Navigation
Navigation for remote pilots
Candidates must understand the earth's coordinate system, latitude and longitude, and how position is expressed and used in flight planning. Know the concepts of true and magnetic heading, variation and deviation, and how to convert between them. Understand the difference between track, heading and course, and the effect of wind on the path over the ground.
Concepts to master
Learn the navigation triangle: heading and true airspeed combined with wind direction and speed give track and ground speed. Understand how to compute a crosswind and headwind or tailwind component using the sine and cosine of the wind angle, and how to estimate drift. Know the role of GNSS, its accuracy and its limitations, including multipath and jamming. Understand map reading, the use of waypoints and geofences, and the importance of a planned return path.
Common traps
Questions often confuse track with heading, or apply variation in the wrong direction. Another trap is forgetting that ground speed, not airspeed, determines time and fuel or battery consumption over the ground.
Rule of thumb
Add west variation to a true heading to get magnetic, and subtract east variation. Worked example: a true heading of 090 degrees with 10 degrees west variation gives a magnetic heading of 100 degrees. For a 20-knot wind at 45 degrees to a 40-knot track, the headwind component is about 14 knots and the crosswind component about 14 knots, so ground speed is about 26 knots and drift must be corrected.