North up or Course up or Track up

What's ahead of me in the direction of travel is most important to me. With course up what I'm looking at and where I'm going are identical. No mental translation to adjust course is needed. I do the same with radar.

Like gB north up for planning because that's how charts are oriented and I get a better perspective on best route .
 
I ve been in blinding rain storms in narrow channels, I ve been transited woods hole in New England pea soup without seeing the shoreline, I ve run the ditch from Louisiana to Galveston in fog dense enough to force the barges to stop running, I ve come in narrow cuts in the Exumas on moonless night... All with the plotters north up and th radar obviously course up and to me that's the natural way of doing it.

I guess my brain needs to know where north is and can't process a tilted chart!
 
Course up or track up (not sure the difference), We just bought a center console boat that has a Ray C120 and I'm still trying to get it the way I like it

Niles
 
I always use heading up on "my" boat. Since my son does most of the driving on "our" boat and it is used mostly for trolling and he prefers north up - that's the setting on "our" boat.
 
My old Magellan Meridian Handheld had North up, Course up and Track up. I purchased my Meridian Color in 2003...it was the first color screen handheld GPS available and when I eventually bought a Garmin years later I was surprised it only had North up and Track up. With Course up the heading of the active leg of an active route was always at the top of the screen and the boat icon would point in the direction you were traveling with the map moving side to side. With Track up as is always the case the icon always pointed to the top center of the screen and the chart rotated to the direction you were traveling.
 
Some people can do right/left better, some can do east/west better. Just the way it is.

-Chris
 
I'm in the north up camp. Same way on my in-car GPS and my phone GPS (Waze). It works better for me to have the compass points as a fixed reference when looking at a bigger picture. Drives me bananas to get in a car with course up set.

But...Garmin also has a "Mariner's Eye View" that I often used on trips, split screen with the North up view. When used with a programmed route or Auto Guidance (captain's brain must be engaged), it can be handy to help stay on course. This mode has a compass ribbon on top that shows desired course, deviation, and direction to correct deviation that can be helpful.
 
I prefer north up. When I first bought my Garmin I tried course up but for some reason I thought it was harder to follow. I don't like the charts shifting around, I prefer to see a more static view of the surroundings and then orient the boat. Of course I don't have radar setup that way but this combination works best for me.
 
I prefer course up as it presents what is in front of me and corresponds to the radar display.
 
Course up. Less steps mentally for me to figure out what is in front of me.
Jim
 
You see any cockpit displays in airplanes with North up except in the planning mode? There is a reason folks.
 
GeeBee -- so what is that reason for course up in airliners? Not pushing back, just curious.

I spent a number of years navigating around Army bases stateside, in Europe or elsewhere on foot, in tracked and wheeled vehicles, and in helicopters. True, we were taught the technique of course up (i.e., pointing the map in direction of travel) but only as a technique, not as a rule.

I found it easier for my brain to stay north up. Our HMMWV Blue Force Trackers in Afghanistan defaulted to north up, too (I don't recall if we could have changed to course up).

So is airliner course up based on industry standards developed over the years, or is there a cognitive or other reason?

Thanks for your feedback. Again, not pushing back, just curious.

V/R
 
Several reasons. For starters ATC calls traffic on the "o'clock" so it is quicker to orient your TCAS display with ATC's calls. Second, traffic vectors only work in the course up mode. With boats think of TCAS as AIS targets. Second, radar overlay works only in course up mode. Third, with course up mode, your course is ALWAYS in the same place, top of the display. Now the avionics manufacturers after much testing in NASA sims and much research in to psychology of interpretation found that North up required the brain to do two calculations versus one for course up, thus the brain reacted quicker to course directions and interpretations, so yes it is cognitive. They then turned around and disabled traffic, radar and active course readout in the Plan mode to prevent pilots from flying around with a north up display.
 
The question is a little confusing. I set my plotter to show the direction I am going at the moment. I assumed that's "track up" and that's how I voted.

Exactly what is meant by "course up"?
 
quote:
Originally posted by rawidman

The question is a little confusing. I set my plotter to show the direction I am going at the moment. I assumed that's "track up" and that's how I voted.

Exactly what is meant by "course up"?

Click to expand...


Read the post I made on June 18. If you look up track up vs course up online most agree they mean the same thing but on my old Magellan GPS it meant something different. I suspect that there may be other uses of the term course up but track up always means the map orientates itself to the direction you are moving.
 
Course up on the boat's chartplotter but north up on the iPad we use for planning.
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

Always north up. For some reason I get completely confused when I m looking at a course up display...

Click to expand...


Same here
 
North up for me. Course up requires me to get re-orientated too much.
 
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