About Capt Paul Expertise I can answers questions relating to: aircraft and airline operations; aircraft technical matters relating to a number of different aircraft types; flight operations & flight planning; Aviation meteorology; accident prevention and investigation; the Air Traffic control system and how pilots interact with it; and pilot and airline licensing in the Europe, Asia, Canada and the US. I also answer questions about all types of Navigation, Aviation Weather, Aircraft Performance, Procedures and Aviation law (in general).
Experience Current Airbus Captain with over 23 years as an airline pilot and over 13,500 hours of experience.
Also experience as a Flight Operations Manager/Director; Chief Pilot; Instructor; Safety Officer, and training as an Accident/Incident Investigator.
Degree in Airline / Aerospace Operations. Minor in Behavioural Psychology and studies in pre-law
BS, Aerospace
Question If I am over the geographic north pole what heading would I fly to get to Seattle? Or Toronto, or anywhere?
Seems to me the minute you leave the pole your heading for anywhere and forget the magnetic aspect, will by 180 degrees.
What am I missing here? That can't be right...
WBD
Answer If your over either the geographic north pole, or the magnetic north pole, you would be flying what we call "Grid Tracks". Simplistically, it's a track based navigation, opposed to heading based system.
Because the magnetic poles and geographic poles are located in different places, the magnetic compass becomes somewhat useless in the far northern regions.
But, your magnetic heading would be a little more accurate when flying from the magnetic north pole, which is located somewhere around northern greenland. However, it does move slightly eash year.
