changes on short flights, very noticeable on long range.

[LadyL2013]

So there couldn't be a flight say that took off from RWY12 and landed at another RWY12 for example, without any real heading change?

[Crazy Voyager]

In theory yes, in practice, no.

To begin with even runway 12 will have a 10 degree direction span (roughly), so the likelyhood of the tracks being exactly the same is very small.

Also local noise abatement will most likely mean there will be some extended routings at low level over residential areas.

There will be some flight that have very few heading changes, but absolutely no change of track seems very unlikely.

[DaveReidUK]

When you take off from 09 on Westray you are pointing pretty well straight at Papa Westray, albeit on a base leg for runway 22 there.

[farci]

As in are there any commercial flightpaths were you stay on the same heading the entire flight and don't have to change heading except for slight corrections on landing for example? @LadyL2013...just interested to know why this is important to you?

[LadyL2013]

Just wondering really, no real reason.

Came from a discussion I was having with someone about why a transatlantic flights seems to go in a curve, rather than the straight line they were expecting.

[Crazy Voyager]

Because you're looking at a 2D map which is a 2D representation of a 3D planet. If you read up on chart projections and great circle routes you will find the answer, but basically, that circle is the shortest route. Your map is making it appear longer because the map isn't a uniform scale (once again, 2D vs 3D).

[Tarq57]

Put another way, the Earth is a sphere. (Technically, it's an oblate spheroid - slightly squashed at the poles.)

The most direct line from a point to any other point is a line that cuts through the entire diameter of the Earth that intersects the two points. (A great circle.)

Except when flying along the equator, or in a direct line between the geographic poles (both of these are also great circles), there is a continually changing heading required to maintain the line.

That's without route structures, holding patterns etc.

[DaveReidUK]

If only someone would develop a way of projecting a map of the earth onto a 3D spherical object ...

I reckon the Manchester Evening News would buy one. :O

[ExXB]

If only someone would develop a way of projecting a map of the earth onto a 3D spherical object ...

I reckon the Manchester Evening News would buy one. :O

How about Great Circle Mapper? (http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=KIN-MAN%2C+KIN-YQX-MAN&MS=wls&MP=p&DU=mi)

[edi_local]

I imagine on shorter flights it's more likely to go in a "straight line". For example, I flew EDI-BLL a few years ago, looking at the GC Map that shows an almost perfectly straight line as the airports lie on roughly the same latitude. I remember the flight barely had to turn after leaving EDI, not until we had to circle once at BLL before landing.

[LadyL2013]

No, I know why the flight paths seem to curve, but she didn't and I was explaining that to her. Which then got me wondering if there are any flights that do actually go in a straight line in the real world where the runways line up so perfectly that very little course change is needed.

EDI Local, that's the kind of thing I mean.

[DaveReidUK]

How about Great Circle Mapper? (http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=KIN-MAN%2C+KIN-YQX-MAN&MS=wls&MP=p&DU=mi)

I was thinking more of one of these:

http://www.1ststoptravelstore.com/Cram%20Globes/CRAM_Lisbon_illuminated_world_globe_desktop.jpg

:O

[SpringHeeledJack]

I've flown between Hamburg and Manchester and Dublin, where with the right runway direction allowed, a straight line route with little variance is flown.

[pax britanica]

Although it is a great circle route with all that entails i dont think the guys up front have to touch the heading select button much aboard the BA 2233 London Gatwick 26 L to Kindley field Bermuda Rwy31 just keep heading approx SE and you end up with a nice 30 odd degree intercept for landing at Bermuda.

Of course it only works when the jetstream is in a normal location-too strong and you can end up going over iceland

[philbky]

Surely most long haul flights do not use pure great circle routes but instead follow minimum time tracks wherever possible even though the distance by be greater. Winds aloft, weather and available slots all play a part.

[pax britanica]

I think for long haul, especially Oceanic, the route starts out as a great circle and then as you rightly say gets modified for winds aloft or ETOPS factors.
I flew the Bermuda route many many times and in summer regularly got close to a simple great circle-winter with the N Atlantic winds was another story and as you point out the minimum time path can seemingly take you a very very long way from a a direct path when heading west

[Groundloop]

Put another way, the Earth is a sphere. (Technically, it's an oblate spheroid - slightly squashed at the poles.)

Technically the shape of the Earth is a Geoid.:ok:

[WeeJeem]

Inisheer to Inishmaan :ok:

[DaveReidUK]

Technically the shape of the Earth is a GeoidTechnically the shape of the Earth is, well, Earth-shaped. :O

Both the geoid and oblate spheroid (ellipsoid) are approximations.

[WHBM]

Flybe Glasgow (on 23) to Belfast City BHD (on 22) seemed pretty much up and down without touching the rudder.

[TopBunk]

A couple of routes where track is pretty constant are LHR-GRU and LHR-JNB

[WHBM]

LHR-JNB
This really seems out of scope when Jo'burg is effectively due south of London but the Heathrow runways are east/west.

