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My pedistal compass really confuses me, so...


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What you are looking at is the 90 deg heading and is the same as you would see on a panel mounted compass. Look closer and you will see 90 right at the top ad that is what you would see if you were looking down on the compass. The odd part is that the bearings are different each side of the lubber line.

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On the lower scale you are looking at the tail which if NOT changed from the top one will give you the bearing FROM. (reciprocal).   ie 200 - 20. = 180. difference.  You have to change the numbers if you look at the opposite side for reference. Nev

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What I like about this particular compass is that if you can mount it in the cockpit such that you have a view down on the disc (not so easy to do) the headings show in the correct sense - like a DG.  So, in this case, if you want to turn 30 degrees right you just turn towards 120.

The normal whiskey compass (like the rim display of this one) is, and always has been, counter-intuitive; to get to that number you need to turn in the opposite direction (oh yeah, and wait a while ... because the damn thing's going to feint the right way first. ) 

 

By the way, what is the confusion of which you speak Mr Pen Name?    😉 

Edited by Garfly
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They say that a thousand years ago, when the compass was new, mariners who were early adopters were mocked by all the old salts of the day. "Look at those guys, just pressing GoTo on their loadstones and heading off, heedless of the seafaring lore of a hundred generations. Crazy young fools!"

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The early compasses were O.K., it was the charts that were a bit dodgy, back then. Even if you did get one written on superfine Augustan papyrus, they still had warnings about falling off the edge of the world, if you sailed too far!

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Flat Earth !.

It was debunked by a Faggot, ( Sometimes called a short faggot, a faggot of sticks equals a bundle of wood ).

They were all the same length. and the Person walked away placing a stick at an equal distance, when viewed from start to finish , the sticks appeared smaller/shorter the further away they were.

LIKE RAIL LINES getting shorter sleepers the further away , ( theres a name for that ) LoL.

spacesailor

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On 22/01/2021 at 11:43 AM, Garfly said:

What I like about this particular compass is that if you can mount it in the cockpit such that you have a view down on the disc (not so easy to do) the headings show in the correct sense - like a DG.  So, in this case, if you want to turn 30 degrees right you just turn towards 120.

The normal whiskey compass (like the rim display of this one) is, and always has been, counter-intuitive; to get to that number you need to turn in the opposite direction (oh yeah, and wait a while ... because the damn thing's going to feint the right way first. ) 

 

By the way, what is the confusion of which you speak Mr Pen Name?    😉 

The numbers move in the wrong direction, just like you said. So, if I turn right, the numbers start moving from the left. What was interesting was that it was hard to work out *why* it seemed to be wrong. I suppose I thought that if I am turning right, that is where the numbers should appear from, the right. Also, bigger numbers should be to the right of littler numbers. 
 

I navigate with the compass rose on the Dynon, and the pedestal. compass was a late addition after the AHARS (? spelling) died and I was without any compass for a while.

 

I also thought that I would be able to see at my leisure about nippy north and sluggish south. I have sort of observed it. 
 

Because cars have much more linear acceleration, I can easily see, for example, the numbers climbing if I am heading west and speed up (and vice versa x 2). 
 

If I can read it at a glance, and it does what I expect it to do, it will be less cognitive load flying.

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So just try to mount it so that you look down on the rotating compass rose disc.

Problemo finito. 

(But not in the car, of course.  So hard to steer a steady course in streets these days.)

Edited by Garfly
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