ppl_03_e2
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FOREWORD
JAA Theoretical Examination Papers |
Corresponding Oxford Book Title |
Air Law and Operational Procedures |
Volume 1: Air Law |
Human Performance and Limitations |
Volume 2: Human Performance |
Navigation and Radio Aids |
Volume 3: Navigation |
Meteorology |
Volume 4: Meteorology |
Aircraft (General) and Principles of Flight |
Volume 5: Principles of Flight |
|
Volume 6: Aeroplanes |
Flight Performance and Planning |
Volume 5: Aeroplane Performance |
|
Volume 6: Mass and Balance |
JAR-FCL Communications (PPL) |
Volume 7: Radiotelephony |
Regulatory Changes.
Finally, so that you may stay abreast of any changes in the flying and ground training requirements pertaining to pilot licences which may be introduced by your national aviation authority, be sure to consult, from time to time, the relevant publications issued by the authority. In the United Kingdom, the Civil Aviation Publication, LASORS, is worth looking at regularly. It is currently accessible, on-line, on the CAA website at www.caa.co.uk.
Oxford,
England
August 2011
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PREFACE TO GENERAL NAVIGATION
TO THE PILOT.
Man first flew in a powered heavier-than-air flying machine in 1903.
Very soon after that date, as aircraft began to fly greater and greater distances from their home airfields, pilots became concerned with the problem of finding their way in the air.
During the First World War, from 1914 to 1918, aeroplanes were used as fighting machines, participating in offensive patrols and bombing missions, operating far into enemy territory, and so the art and science of navigation became an integral part of flying.
After Word War I, the air transport industry was born, and the first intercontinental flights were made by airlines such as Imperial Airways, from Great Britain, and by individual men and women whose names have gone down in history, such as Alcock and Brown, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and Charles KingsfordSmith.
World War II saw immense progress in navigational science, especially in the development of radar and radio aids to navigation.
With the expansion of private flying after the Second WW2, navigation skills needed to be learnt by private pilots, who mainly operated light aircraft which lacked the sophisticated instrumentation of military and commercially-operated aircraft. The private pilot’s need then was to learn visual navigation techniques based on mentally deduced reckoning (commonly known a mental dead-reckoning or MDR), and backed up by map-reading.
Very soon, however, the development of the transistor, micro-chip and computer, meant that the radio-navigation aids regularly used by professional aviators became available to the private pilot.
Nowadays, most light aircraft, even if entirely club-owned, are fitted with a radionavigation suite which, forty years ago, would have been the envy of commercial airliners. So, today, VOR, ADF, DME, and ILS radio-navigation systems are fitted to most light aircraft. More recently, these systems have been complemented by
Global Navigation Satellite Systems which greatly simplify the pilot’s task of finding his way in the air.
Nevertheless, it is still not possible, nor would it be desirable, to gain a private pilot’s licence (PPL) without demonstrating adequate knowledge and skill in both the theory and practice of dead-reckoning visual navigation techniques. Consequently, deadreckoning navigation techniques make up the greater part of the subject of navigation as it is taught and tested for the award of the private pilot’s licence all over the world.
One of the primary aims of this book is to teach students mental dead-reckoning visual navigation techniques which will enable them to become competent pilotnavigators and, thus, help prepare them for the practical navigation skills test of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) PPL (A). A further main objective of this book is that students should learn all the theory they need to prepare for the EASA PPL (A).
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PREFACE TO GENERAL NAVIGATION
In order to be fully prepared for the PPL theoretical knowledge examinations in Navigation, you will need to know how to use the Dalton-type analogue navigation computer. This instrument is the one you must use during the examination to calculate heading, groundspeed, track error, etc.. There is a chapter in this book devoted to the use of the navigation computer, and also an accompanying CD-ROM which will give you full instruction in all the functions of the instrument.
Despite the emphasis on dead-reckoning visual navigation techniques for the PPL navigation skills test, the use of certain radio-navigation aids is permitted during the test, as a supplement to visual navigation techniques. The subject of Radio Aids is also examined at an elementary level in the PPL theoretical knowledge examinations, the full title of the examination paper being Navigation & Radio Aids.
The subject matter covered in this book meets the syllabus requirements of the Part Flight Crew Licensing (Part-FCL) section of EASA for the PPL theoretical knowledge examinations in the subject of Navigation & Radio Aids.
Students preparing for PPLs issued by organisations other than EASA, primarily examinations set by national aviation authorities, should also find that this book meets their requirements.
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CHAPTER 1
FORM OF THE EARTH
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CHAPTER 1: FORM OF THE EARTH
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CHAPTER 1: FORM OF THE EARTH
THE EARTH’S ORBIT AND ROTATION.
The Earth orbits the Sun once every year. The plane in which the Earth orbits the
Sun is known as the orbital plane. (See Figure 1.1.)
Figure 1.1 The Earth’s plane of orbit around the Sun and the Northern Hemisphere seasons.
As well as orbiting the Sun, the Earth spins on its own axis, the extremities of this axis being the North and South Geographical Poles. (See Figure 1.2.) The Earth’s axis is inclined, or tilted, at an angle of 66½° to the orbital plane, sometimes expressed as being 23½° to a line passing normally through the orbital plane.
