Track Up or Heading Up?

[fireflybob]

The operator I fly for has the "Track Up" option on the ND. Personally I think "Heading Up" is more logical but I wondered what option other operators had and the pros and cons of the different options?

[Denti]

Depends on ND mode for me. Track up during map mode seems logical since that is used mainly for LNAV operation and heading up for VOR/Approach mode makes most sense to me.

Well, might just me getting used to as i have flown that way for the last eight years. Just wish the heading bug had a function to be put onto actual heading during LNAV instead of that twiddling around until you hit the heading pointer.

[point8six]

BA use HDG up on their 57 B747-400s. Having used both ways -there's no advantages/disadvantages that I can think of. It's just what you are used to.

[Sid Starz]

I have recently started flying heading up after 4 years of flying track up. If you think about it, the heading is irrelevant really - the track is what is important, and I personally found track up much more intuitive. I found track up easier to adjust to personally, but of course these things are all down to personal opinion.

Flying any form of NPA whether using MAP or EXP ILS etc is easier, i think, if you have the track line at the top, over the runway QDM rather than heading at the top and the track line offset.

[Max Angle]

Flew TRK up for 5 years on the 737, although HDG was a pin selectable option which some operators (BA? ) used instead. Flown HDG up on the Airbus for years now and IMHO it's by the far the better choice. The top of the screen is where the nose is pointing which makes more sense to me, either seems to work but if I had a switch to select what I wanted it would stay in HDG the whole time.

[Tail-take-off]

BA use HDG up on their 57 B747-400s

That because the Trident was heading up