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Old 04-25-2011, 10:49 PM
IvanK IvanK is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Australia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by senseispcc View Post
A little respect is due to me also!!!
Ok like always this forum is going to hell, I find their attitude very respectful for someone that is searching to understand the subject they could not explain, if you think they are the one being badly treated I should think twice. Banish me and I shall be happy to be out of this elitist fantasy world.
I am very crossed with your attitude is this a totalitarian society where when you are not happy; DIE! or be silent do not make any fuzz.
When you try to explain something, try to do it for a thing you know of!



Extract from a site that tries to explain the Spitfire compass;

http://spitfiresite.com/2009/03/swin...e-compass.html

Anonymous early Spitfire Mk. I on compass swing, location unknown. This view shows to advantage the dinstinctive features of the earliest production Spitfires Mk. I: wooden two-blade propeller, unarmoured windscreen, straight cockpit canopy, thin and tall aerial mast and (barely visible) rudder horn balance guard.

Compass swinging was a rather time-consuming task which could be simplified considerably by placing an aircraft on a rotating platform such as this. With a fitter sitting in the cockpit and the aircraft in flight-ready configuration, the engine was started and then the platform aligned so that the aircraft faced the 0 degree (north) heading. Then the fitter would check if the aircraft magnetic compass was in alignment with the magnetic north. If not, he would adjust the compensator screws with a non-magnetic screwdriver until the compass read 0 degrees. Then the procedure would be repeated for the 90-degree (east), 180 (south) and 270-degree (west) headings.

After these adjustments the compass was checked once again by turning it around stopping at each 30-degree heading and recording the compass readings, fine-tuning the compensator screws to ensure that there was no more than a few degrees difference between any of the indicated headings on the compass and the actual heading.
[Crown Copyright, via Jenny Scott]
That procedure is Compass swinging and is common to ANY magnetic compass in pretty much any aircraft. Compass swinging is an engineering task to remove or quantify compass errors produced by magnetic structures in the aircraft itself. Most errors can be removed by tiny compensation magnets in the compass body itself. For those that cant then a Steering sheet is provided. This typically lists the small heading corrections required to fly a specific heading. Like to Fly Heading 030 Steerr 032 etc. Even your Airliners today have these.

Last edited by IvanK; 04-25-2011 at 11:05 PM.
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