Will Degrees Magnetic be eliminated eventually?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2005
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From: Canada
Will Degrees Magnetic be eliminated eventually?
Not sure if this is the right forum, but I'm a newb and this is training related.
Reading in my textbooks, I found out that all GPS/Satellite Navigation is in deg True. Even though currently most charts are in Magnetic, it says eventually Magnetic will likely be eliminated as all air-navigation slowly switches over to satellite navigation/GPS.
Is this true? Is radio-navigation going to eventually go away? And GPS will be it?
Is the trusty ol' compass due to be retired? I was kinda sad reading that, thinking I won't get as much use out of all the radio and chart reading I'm learning about.
Anyway, thanks for any comments!
Reading in my textbooks, I found out that all GPS/Satellite Navigation is in deg True. Even though currently most charts are in Magnetic, it says eventually Magnetic will likely be eliminated as all air-navigation slowly switches over to satellite navigation/GPS.
Is this true? Is radio-navigation going to eventually go away? And GPS will be it?
Is the trusty ol' compass due to be retired? I was kinda sad reading that, thinking I won't get as much use out of all the radio and chart reading I'm learning about.
Anyway, thanks for any comments!
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: Well thats a big volcano...
You need to keep reading thru the books some more, you will find far too many things need degrees magnetic, the list is way way way too long to even consider discussing it ( but dont worry someone here will! )
Joined: Aug 2001
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From: UK
EGGW Mag var?
Can anyone clear up a specific enquiry about the mag' var' for EGGW.
The current mag' var' is 2 degrees West, with true rwy headings of 074 & 274.
So why do the latest Jeppesen charts show the magnetic rwy headings as 077 & 257?
The current mag' var' is 2 degrees West, with true rwy headings of 074 & 274.
So why do the latest Jeppesen charts show the magnetic rwy headings as 077 & 257?
Psychophysiological entity

Joined: Jun 2001
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
a couple of comments deleted following another poster's registering concern about them ... related to the earlier deletions
Now, back to an interesting question.
The magnetic pole, being a moveable feast, was something that was a gift to early navigators. Early being up until...about now. Of course we need to be independent of any single electronic system. We were going that way with INS, but the computer power was not really up to the mark then.
Now, we have the ability to measure light in a closed system, down to molecular levels, and we can certainly sum the output of such systems. The relativistic algorithms woven into the sat-nav signals, are proof of our mastery of this science. We know where we are in our orbit round our sun, almost down to the last perturbational tremor.
With what we have now, we are ready to navigate by such enclosed internal and quite independent systems...it really is time that we weaned ourselves away from electronically fragile orbiting clocks, let alone the wandering boiling mass in the centre of our planet.
Now, back to an interesting question.
The magnetic pole, being a moveable feast, was something that was a gift to early navigators. Early being up until...about now. Of course we need to be independent of any single electronic system. We were going that way with INS, but the computer power was not really up to the mark then.
Now, we have the ability to measure light in a closed system, down to molecular levels, and we can certainly sum the output of such systems. The relativistic algorithms woven into the sat-nav signals, are proof of our mastery of this science. We know where we are in our orbit round our sun, almost down to the last perturbational tremor.
With what we have now, we are ready to navigate by such enclosed internal and quite independent systems...it really is time that we weaned ourselves away from electronically fragile orbiting clocks, let alone the wandering boiling mass in the centre of our planet.
Warning Toxic!
Disgusted of Tunbridge
Disgusted of Tunbridge
Joined: Jan 2005
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From: Hampshire, UK
Whatever happened to this thread? Sort of went a bit screwy for some reason!
Before your degrees magnetic get made redundant, I think they will get metricated first. Stuff this 90 degrees to a right angle! For a start 'right' is unfair to angles that may be challenged by being a bit 'wrong', and 90 degrees, so in the cause of equality it will henceforth be known as a 'lesser wrong' angle. And there'll be 100 degrees in 'em instead of 90. Then we'll get rid of magnetic altogether, but probably before then, a meteor or bird flu or volcano or magnetic field flip disrupting the Gulf Stream will get us all and there'll be nobody to receive all those signals from Galileo or GS sats.
If you think this is stupid, it makes as much sense as some of the comments in this thread!
Before your degrees magnetic get made redundant, I think they will get metricated first. Stuff this 90 degrees to a right angle! For a start 'right' is unfair to angles that may be challenged by being a bit 'wrong', and 90 degrees, so in the cause of equality it will henceforth be known as a 'lesser wrong' angle. And there'll be 100 degrees in 'em instead of 90. Then we'll get rid of magnetic altogether, but probably before then, a meteor or bird flu or volcano or magnetic field flip disrupting the Gulf Stream will get us all and there'll be nobody to receive all those signals from Galileo or GS sats.
If you think this is stupid, it makes as much sense as some of the comments in this thread!
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,648
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From: UK
Originally Posted by sstaurus
Reading in my textbooks, I found out that all GPS/Satellite Navigation is in deg True. Even though currently most charts are in Magnetic, it says eventually Magnetic will likely be eliminated as all air-navigation slowly switches over to satellite navigation/GPS.
In the mean time, we might as well pick the easiest/cheapest possibility as the zero reference for purposes like ATC telling you which direction to point your aircraft. That easiest/cheapest possibility probably remains magnetic north.
Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Australia
100° to a slightly less wrong angle? Someone already invented it, and it's called gradians.
But if you're going to optimise the direction system for computers' benefit, I dare say you'd use radians. And there are 1.5707963267948966192313216916398 of those in a slightly less wrong angle, but your computer finds that a more convenient number than 100.
Pi divided by two if you're wondering...
But if you're going to optimise the direction system for computers' benefit, I dare say you'd use radians. And there are 1.5707963267948966192313216916398 of those in a slightly less wrong angle, but your computer finds that a more convenient number than 100.
Pi divided by two if you're wondering...





