Earth's magnetic shift impacts Tampa International Airport

BayNews9.com ^ | 01/06/2011 | Holly Gregory

[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.

[screaminsunshine]

Add a 0 to the number to get the head. 19 would be 190 degrees. I think L and R designate headed N or S.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“just as likely as global warming!”

lol

[epithermal]

Yes, as long as the north and south poles stay about where they are in relation to one another then we can safely go about our business. It is interesting that this article is about changes in Florida, which is within about the most uniform area of declination on the globe:

[Celtic Conservative]

I remember taking a land-nav course when I was in civil air patrol. One of the things they taught us to do was to correct for local declination when figuring out course. Couldn't pilots do the same?

CC