North up or Track up?

I can do either. Both have their pros and cons. Generally I have it Track Up but if I've flying with another pilot who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because it is Track Up instead of North Up then I will go ahead and switch :D. I had once such flight a year ago where I flew with another pilot who wanted North Up. Fine. After he had got out I decided to keep it North Up for a while and did for a couple of weeks and then flew with another pilot who almost had a tantrum when he saw I was set to North Up. I blamed my previous pilot passenger and got an earful of "how can anyone fly North Up! It makes no sense!!!" :lol:
 
roncachamp said:
Odd. Every tandem fighter I know of has the guys in the pointy end.
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The person in the pointy end of a tandem fighter is the pilot, and they tend not to look at the radar, leaving that task to the person in the back seat, who does have a track-up radar. Unless you're considering the RIO/WSO also to be in the "pointy end", which I could understand.
 
Ron Levy said:
The person in the pointy end of a tandem fighter is the pilot, and they tend not to look at the radar, leaving that task to the person in the back seat, who does have a track-up radar. Unless you're considering the RIO/WSO also to be in the "pointy end", which I could understand.
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Bingo.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Which do you use with a moving map and why?
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Moving Map on what? The planes I fly are from the Stoneage, meaning Garmin430. I like North up. Don't actually spend much time looking at it, just a glance everything now and then to see if things look right. I've done some Sim work on the 530. After playing around for awhile I left the Map(nav page 2) on North up for the same reason, a check every now and then to see if "the big picture" looked right. Nav page one, which on the 530 is also a "map" is always track up anyway as far as I could tell.
If the Map in question is being used as a primary navigation instrument, staying on the centerline, leading turns to intercepts etc., Track up makes a lot of sense. Either way, every now and then you are going to have to turn things in your head to maintain complete situational awareness. Sometimes your turning the world, sometimes your turning the map. Whatever feels the most comfortable I'd say is the best way. I'm doing more Sim work on Track up until it just doesn't matter one or the other to me.
 
North up. Carry over from the military for me...first rule of land nav: orient the map north. So, whether its because its how I did it for so long or because its actually easier, I don't know. But it is easier for me to set it to north up.


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North up. Charts are printed north up.

Also track up is for people who aren't as mentally capable as north up people.
 
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Both. I prefer to have the approach plate North up. When covering distance I usually keep the G500 on North up and the GTN on track up. IPad always North up.
 
Track up on pretty much any panel mount nav device. North up on Foreflight or any map.
 
North up. That little blue airplane points toward where I am going, so it's quite easy to tell what is supposed to be in front of you.
 
wishboneash said:
North up. When you get vectored all over the place on IFR, I feel one can lose situational awareness with Track up. We turn and fly to headings in IFR so North up makes sense to me. Also, the map constantly rotating with Track up is distracting. There is less interpretation with North up, looking at the map you know exactly where you are with respect to waypoints/fixes/VORs/airports.
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Best explanation so far.
 
Ron Levy said:
Usually track-up, because that's the way it was presented on the radars and MFD's I first used in the military 40 years ago, and I got used to it. But while that works for me, it may not work for you, so you use whatever is easiest for your brain to process.
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When I first learned to fly the only thing you used a map for was to check a landmark, so the map (usually a road map from a gas station) was oriented in the direction of flight. Navigation was "follow the river until Xtown. Turn left. Follow RT 209 until you pick up the railroad tracks, turn right ..."
Then the Air Force days, and Ron's answer applied.
Now, I don't think I could do North up if you put a gun to my head. It's hard to break old habits.
 
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