Track Up or North Up?

Track Up or North Up?

  • Track Up

    Votes: 134 66.0%

  • North Up

    Votes: 62 30.5%

  • No Preference

    Votes: 4 2.0%

  • Huh?

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • Total voters
    203
Track up most of the time, match the display (paper map or GPS) to what I see out the window for more intuitive pilotage. Large scale charts or weather displays, North up. Never had any trouble switching back and forth.

Jay
 
Track up,...............

Track up gives MORE nav information, and allows the GPS to be used as a pseudo HSI.

Karl
ATP CFI ETC
 
flyingcheesehead said:
How so? :dunno:
Click to expand...

Because one can use the magenta line for a HSI.

Maneuver the airplane to the magenta line, then just KEEP the ML vertical. Just like a HSI, if the line moves tilts left, fly left and vise verse.

Just keep the ML vertical............More NAV information.......works good on approach.

Can't be done "North up."

Karl
ATP CFI ETC
"Curator" N185KG
 
I was at an aviation safety seminar yesterday and Allen Elglehard talked about this very question. (For those who don't know who he is, he just made his last flight for United as something like #8 in seniority in the 777. BTW, he said that he knows Greg B.) His point was that all the airliners use track up exclusively and if their ergonomics folks all agreed that this is the way to go, there's probably something behind it. Also, he and the other designated examiners present all agree that they very much prefer flying track up. He did point out, though, that if a student comes to the checkride with North up, it isn't a disqualifier.

Another of the DEs mentioned that she sets up a profile in the GPS (presuming that the GPS supports user profiles) called "emergency" in which the display is track up, as well as having other options set so that
operation can be simplified in a crisis situation.
 
I don't know what the necropost limit is around here, but I was going to post this exact question.

Anyway, I figured it would be about 50/50, but I'm surprised how one-sided this preference is. I am a North-up person. I don't like the map moving all over the place, since I lose the relative locations of places in the vicinity, and where I am relative to them. Besides, I can easily see what's on my "left and right" on the map, and it doesn't any added computation to see that. You don't spin the chart in your lap, so why have the display spin?
 
Both! With WingX you can swap between the two with a touch of the screen. I usually fly with Track Up though. It is nice to be able to toggle back to North Up quickly when desired.
 
North-up on the ground, but track-up in flight.

Right now, especially, after coming off a drop involving a lot of low circling and concentrating on a part of the fire, I have no earthly idea where north is; I just want to know where the airport is, and with the lazy, mindless technique of using a "direct to" feature, the magenta line points the way. Turn and follow the line, then get oriented and some bearings.

Any compass-direction references I use in flight (north, east, etc) are made via either a DG/HSI, or the mag compass.
 
I like track up on both a GPS and a sectional. It is easier for me. If I need to read the name of something or a frequency, I can do that without much trouble.
 
Track up. But if it's overlayed on a sectional, North up works.
 
bstratt said:
I use North Up - always found the "spinning" moving map confusing during sharp turns and holding patterns.
Click to expand...

Ditto, North Up for me. The only times I ever got twisted around were learning VORs for the first time and trying to track a Track up Map. How can you figure out where you're going if you don't know which way you're pointing?

Of course, you just drive on the Magenta road...
 
Track up if I know where I am. North up if I'm lost. :blush:
 
timwinters said:
North up = left brain
Track up = right brain
Click to expand...

um, look at USAF pilots/navs

The guys that fly high typically use North up

The guys that fly way down low typically use Track up.
 
I do both, track up on G1000 map display and north up on iPad (ForeFlight). I rarely fly VFR so chart correspondence with the view out the window is often not relevant.
 
Bob Noel said:
um, look at USAF pilots/navs

The guys that fly high typically use North up

The guys that fly way down low typically use Track up.
Click to expand...
The guys down in the weeds probably don't need one more thing for their brains to convert while they are dodging trees, hills and AAF. :hairraise:
 
I do track-up on the 430 and the MFD because you can see if your on course easier. Now if I'm using a chart or ForeFlight it's always north-up.

I had a CFi during primary who had me do a x/c with the chart track-up. It was harder for me to pick out points and figure out my location. I'm a map person and have enjoyed reading and making maps my whole life. So north-up is normal to me. So my brain adds in the north vs track correction automatically. :rofl:
 
ARFlyer said:
I do track-up on the 430 and the MFD because you can see if your on course easier. Now if I'm using a chart or ForeFlight it's always north-up.
Click to expand...

+1.

Maps are just "not right" if they are not North up. Been a lover of antique maps for years so I always use North Up. Since the 430 isn't a "real map" to me, I use track up in the Club aircraft and never knew there was an option to switch.

Cheers
 
How about south up? I know someone who has one of these hanging on his wall. I thought it was cool.

upside-down-world-map21.gif
 
Bob Noel said:
um, look at USAF pilots/navs

The guys that fly high typically use North up

The guys that fly way down low typically use Track up.
Click to expand...

My Enroute charts were always north up, makes it easier for plotting, especially with celestial Nav. Our low level routes were always track up, get more route per page that way, they were flip charts or books. My radar display, I could choose, but preferred north up, that's the way the radar prediction (sat photos) were set up.

USAF (RET) Master Navigator
B-52G, B1-B
 
DrMack said:
I do both, track up on G1000 map display and north up on iPad (ForeFlight). I rarely fly VFR so chart correspondence with the view out the window is often not relevant.
Click to expand...

I have not found how to change orientation in FF. It's default is North Up.
 
Track up makes it easier to follow the magenta line of death wherever it leads.

North up gives you position and direction information at a glance.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Track up makes it easier to follow the magenta line of death wherever it leads.

North up gives you position and direction information at a glance.
Click to expand...

If you've somehow gotten to the point of immediatly needing a right or left turn to avoid terrain, without a second to spare........then track up is the one to have.

I do like your "magenta line of #####", though..............except I'll correct it to magenta line of life. After all, in the foreseeable future of aviation, that's exactly what it's going to be!

L.Adamson --- GPS, SV advocate
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/tags.php?tag=mlod

Paper seems to work OK for me. But I'm not one of those crazy people who actually flys through clouds.
Click to expand...

Out here in mountain country, clouds exist, even when you don't think they'll be there. For instance, a pilot cancelled his IFR flight plan, to divert to his local uncontrolled airport, after a cross country business trip. Even though it was dark, city lights made VFR navigation easy. Unfortunely, a low lying cloud against the mountain, put him into instant IMC conditions.........in which he turned toward rising terrain, overflew subdivisons at a very low altitude, and smashed into terrain. This is only one of many, many examples in which I have. They all involve mountain terrain, and the unplanned & usually unexpected. Pilots include low time, high time, military, commercial, as well as GA. Point is, they didn't have ....what we now do..

L.Adamson
 
Like others said, both, depending on what I'm looking at:

Track up on the 430 and the map page of the 510
North up on the WX pages of the 510 and the ipad defaults to north up on the charts
 
I am a track up kinda guy... Been that way since the Loran C days.. I am staring right at the DG while navigating.. If I can't figure out which way I am going I really need to quit flying,, or driving for that matter..:yesnod::yesnod:r
 
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