The Earth spins on its axis from West to East which explains the phenomena of day and night and why the sun “rises” in the East and “sets” in the West. The inclination of the Earth’s axis is the underlying cause of seasonal change, and of the changing time interval between sunrise and sunset throughout the year.
The Earth’s
spin axis is inclined at
an angle of
66½° to the orbital plane. This is the underlying cause of the seasons, and of the changing lengths of daylight and darkness.
Figure 1.2 Earth’s Axis.
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CHAPTER 1: FORM OF THE EARTH
MERIDIANS OF LONGITUDE AND PARALLELS OF LATITUDE.
Meridians of Longitude.
The position of any point on the surface of the Earth is defined using the latitude and longitude system.
Longitudes East and
West are measured
with respect to the Prime Meridian, designated 0° East/West, which passes through Greenwich in London.
Degrees of Longitude
and Latitude are divided
into minutes and seconds.
Figure 1.3 Meridians of Longitude.
Imaginary lines joining the North and South Poles are called meridians of longitude. The meridians of longitude are used to determine position East and West of the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is the meridian passing through Greenwich, in London, England. The Prime Meridian is designated 0° East/West and is the datum used for defining longitude. Meridians of longitude extend to 180º East and 180º West. 180° East and 180° West are one and the same meridian. Tunis lies at just over 10° East (that is, 10° East of the Prime Meridian) and Madrid, is situated at about 4° West.
It is not, however, sufficient to designate the meridians of longitude in whole degrees only, as this would not be precise enough. Because the Earth is of spheroid shape, the distance between, for example, the meridians marking 10º East and 11º East is greater at the Equator, where it is 60 nautical miles, than at the North Pole, where the distance is zero. You can see, therefore, that at the Equator and the mid-latitudes, we need a smaller unit of measurement than the degree if we are to define a particular point on the Earth’s surface.
Consequently, each degree is divided into 60 minutes and each minute is divided into 60 seconds.
Minutes are represented by the symbol (’) and seconds by the symbol (”). In an atlas, you will find that, measured exactly, Columbus, Ohio, lies at 83°, 1’ West.
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CHAPTER 1: FORM OF THE EARTH
The Equator
is the datum from which
latitude
North or South is measured.
Figure 1.4 Parallels of Latitude.
Parallels of Latitude.
Imaginary east–west lines that are parallel with the Equator are known as parallels of latitude. The Equator is the datum from which latitude North or South is measured. Parallels of latitude extend from the Equator, which is designated 0° North/South, to 90º at the geographical poles.
Because the parallels of latitude are spaced equally between the Equator and the Poles, each degree, minute and second of latitude represents the same distance on the Earth’s surface all over the globe: one degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles; one minute of latitude is one nautical mile, and one second represents 34 yards (31 metres). This latter relationship between degrees, minutes and seconds and distances on the Earth’s surface also holds true for all distances measured along a great circle.
Dakar, Senegal, lies at 14° 38’ North, and La Rochelle, France is situated at 46° 10’ North.
Defining the Location of Any Point on Earth.
Using latitude and longitude as the reference, any point on the Earth’s surface can be defined. For example, in Figure 1.3, Tunis lies at 36° 47’ North, 10° 10’ East, and Sao Paulo lies at 23° 52’ South, 46° 37’ West. Madrid is situated at 40° 23’ North, 3° 46’ West and St John’s, Newfoundland, lies at 47° 37’ North, 52° 45’ West.
One minute of
latitude is one nautical mile.
One degree
of latitude is 60 nautical miles.
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CHAPTER 1: FORM OF THE EARTH
The shortest distance
between any two
points on the Earth’s surface is along a great circle route.
A rhumb line is a line
which cuts meridians of longitude and parallels of
latitude at the same angle.
The details of the Earth’s
surface cannot
be perfectly accurately represented on a flat surface.
Great Circles.
Any circle on the surface of the Earth whose centre and radius are those of the Earth itself is called a great circle. Such a circle is called great because a disc that cuts through the Earth in the plane of a great circle will have the largest possible circumference that can be obtained. (See Figure 1.5.) A line drawn on the surface of the Earth between two points lying on a great circle represents the shortest distance between those two points. All the meridians of longitude are great circles. The Equator is also a great circle.
Small Circles.
Any circle on the surface of the Earth whose centre and radius are not those of the Earth itself is called a small circle. All parallels of latitude, except the Equator, are small circles.
Rhumb Line.
A rhumb line is a straight line which cuts the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude at the same angle everywhere on the surface of the Earth. (See Figure 1.5.) An aircraft or ship navigating over the surface of the Earth on a fixed compass heading would be following a rhumb line.
Figure 1.5 A Rhumb Line and a Great Circle.
THE PROBLEM OF MAKING NAVIGATIONAL CHARTS.
The curved meridians of longitude, parallels of latitude and the Earth’s land surfaces, as depicted on the globe, cannot be fully accurately represented on a flat chart, except over quite small areas. Therefore, when the first seafarers began to venture away from sea coasts to set out on long sea voyages, using primitive charts, they found, by following a rhumb line over long distances, that the rhumb line could not be taken as straight. This discovery led eventually to the realisation that the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the Earth is a great circle, and that charts were required on which the straight lines would represent great circles.
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