A Rose By Any Other Name - Will Still Confuse the Hell Out of Me

I have issues with the compass rose. It makes me feel stupid. I have no doubt that I am mathematically challenged and this may be the crux of my particular issues with the compass rose.

The compass rose has appeared on charts and maps since the 1300's. The term "rose" comes from the figure's compass points resembling the petals of the well-known flower.

In trying to understand my problem with the compass rose I believed the affliction was a lack of "situational awareness". That is, until I looked up the definition of the term. Wikipedia defines situational awareness as "the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future." 

Ok, that's generally related, but it doesn't clearly define the issue. In order to solve a problem it helps to define it first.

I think a clearer term would be "directional awareness". I am not always certain where I am in relation to a fix and/or I cannot figure it out quickly enough for IFR flight purposes. I think directional awareness needs to be automatic in order to be a competent instrument pilot. It's almost as important to a VFR pilot as well.   

At first blush the innocent looking compass rose appears simple and logical. Numbers 0 through 359 in equal segments around a circle. The numbers are divided equally, with 90 degrees one quarter of the way to the right, 180 at the bottom and 270 on the left. Or 36 segments at 10 degrees each.

Yet if the compass rose is so simple why does my brain get twisted in a knot while trying to do basic instrument maneuvers?

First off, and the part that kind of pisses me off, is that North is not North. Not where I live anyway (in northern California). North is North East. North is not "up the coast", it's heading is way over to what I used to think was the northeast corner of the state. That would be wrong though. It's the North corner of the state. The coast line is oriented northwest.

Another problem more specific to flying is the changing perspective of the compass rose. On one hand, you have the compass rose of the magnetic compass (or DG). It's easy to comprehend, even for me. It displays the "heading to" direction. Simple, stupid - so what's the problem?

On the other hand, you have the imaginary compass rose that is centered on your next fix. The next fix might be an airport, VOR, airway intersection or grandma's house. 

When flying IFR it is critical for directional awareness to always understand your position "from" your next fix. If you have a moving map GPS, this problem is almost moot. I don't, so I need to come up with a system to maintain this "directional awareness". Probably a good thing to know even if you have a decent GPS.    

In the comfort of my home office I can sit back and slowly do the math for a reciprocal heading.

"Let's see, 44 degrees plus 180 equals, uhhh 224!" .

What's the problem? Ok, but let's try another example looking for the reciprocal heading of 183 degrees.

"Let's see 183 degrees plus 180 degrees equals, uhhh 363."
"No wait, this time you add 200 and subtract 20. So 183 plus 200 equal 383 minus 20 equals, uhh, that's wrong too."       
"Ok, with 183 you just subtract 180 so it's 3 degrees!".

So, now, where am I in relation to the fix? Uhh, let me think...

I thought it might help to create a compass rose that I could study that would clearly show reciprocal headings. After a few iterations I came up the following:

I made multiple copies of the rose and placed one on my bathroom mirror, one behind my monitor in my home office and one behind my monitor at work. The rose has the normal compass headings on the outside circle and the reciprocal headings on the inner circle. Visually it allows an immediate connection to to the reciprocal.

I try to memorize the reciprocal of a heading. It is slow going. The roses have been up for a year and I still don't have all the reciprocals memorized.

I do understand that you can simply look at the aircraft's compass or DG and read the reciprocal directly from there. In my opinion, though, that's not good enough. Also it doesn't solve the whole directional awareness problem.

It's one thing to know the reciprocal heading - and another thing to clearly visualize exactly where you are in relation to the fix.

I started talking about this issue with my wife, and co-pilot, Linda this morning. After some back and forth we figured out that it would help if I started solving the problem by first imaging which quadrant from the fix I was in.

"Let's see, if I'm on a 055 degree heading to an airport, that would put me in the southwest quadrant from the fix. Ergo, I am southwest of the fix."

Eureka! It was an epiphany. If I could first place myself mentally in the correct quadrant, then I was halfway to directional awareness. Then as I began my reciprocal calculation I knew approximately where the answer would lie.     

To summarize - to determine where you are from a fix you are heading to, first picture what quadrant you are in from the fix - northeast, southeast, southwest or northwest.

Next calculate the reciprocal knowing the answer will lie within that quadrant from the fix.

To do this, if the heading to the fix is between 0 and180 degrees ADD 180 degrees. Or ADD 200 and then SUBTRACT 20.

If the heading to the fix is between 180 degrees and 359 degrees SUBTRACT 180 degrees. Or SUBTRACT 200 degrees and then ADD 20 degrees.

Probably somewhere in my flight training a flight instructor taught me this and I simply forgot it. Or perhaps they should have and didn't. Or perhaps I should have figured this out myself a long time ago.

The one thing I do know that works for me is simply writing down a problem. Once I start putting the words on paper, the problem and the solutions, have a way of crawling out of the darkness of my sub-conscious.

Gary