The title explains itself. Please don’t send me other tutorial links from Chris and other regulars, I just need a specific answer.
I can convert 4590E to 4500N/9000E! Did I do it right?
Or 3352S to 3300N/5200S?
Or 2254W to 2200N/5400W?
Correct.
Incorrect. Remember that the format is Latitude(N/S)/Longitude(E/W). So it shouldn’t be 5200S.
3352S = 3300S/5200E
Apparently the actual fix 2254W is at 2200S/5400W.
I’m not an aviation expert so I cant exactly explain how these waypoints are derived. But from my understanding, one fix represent a unique coordinate. And you can spot a pattern here:
So for example
2200S/5400W = 2254W
2200S/5400E = 2254S
2200N/5400W = 2254N
2200N/5400E = 2254E
Another example
3300S/5200W = 3352W
3300S/5200E = 3352S
3300N/5200W = 3352N
3300N/5200E = 3352E
This is the tricky part, but it roughly follows the same pattern:
500S/12300W = 05W23
500S/12300E = 05S23
500N/12300W = 05N23
500N/12300E = 05E23
So basically this is what you get.
As said, I’m not an expert, so maybe someone good in air navigation can explain the system behind this and enlighten us :).
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It’s this part that I don’t get the derivation, why are there 5 digits for the longitude? But thanks for the correction!
Longitude specifies the east-west position on Earth.
As you can see, the longitude ranges from 180W to 0E then back to 180W. (Since the Earth is not flat).
When you convert to the coordinate system used in Infinite Flight, you add two zeros to the coordinate, so 60W becomes 6000W when you search in IF, while 120W becomes 12000W. Hence 5 digits.
I believe they put the letter in the middle to specify that the longitude is more than 100 degrees. So 05W23 is 500S/12300W, while on the other hand 0523W is 500S/2300W.
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I tried putting 05W23 into 0500S/12300W, it turns out to be the same thing. But when I tried a different one 33S17, shouldn’t it be 3300S/17000E? They’re different. I replaced E with W, also different.
What do you mean ‘put’?
Sorry, I meant by converting into 0500S/12300W format.
And I don’t think adding 2 zeros from 33S20 to 3300S/20000E aren’t the same coordinates.
I believe you mean got a different coordinate from what you expected?
The fix at 3300S/17000E is actually 33S70. 33S17 is located at 3300S/11700E.
Similarly, 33S20 is at 3300S/12000E
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I wonder if it’s the same conversion principle for any other coordinate that has alphabets in the middle.
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