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Seeing whitecaps go by quickly, it is instinctive to align the drift
meter with the passage of them, regardless of their intrinsic
motion.  But in timing their passage to get ground speed, one should
use the onset of the whitecap.

Ken
On Nov 19, 2009, at 8:35 PM, George Huxtable wrote:

> As one quite ignorant about air navigation, a few questions come to
> my mind.
>
> I can see the relevance of some sort of drift angle meter when
> flying over
> land, in establishing ground track direction from  relative motion of
> landmarks seen passing below.
>
> But how does that work over the sea? Presumably, one would be seeing
> whitecaps on the waves, or white-horses, that will tend to drift
> downwind,
> as the wave-tops move downwind. Is that speed of motion quite
> negligible,
> compared with the airspeed of a light aircraft? Is there some way of
> allowing for that motion? Or does this just add an additional
> uncertainty to
> the estimated track-angle of the aircraft? If so, what level of
> uncertainty
> would that be?
>
> George.
>
> contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
> or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
> or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
>
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