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In navigation, the heading of a vessel or aircraft is the compass direction in which the craft's bow or nose is pointed. Note that the heading may not necessarily be the direction that the vehicle actually travels, which is known as its course .
The course is to be distinguished from the heading, which is the direction where the watercraft's bow or the aircraft's nose is pointed. [1] [2] [3] [page needed] The path that a vessel follows is called a track or, in the case of aircraft, ground track (also known as course made good or course over the ground). [1] The intended track is a route.
As well as aircraft, the same terminology is used for the motion of ships and boats. Some words commonly used were introduced in maritime navigation. For example, the yaw angle or heading, has a nautical origin, with the meaning of "bending out of the course".
The gyroscope is spun either electrically, or using filtered air flow from a suction pump (sometimes a pressure pump in high altitude aircraft) driven from the aircraft's engine. Because the Earth rotates (ω, 15° per hour, apparent drift), and because of small accumulated errors caused by imperfect balancing of the gyro, the heading indicator ...
In aircraft navigation, an angle is normally measured from the aircraft's track or heading, in a clockwise direction. If the aircraft encounters a target that is not ahead of the aircraft and not on an identical track, then the angular bearing to that target is called a relative bearing. [clarification needed]
Great-circle navigation or orthodromic navigation (related to orthodromic course; from Ancient Greek ορθός (orthós) ' right angle ' and δρόμος (drómos) ' path ') is the practice of navigating a vessel (a ship or aircraft) along a great circle.
By comparing the fix and the estimated position corrections are made to the aircraft's heading and groundspeed. Dead reckoning is on the curriculum for VFR (visual flight rules – or basic level) pilots worldwide. [10] It is taught regardless of whether the aircraft has navigation aids such as GPS, ADF and VOR and is an ICAO Requirement. Many ...
A course deviation indicator (CDI) [1] is an avionics instrument used in aircraft navigation to determine an aircraft's lateral position in relation to a course to or from a radio navigation beacon. If the location of the aircraft is to the left of this course, the needle deflects to the right, and vice versa.