General Navigation: Charts, Direction, Time, Magnetism and Dead Reckoning
Charts and map reading
You must be fluent with the properties of the Lambert conformal conic, Mercator and polar stereographic projections: where the great circle, rhumb line, scale and convergence of meridians behave as they do. On a Lambert chart a straight line is approximately a great circle; on a Mercator it is a rhumb line. Know how to read a grid, measure track and distance, and convert between chart and true direction.
Direction and magnetism
Distinguish true, magnetic, grid and compass direction, and apply variation and deviation with the correct sign. Trap: questions mix east/west variation with additive/subtractive rules - write the mnemonic ("variation east, magnetic least") and check the sign. Remember that deviation is aircraft-specific and varies with heading; variation is geographic.
Time
Understand UTC, LMT, ZT and the date line, and how to convert between them using longitude (15° = 1 hour). Watch for questions crossing midnight and the international date line.
Dead reckoning
Use the CR-3/triangle of velocities: given TAS, true course and wind, find heading, groundspeed and drift. Apply the 1-in-60 rule for small angles.
Rule of thumb: Drift angle ≈ (crosswind component / TAS) × 60 degrees. Example: 30 kt crosswind at 180 kt TAS gives 30/180 × 60 = 10° of drift.