Video: Cross country deviations on the fly

Good video, thanks! I've never heard of dead reckoning defined as "the use of navigational equipment to pinpoint your location," though. Dead reckoning means you start from a known location, and from there it's your estimated ground speed, your estimated track over the ground, and your trusty stopwatch that gives you an estimate for where you are. Pilotage is one way to know where you have actually gone, as opposed to where dead reckoning estimates you have gone. The use of a VOR or GPS receiver is another way.

To see if someone truly understands navigation and flying, ask them: if they could have only one instrument in the airplane, what would it be? I think the answer ought to be "the magnetic compass." Allow them one more instrument and maybe it should be "A clock or stopwatch." With those two simple, nearly foolproof instruments, you can navigate anywhere in the VFR skies. The rest of your flight information you can get from other sources (airspeed from control feel and slipstream noise. Altitude, approximately, by looking outside. Attitude by looking outside. And so on.) Academically speaking, of course, since all prudent pilots fly with the instruments required by the FARs.

PS: Not a pilot, so all of the above might be utter nonsense. Consult someone who knows something instead of me.

Hello Jason,

Great video - however I disagree with your definition of dead reckoning. Dead reckoning is properly defined as "the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course." (Wikipedia)

To keep your navigation accurate, of course, you establish a new fix from time to time. You can do this with a visual reference, or with radio navigation aids - the method you use to establish the fix is unimportant in the definition and practice of dead reckoning. Your 'wind card' method is part of using dead reckoning navigation to carry out the deviation - notice this doesn't involve radios or visual references at all, unless you wanted to establish a new fix. That's the whole point - and one possible reason it's called "dead" - is because it's done solely by math... until the new fix is established by whatever means.

Some more references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Reckoning
http://www.deadreckoning.com/
http://student.britannica.com/comptons/article-230887/aviation

Notice the last one specifically states that DR is only used when visual or radio navigation is *not* available... though obviously a smart pilot uses all methods available to cross-check each other.

Cheers,
Jeremy