NEVER   EAT   SOGGY  WAFFLES

Knowing basic directional concepts well makes everything easier in the cockpit and for flight planning.

Cardinal directions and the corresponding numerical degrees, called the heading, on the compass are foundational to flying. Directions and degrees are two ways of talking about the same thing.  So if you know both ways - the name and the number - you’ll be fluent when it comes time to apply those concepts in the air or elsewhere.

Some things never change.  On the compass,  

• 000 degrees (say “zero-zero”), also 360 degrees, (or "three-six-zero") is/are another way of saying “North”

• 090 (say “zero-nine-zero”) is another way of saying “East”

• 180 (say “one-eight-zero”) is another way of saying “South”

• 270 (say “two-seven-zero”) is another way of saying “West”

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EXERCISE:  PLOT A COURSE

GET A MAP, A PENCIL, AND A RULER

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• Find or print out an old fashioned paper map.  Locate your house or any point of interest on the map.  Think of it as point A.

• Now locate a second point on the other side of the page. Consider this to be point B. 

• Use the ruler to draw a straight line with the pencil from one point to the other.  Lay your compass right on the pencil line.

• Without lifting the compass from the map, rotate the compass so that the letter N and the red pointer are aligned with North on the map.  North is ALWAYS marked on a map.  It may look like only an arrow and a letter N.  The arrow almost always points UP toward the top of the page to indicate north.

• Look at the cardinal direction and the bearing from point A to point B.  Examples might be NE (northeast), or 045, or “zero-four-five” to a pilot.

• Another example is NNE (north northeast), or 030, spoken as “zero-three-zero.” 

PLOT YOUR RETURN COURSE

• What’s the direction, also called the heading, from point B to point A?  It’s the opposite direction!  To continue the example, the opposite direction from your first bearing would be SSW (south southwest), or 210, or “two-one-zero.”

What other directions and bearings can you plot?