Navigation
Navigation
This domain tests practical navigation for VFR cross-country flight: charts, headings, magnetism, dead reckoning, pilotage, radio navigation and flight planning. Kuwait’s featureless desert makes pilotage challenging, so heading and time control are essential.
Core rules
- True course is measured on the chart. Apply variation to get magnetic heading; apply deviation to get compass heading. Wind correction is applied before deviation.
- “True Virgins Make Dull Company”: True + Variation = Magnetic; Magnetic + Deviation = Compass. Add west, subtract east.
- Dead reckoning: heading, time, fuel and groundspeed. Update with fixes; do not rely on one navigation method.
- VOR gives bearing from a station; GPS gives track and groundspeed but requires database currency and RAIM awareness.
- Flight planning includes alternate, fuel, wind, terrain/obstacles, airspace and lost-procedure.
Worked example
Chart true course 090°T. Variation is 4°E, so magnetic course is 090 − 4 = 086°M. Deviation is 2°W, so compass heading for that course is 086 + 2 = 088°C. If the wind requires 6° left drift correction, the magnetic heading to steer is 080°M, and compass heading is 082°C. The pilot must not apply variation after deviation, or the final heading will be wrong by 4–6°.
Traps that cost marks
Adding east variation instead of subtracting; using magnetic course from a chart marked in true; forgetting deviation after an avionics change; relying on GPS track without cross-checking heading and time; and failing to update fuel/groundspeed as wind changes.