Actually the drift is speeding up and has been for the last few centuries.
Interesting times ...
Posted on 01/06/2011 8:52:44 AM PST by TaraP
The airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to repaint the numeric designators at each end and change taxiway signage to account for the shift in location of the Earth's magnetic north pole.
The closure of the west parallel runway will result in more activity on the east parallel runway and more noise for residential areas of South Tampa.
The busiest runway will be re-designated 19R/1L on aviation charts. It's been 18R/36L, indicating its alignment along the 180-degree approach from the north and the 360-degree approach from the south.
Later this month, the airport's east parallel runway and the seldom used east-west runway will be closed to change signage to their new designations.
The Federal Aviation Administration required the runway designation change to account for what a National Geographic News report described as a gradual shift of the Earth's magnetic pole at nearly 40 miles a year toward Russia because of magnetic changes in the core of the planet.
Can’t wait till some wacko leftie ties this to Bush, global warming, or the new Republican House.
Oh God, man made Global Magnestism. I am applying for a $50 million research grant today!
I hope Al Gore doesn’t find out about this. He will want to spend billions trying to keep the magnetic pole from moving.
And wind up the propellor?
The FAA changes the runway headings at airports occasionally as the magnetic deviation increases. For incidence, I attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach in the early 80's. The runway heading for the main runway back then was 06/24. It's now 07/25. Who navigates with a compass anymore anyway?
Yes.
Go to the Observatory in Greenwich site....very cool.....
PBA DC-3s- Loved ‘em. One of the steepest climbs ever was getting to the cockpit.
Just remember Sac, the Earth Variates, Man Deviates. so don’t put your pocket knife down near the compass.
Actually the drift is speeding up and has been for the last few centuries.
Interesting times ...
Maybe they freaked out over all the dead birds falling from the air...
I would post it directly, but it is over 3 MB.
I’m surprised that after so many posts, no one has spotted that this is all due to GLOBAL WARMING!!!
/sarcasm
catastrophic!
Nonsense, my good man. All you need do is wait until my favorite restaurant issues the new place mats. Although they are conspicuously marked "Not for Navigational Purposes" in big red letters, I have used them for years. They are plastic, so all you need do to find Casco Bay or Boothbay, or Kennebunkport is wipe off the ketchup and keep your eyes open.
What the heck are a few degrees of variation among friends? You airplane drivers are always looking for trouble where none exists.
Luckily this doesn’t affect any other airports.
Pretty much. That was when Lutz was way out of town.
I used to ride my Lambretta motor scooter out there and climb the stairs to the control tower where I would spend hours bugging the controllers with questions. It was sometime in 1957 as I recall.
They would have the aircraft parked on the tarmac for a couple of hours before flight time. There were no fences and no locked doors to prevent access to the cockpit of a plane waiting there. I would wander up and sit in the cockpit and play make believe. When the crew came to get ready I would hang around and question them until they ran me off.
Thanks for the memories!
Well, if the FAA is still using vacuum-tube electronics, I guess they're also using magnetic compasses.
On the other hand, maybe they just assume pilots are too dumb or too ill-informed to know about correcting for magnetic deviation -- in spite of the fact that magnetic deviation is one of the first thing anybody learns when undergoing basic training for map reading, surveying or navigation!
Why is it that the compass on my iPhone can give true north, but the airplanes cannot do this?
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