[philbky]

Plus, of course, the chances of a direct track across Europe and the Med are negligible.

[Pom Pax]

Far below you mighty Sky Gods there are plenty of people trying to fly in straight lines. I say trying because "the air traffic police" may send them on different straight lines to their chosen ones. Their chosen straight lines are called rhumb lines. Now the really rum thing is that having flown a straight line you appear to in real time to have flown round the S-bend.
Now this problem was brought home to me when I flew from Seattle Tacoma to Narita. We took off and flew up Paget Sound. Oh well must be a noise abatement thing. We continued on with no apparent turn East of Victoria and slowly over Vancouver Island and out to sea. I consulted my magazine for the film and audio channels. I studied the fold out map and there was our route a slight curve over the Pacific to Japan. Now lunch was served and cleared away when an announcement was made that we were now 60 miles North of Anchorage! I decided to take a serious interest in where we being taken. Kodiak Island past below and we were going East. Soon the sea was full of icebergs next stop Siberia! Now we all know what happens when you pass into Russia but what could I do about it back in seat 54g. Many boring hours later there were suddenly paddy fields going past my window.
That's how I learnt how much a great circle can vary from the simple old rhumb straight line well away from trigger happy blokes in Migs.

[ExXB]

PomPax

Great Circle Mapper (http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SEA-NRT&MS=bm&MP=p&DU=km)

P.S. It's Puget Sound

[darkroomsource]

"straight line" or "same heading"?
not the same thing, even ignoring the shape of the Earth.
That's because as the location of magnetic north is not at the top of the globe, so as we move around, even with the same country, the compass will show different readings for the same direction. (it is slight, but it does change)
So if you start in, say Southern California and fly to Oregon in a straight line, you won't be on the same heading the whole way, because the magnetic deviation changes along the route.
Now, for what you might think of as very short flights, say 100 miles or less, it is possible to fly in a straight line, and have that bee the same heading.

[Pom Pax]

I apologise for confusing Lt Peter Puget with Miss Dorothy Paget, although Miss Paget was the more American.
I also wish to correct a major navigational error in my narrative. We coasted out over Nunivak Island not Kodiak, heading West.
I thank ExXB for his link but my flight went way north of that route, hence my remarks about bear country.
My real complaint as a piece of SLF is that the maps in the in flight magazine should show a more accurate representation of the likely flight path.

[Rick777]

I once flew from Peoria to Moline Illinois and as I remember we went from takeoff directly to final. Also takeoff from 25R at LAX points you straight at Honolulu.

[philbky]

PomPax, there is no way in flight magazines can show anything other than a basic representation of a route between two points on flights longer than a few miles. As I indicated in earlier posts, on long haul flights a minimum time track is usually followed and that can vary from day to day.

To give you an example I regularly fly from London to Houston. The routing can vary a great deal. From Heathrow over southern Ireland, leaving the coast around Galway then arriving on the North American continent over northern Labrador, down over Green Bay in Wisconsin, then over St Louis and into Houston. An alternative is out over Liverpool, Belfast, south of Iceland, just over the southern tip of Greenland, then Labrador, New Brunswick, Pennsylvania, Kentucky,Tennessee and northern Louisiana into Houston. A third is over Glasgow, Iceland, central Greenland, Hudson Bay, Chicago, St Louis and into Houston. In the summer you can go out over central Ireland, Gander, just west of Boston then west of New York, Washington DC, over Georgia and across to Houston. There are other variations and the reverse journey can also be as variable. The only constants are the departure and arrival points and the flight number.

Shorter flights in Europe are often to a standard routing but will vary for weather, time of day and traffic. Manchester to Amsterdam and vice versa is usually over Hull then direct to the Dutch coast just outside Amsterdam. From time to time, in either direction, I've flown over central Lincolnshire with the UK entry/exit point being just north of Kings Lynn.

Stansted to Shannon and vice versa is normally over Dublin and Wallasey but if traffic in the London area is light a routing over Bristol and south of Wexford is used.

By the way, there are dozens of flights by western airlines over Russia every day. Treat yourself to a flight tracking program.

[DaveReidUK]

PomPax, there is no way in flight magazines can show anything other than a basic representation of a route between two points on flights longer than a few miles.

And apart from the fact that they are more straightforward to construct, the other advantage of showing them as great circle routes is because that's the mileage you will be credited with on most, if not all, frequent flyer programs.

[Heathrow Harry]

I understand that the mapping companies who provide the maps for the inflight magazine, websites and IFE have constant battle to try and retain ANY resemblance to the real world below

the airlines want it as simple (and cheap) as possible

[DaveReidUK]

I understand that the mapping companies who provide the maps for the inflight magazine, websites and IFE have constant battle to try and retain ANY resemblance to the real world belowI blame the London Underground for starting that trend. :O

[77]

Used to take off on 27 at Tegel then strraight in at Hannover on 27. Thru the Berlin corridor. Tried to better 25 mins in a BAC 1-11