North Up or Heading Up?

[refuge]

Definitely North up.

Keep the charts oriented to the Earth. In my experience when I’ve seen deck officers get disoriented it was always due to a heads up display moving haphazardly with the movement of the vessel. Subsequently I disallowed heads up display on vessels I Captained. Heads up displays also confuse position plotting of other vessels in meeting situations.

I view a North up display as the real world view of your location and heading. A heads up display imo has no use in a professional setting.

[G8rEd]

North.

[Kelkara]

Doesn't "orientation" actually mean facing East, dating from the days when European maps were normally drawn east-up?

[BBill]

North up always. Course up isn't intuitive. I suppose my brain is trained already and doesn't like to navigate any other way.

[desodave]

Another for heads up. In my part of the world it's narrow channels between myriad islands and tight entrances to anchorages. I prefer to see the chart move to reflect what's in front of me ... I find it more intuitive.

[mcarling]

Definitely north up. Changing it to heading up is nearly grounds for keel hauling.

[KJThomas]

Well. I'm a professional navigator for over 45 years.
Whatever feels most comfortable and intuitive for you.
Prefer North up, but that is just what I am used to.
Those who try and make their own prefference into dogmatic rules are a pain.

[MACooper]

It is more a personal preference. As a professional pilot I feel more at home with North up. The advantage is that your course over the ground is very evident. Heading up orientation can be more straight forward but going off the desired course is not as obvious.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by KJThomas

Well. I'm a professional navigator for over 45 years.
Whatever feels most comfortable and intuitive for you.
Prefer North up, but that is just what I am used to.
Those who try and make their own prefference into dogmatic rules are a pain.

Plus 1 for that.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

A standard GPS receiver will determine CoG if you're moving. It does not and cannot determine heading unless it's one of the fancier multi-receiver GPS compasses. Those can determine which direction you're facing (whether or not you're moving), while a standard GPS cannot and only knows what direction you're moving.

Unless you are in an area with large magnetic deviation, there isn't much difference between magnetic and true heading but that wasn't the point. The point is GPS can determine heading and speed without multiple fixes.

Obviously, if you aren't moving, it runs into problems. In reality small deviations in the signal will result in the appearance of movement and because those deviations tend to be random, your heading/course (play semantics how you will) and to a lesser degree speed will bounce all over the place.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Unless you are in an area with large magnetic deviation, there isn't much difference between magnetic and true heading but that wasn't the point. The point is GPS can determine heading and speed without multiple fixes.

Obviously, if you aren't moving, it runs into problems. In reality small deviations in the signal will result in the appearance of movement and because those deviations tend to be random, your heading/course (play semantics how you will) and to a lesser degree speed will bounce all over the place.

GPS cannot determine heading unless it's one of the multi receiver GPS compasses. If you're moving it can determine Course over Ground, but that IS NOT even close to the same thing as heading. If I point the boat due south, my heading is 180*. However, if there's a cross current coming from the east (pushing me west), my CoG may be 185*, for example (as the boat isn't moving in the same direction it's facing). Any GPS will be able to determine that I'm moving at 185*, but it has no idea that the boat is pointing a somewhat different direction.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

I am a retired military pilot and have circumnavigated under sail.

Course up, not heading up, is the most intuitive option. North up on large scale is good for perspective but for nitty gritty enroute guidance underway: course up.

Unless you are bush pilot following valleys, once you are up and away from the airport, navigation on large commercial planes is pretty straight forward with minimal course corrections. So the spinning effect of course up is largely non-existent. Likewise on an ocean crossing, you only rarely update your course and there is plenty of time to contemplate before reacting.

It's when you have complex navigation where north up makes more sense unless you plan to blindly follow the computer.

[CyKlop]

Originally Posted by KJThomas

Those who try and make their own prefference into dogmatic rules are a pain.

Yep! Although I'm a North Up proponent, what's more important is whichever mode is the safest and least likely to cause an incident by the person on the helm. If the helmsman can't wrap their head around north up, then course up is what they will use.

The electronics doesn't care which presentation it is, it knows what's what.

[CyKlop]

Originally Posted by MACooper

Heading up orientation can be more straight forward but going off the desired course is not as obvious.

Not sure that this is true, assuming that you've laid your waypoints into the chart plotter. After all, there's the desired course line sitting right there on the display.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by StuM

Absolute nonsense.
North up is the only setting that DOESN"T require any sort of external feed. And is the way charts have been used for hundreds of years, whether on paper or more recently displayed on a screen.



Does the paper chart laid out on a chart table or pinned to a bulkhead need a gyro /GPS /fluxgate to know which way is "up"? Or is it always used "North up"? The charts in a chartplotter are no different.

Displaying a chart facing “ up” is one thing ( the chart plotter having no idea about north anyway )

But placing your vessel and plotting it’s movement on said chart requires a good north reference