Runway Headings

[captvikki]

What is an easy way to know the reciprocal of a runway heading?

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I look at my VOR head or, if you have a vertical type; the HI. After a while they just start to pop into your mind, there are only so many.

 

[alaskaflyer]

I look at my gauges too, but I've gotten pretty good at the add/subtract 200, add/subtract 20 thing as well.

 

[silver-eagle]

Add 18 or subtract 18. Deal with whole numbers make it 20 and 2.

 

[One Short]

You can look at the DG. The number directly opposite of the runway heading is the reciprocal.

Barb

 

[ScottM]

What is an easy way to know the reciprocal of a runway heading?

I just add or subtract 18 from the heading. For me, it is harder to remember some trick or mnemonic instead of just doing the math.

 

[tonycondon]

add 2 to the first number, subtract 2 from the second number. if that results in an umber that doesnt make sense, subtract 2 from the first number and add 2 to the second number.

 

[Areeda]

If you're asking what heading to turn for downwind or on the taxiway, just put the runway heading on the bottom of the HI.

Joe

 

[EdFred]

Memorization - it's only 18 pairs of numbers.

 

[ghogue]

I'm not big on learning tricks for this type of thing, however if you like tricks, here's something I realized many years ago. I'm not saying this will be very helpful, just an interesting insight into the numbers of a compass.

Add the first two numbers and the result will be the same as adding the first two numbers of the reciprocal. e.g.,
150-330 ...... 1+5=6, 3+3=6.
070-250 ...... 0+7=7, 2+5=7
100-280 ...... doesn't work perfectly here. Gotta just memorize it.

Probably more work than just learning the combinations as edfred posted.

 

[Tristar]

The plus 200, minus 20 trick always worked for me.