Flying a true heading

I’m currently carrying out a flight into Northern Canada, where navigating is done in degrees true. I can’t find anywhere online about how to switch from magnetic to true in the Q400, anyone know?

Comments

  • I think you have to use inertial navigational equipment to do so. I am not sure about the FMS which could be unusable on very high latitudes. I do not think our Majestic Q400 could do that. As far as I remember we learned the basis of Grid Navigation in the sixties but I do not think it is used anymore and personnally I never flew on high latitudes. If there are Canadian pilots on the forum, I am sure they could explain which way they do it.
    JP

  • DATA page 4 of the FMS displays the current value for the magnetic variation from the database and according to the FMS manual this value can be manually altered so perhaps you could try setting the variation to zero. I haven't tried this myself so "buyer beware."
    Good Luck.
    IH

  • The main problem is: what instrument are we going to use to follow a true heading?
    If we would have a gyro compass it could help but it is a quite old technology.
    JP

  • hi jake I flew out of Inuvik for years you need to find out if you have variation EAST or WEST. A short saying goes :- Variation east magnetic least (less than true) Variation west magnetic best (greater than true) hope this helps

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