Aviation Word Of The Day - Course

When it comes to basic aircraft navigation terminologies,there are often a lot confusion and wrongly used terms on the part of students and aviation professionals. For the next few episodes,we'll look at basic navigation terms in brief,so as not to dazzle anyone.Yesterday was heading and today,course.

Before an aircraft prepares to take off,pilots plot a 'course'.The course is an imaginary line across the surface of the Earth which must be followed  in order to arrive at the destination.

In other words,the course is the intended path of travel that the pilot has calculated taking into consideration other important factors like the wind,for instance.

Bear in mind, I used the word 'intended',meaning there's a possibility that the aircraft can divert from its intended path(course).[Will be discussed in detail in the next post]

The Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) is a needle in an Omni Bearing Indicator which indicates if an aircraft is on a selected course.