Bearing and heading are two commonly used terms and two
of the most misunderstood. This post
will define and review both terms.
A dictionary defines the word bearing
as:
“….horizontal direction of
one point with respect to another or to the compass.”
Simply stated a bearing is the angular direction to an object. Bearings
are described in degree increments from either true or magnetic north.
A bearing is measured from north clockwise in 360°
increments. The point from which the bearing originates is from the center of
an imaginary circle. This imaginary point is the operator.
The direction to an object (a tree, mountain top, or
lake) could simply be east or 045° (read and stated as zero four five degrees.)
GPS receivers display an incredible amount of data that
is important to the hiker. The GPS
compass page, above, predominantly displays bearing information to the
hiker.
In land navigation heading refers to the hiker’s
direction of travel. Heading is a
compass direction just as a bearing is.
In the example below a hiker is travelling from point A to point B. The hiker’s course is the
planned direction of travel; about 060° degrees. Because of obstacles along the way the hiker
must change the direction of travel and adjust the heading to arrive at point B.
Because the hiker must change the heading the dashed blue
line better describes the actual path through the backcountry. The hiker’s path may be made up of several
headings. In the example above the heading from C1 to C2 could be 100°,
about forty degrees different than the planned course.
No comments:
Post a Comment