Track Up or North Up (merged)

Track up is fine as long as you follow the magenta line.

North up is better if you need to divert from the magenta line from some reason and need to be able to quickly recognise the airspace around you. To me at least, it is much easier to recognise the airspace having it’s general shape (north up) in my mind.

I fully understand the reasons presented for North up, but you are all wrong. :)

JasonC wrote:

I fully understand the reasons presented for North up, …

I’m afraid I do not understand a single reason for “North up” North is a completely arbitrary direction and as good or bad as any other. Why not “North by Northwest” ( * ) up instead? The only thing I care about is where I am going, not what our planet is revolving around.

( * ) Edit: Spelled the title of a favorite movie correctly.

what_next wrote:

I’m afraid I do not understand a single reason for “North up” North is a completely arbitrary direction and as good or bad as any other. Why not “west by northwest” up instead? The only thing I care about is where I am going, not what our planet is revolving around.

I was being polite to them @what_next….

what_next wrote:

North is a completely arbitrary direction and as good or bad as any other.

True, however it is the standard (most) maps are using.

what_next wrote:

Why not “North by Northwest” ( * ) up instead?

If cartographers centuries ago had chosen that, this thread would’ve been called Track Up or “North by Northwest” Up.

what_next wrote:

The only thing I care about is where I am going, not what our planet is revolving around.

Fair point, and a few of us agree that track up makes sense when you’re following the magenta.

I like to think I have a pretty good idea of which way is North, at any time. Earlier this week, my friend (who was driving) and I were about to pull out of our driveway when he almost turned the wrong way because Google Maps hadn’t figured out yet which way we were pointing (no speed, so no chance for GPS to calculate a track). Wouldn’t have happened with North up

NickP95 wrote:

I like to think I have a pretty good idea of which way is North, …

Back in the days when I did the flight planning myself (with chart and protractor and so on) my party piece was to set the heading bug to any “direct to” waypoint that ATC would give to us before the other pilot could answer the call. I was never more than 5 degrees off. That was one of the most useless skills I ever developed…
Now, when they give us a direct to waypoint, I select that point from the stored flight plan and press the “D” button. And say some mindless phrase as per our SOPs (which keep changing every three months or so) to make my freshly checked-out first officer happy. I don’t even look at the moving map, so whether it is north up or track up I couldn’t really care.
I think it is time to quit flying and go back to develop aviation software…