NavList:
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Re: Bearings, Courses, Headings, and Tracks
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Feb 5, 20:59 -0800
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2002 Feb 5, 20:59 -0800
Aha! -- you are pointing out the same thing that John LeRoy pointed out to Chuck Taylor. You see, everyone in Washington state use Garmins and so we have all begun to talk Garmin and not Bowditch... ;-) What you say appears to be in accordance with the 1995 Bowditch, but I am so used to using the Garmin definitions that it will be hard to change... Dan -----Original Message----- From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Trevor Kenchington Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 4:50 PM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Re: Bearings, Courses, Headings, and Tracks Dan Allen wrote: > Here are my own definitions that I use to keep things straight in my > mind, and they correspond to Garmin GPS labels as well! ;-) > > The **course** is the direction you want to go from postion A to B. > One is rarely on this line, especially in a car. It is the theoretical > "as the crow flies" path, with a constant compass heading. That is the direction of the track, as the term is defined for navigational purposes, at least in North America. > The **bearing** is where B is with respect to your current position. > It has nothing to do with A. It has everything to do with answering > the question "which way do I need to go right now in order to get to B"? A bearing can also be to any point C that is not your destination, nor your point of departure. Bearings stand apart from the heading/course/track/course made good group of concepts. > The **track** is the current compass direction you are heading. The > track has nothing to do with where A or B is with respect to you. It > is only about what direction you are currently going. That is the heading or ship's head. It isn't something that any GPS can display but must be read from the steering compass. Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus