Acronyms to help remember aviation compass errors

by John on April 28, 2010

Aviation compass errors can easily confuse a new pilot while flying. Hence, Jason Schappert has created a short video with two acronyms to help pilots remember what type of compass errors they can expect to face in the cockpit.

The first acronym that Jason mentioned was ANDS:

  • Accelerate
  • North
  • Decelerate
  • South

In other words and when you are in the Northern hemisphere heading on an easterly or a westerly heading, your aircraft will have a tendency to dip to the north when you accelerate and dip to the south when you decelerate.

In addition, Jason also mentioned a second acronym called UNOS:

  • Undershoot
  • North
  • Overshoot
  • South

In other words and when you are in the Northern hemisphere heading on an northern or a southern heading, you have to either undershoot or overshoot your heading. Keeping the above acronyms in mind will go a long way towards aiding navigation while flying.

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

mark April 29, 2010 at 01:18

I use UNOS and ONUS depending where in the world I’m flying. I prefer to keep the acronynms similar.

An easy way to remember which acronym applies to which hemisphere is to think . . . ‘the ONUS is on the southerns to use it there’. By deduction, we use UNOS in the northern hemipshere.

Julien April 30, 2010 at 01:51

… and similarly we use SAND in the Southern Hemisphere.

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