Aircraft Magnetic Compass

Magnetic Compass
5 tips for a simpler way to work
HISTORY

Sometime in the 12th century, mariners

in China and Europe made the discovery,
apparently independently, that a piece
of lodestone, a naturally occurring magnetic ore,
when floated on a stick in water, tends to align
itself so as to point in the direction of the polestar.
This discovery was presumably quickly followed
by a second, that an iron or steel needle touched
by a lodestone for long enough also tends to align
itself in a north-south direction. From the
knowledge of which way is north, of course, any
other direction can be found.
Important Parts
Magnet
- Remains aligned with the magnetic north this is attached to a cup
which in turn attaches it to the pivot point

Pivot Point
- Compass card or magnetic needle is mounted on a pivot, or short
pin. The needle, which can spin freely, always points north

Compass Card
• a circular card with magnets attached to its underside, the face
divided on its rim into points of the compass, degrees clockwise
from north, or both, and floating or suspended from a pivot so as to
rotate freely.

Liquid-filled capsule
- The fluid dampens the movement of the needle and causes the
needle to stabilize quickly rather than oscillate back and forth
around magnetic north. The Capsule is transparent and on the
pilot’s side it has the lubber.

Lubber Line
- a fixed line on a compass binnacle or radar plan position
indicator display pointing towards the front of the ship or aircraft
- Indicates The Current Heading

Outer Case
- Houses the parts
Principle of Operation
How it works:

1 The magnetic compass of an aircraft consists of a float, constant to a bar

magnet. The glide is positioned on a pivot which is joined to the outer casing
of the plane compass.

A compass card graduated in 360 tiers is hooked up to this waft in this

2 sort of manner that once the neodymium bar magnets moves, the
movement of the compass card may be regarded from the face of the
compass.

 The flow meeting is filled with a liquid to ease the motion of the bar
3
magnet suspended at the pivot.

The face of the plane compass has an everlasting vertical line on the
4 outer facet. This line is referred to as the lubber line. All readings of
magnetic heading are studied on the subject of the lubber line.
Other info
In 1519, another Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand
Magellan (c. 1480-1521), led a Spanish-financed expedition
that sailed around the world for the first time. Magellan
himself did not live to complete the three-year voyage,
having been killed in a battle in the Philippines. However,
his expedition, given the technology of his time, is still
considered by scholars to be among the greatest
navigational triumphs in history, and it was the magnetic
compass that helped make it possible.