This movement is normal, known, and not an issue for pilots or the rest of humanity.
Posted on 01/06/2011 2:59:15 PM PST by devane617
Tampa International Airport's main runway is closed for repairs due to changes in the earth's magnetic pull.
"Who over-thought this? And why?" asked one passenger, waiting for a flight.
"It's a joke," said another.
But it's no joke. Runways are aligned according to points on a compass and scientists say the Earth's magnetic North Pole is constantly shifting. That means Tampa's main runway is now six degrees off. The discrepancy could cause pilots to lose their sharp focus.
"When a pilot navigates he needs to find which is the correct runway to land and takeoff on," said Airport Director Robert Burr, "so he uses his compass in his cockpit to orient himself to tell him he's on the correct runway, so they need to line up perfectly."
Scientists say the Earth's magnetic North Pole is shifting about 40 miles a year toward Russia.
The airport will repaint the markings on the runways to account for the shift of Magnetic North.
“This must be the cause of the mass bird deaths. The birds don’t have updated navigation charts, so they’re all flying into objects.”
Kind of like John Kennedy flying into the sea.
This movement is normal, known, and not an issue for pilots or the rest of humanity.
I remember reading one time that the Earth’s magenetic poles shift every 740,000 years I believe. At any rate, 12/21/2012 is when it’s complete. So if this really the case( I don’t believe this is the case), then that might explain a lot of what’s going on. Who really knows???
Afterall, Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-Dimwitocrat) was worried about Guam tipping over with too many US troops there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg&feature=player_embedded#!
can’t...stop...laughing!
Additionally, the old saw about Digging a hole Down to China wouldn't be true anymore.
You'd have to dig your way "up to China"...
Perhaps a little explaination. Runways are designated according to their magnetic bearing, rounded to the nearest 10 degrees. Since a compass has 360 degrees there are 36 possible runway designations, 01 through 36. If the actual alignment of the runway is 352 degrees the runway is designated 35. If the magnetic variation shifts so that the runway aligment becomes 358 degrees then the runway designation becomes 36. The runway designation is painted in very large numerals at the approach end of the runway. So if the runway landing to the north was runway 35, landing to the south it would be runway 17. If the alignment changes enough to redesignate the runway to 36, the numbers 36 would have to be painted on the south end (landing to the north) and the numbers 18 have to be painted on the north end, landing to the south. Having the numbers painted on the runway surface helps to ensure that a pilot does not land on the wrong runway.
As far as the wind is concerned, aircraft generally land into and takeoff into the wind. But you can have intersecting or parallel runways so the aircraft doesn’t always land directly into the wind. Often there is a cross wind. So its not just the direction of the wind but what runway the pilot has been cleared to. Kind of windy, but I hope that helps.
So are the liberals in Congress.
Ba-dum-dum CRASH!!
Thank you, everyone. I'll be here all week.
Bullsqueeze! every aircraft chart in the world shows runway magnetic offsets. Airlines fly ILS or GPS.
Bullsqueeze!
Actually, the magnetic bearing could be anywhere from 185 to 194.
‘unprecedented’
I’m just a pilot. This article has caused friends and family to send emails today asking, “What’s going on in Tampa?”. People on this board have had some pretty interesting responses to it today as well, on this and other threads. I don’t think it’s widely known that magnetic north moves.
‘Normal’ movement and the big shift towards a pole reversal are two separate issues with me. Runways are renumbered all the time because of it. Airport diagrams list the annual rate of change. Folks are twitchy with stuff like this since we’re getting closer to 2012 I’m guessing.
Thanks for the article.
I love this site! LOL
Good points. I realize most people have never had a class in geology let alone geophysics, so it can be alarming. But, we really don’t know what causes the earths magnetic field, so a lot of the predictions are just scientific guesses. But, some people are looking for a pole reversal soon based on the fact they tend to occur at “somewhat “ predictable intervals. But, as stated on the wikipedia link somewhat submitted above:
“Because the magnetic field has never been observed to reverse by humans with instrumentation, and the mechanism of field generation is not well understood, it is difficult to say what the characteristics of the magnetic field might be leading up to such a reversal.
Some speculate that a greatly diminished magnetic field during a reversal period will expose the surface of the Earth to a substantial and potentially damaging increase in cosmic radiation. However, Homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals.
There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions. A possible explanation is that the solar wind may induce a sufficient magnetic field in the Earth’s ionosphere to shield the surface from energetic particles even in the absence of the Earth’s normal magnetic field.[11]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal
Happy flying!
The magnetic north pole is slowly, constantly moving. Every year, a few airports are affected by this and must renumber their runways. And when the runways get renumbered, charts like ILS and GPS (as you pointed out in your post) get updated to include that new runway number.
So, when the ATC assigns the runway with that designation, the heading is corrected -- right?
I just picked up on the ten-degree convention. So the new designation in our example would be “18L”?
Langoliers.
Yes, but considering the size of the Earth that really doesn't make for a whole lot of annual change in variation unless you are fairly to the magnetic pole. This example of the compass rose on a nautical rose shoes the annual change in variation (the difference between true north and magnetic north) as 8 minutes-a degree every 8 years. A quick check of the chart for Tampa Bay shows the rate of change there was 5 minutes a year in 2006. Puget Sound's change was 11 minutes/per year, New York's was 2 minutes, San Francisco 8 minutes, Chesapeake Bay had no annual change measured in 2010.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.