Updated October 2026
Pilotage is navigating by landmarks you can see; dead reckoning is navigating by a computed heading, groundspeed and time. A VFR nav log ties the two together. For each leg it lists the true course, wind correction, magnetic heading, groundspeed, minutes and fuel, so at 4,500 feet over Camarillo you already know where you should be, when, and with how much fuel.
Both skills are on the private pilot checkride, and both are still how you get home when the tablet goes dark. Below is the method from chart to compass, a wind triangle calculator, and a real trip worked through: Van Nuys to Santa Barbara by way of Camarillo, the cross-country nearly every student here flies.
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Pilotage: Flying By Landmarks (The LA Basin Is Full Of Them)
14 CFR 1.1 defines pilotage in six words: "navigation by visual reference to landmarks." You pick features on the chart, find them out of the window, and fly from one to the next. Around Van Nuys you are spoiled. The Sepulveda Basin sits off the south end of the field. The Santa Monica Mountains wall off the Valley to the south and the Santa Susanas close it to the north-west. Beyond them, the coastline is the easiest line feature in Southern California.
Good checkpoints have a shape nobody else has. A reservoir, a dam, a freeway interchange, a coastline bend, a lone peak. A freeway on its own is a poor checkpoint, because from 4,500 feet the 101 and the 118 look much alike until they meet something unique. Towns are worse: the Valley is one continuous town.
Pilotage has limits. Haze over the basin on a still afternoon, a marine layer under you, night, or desert with nothing in it all take the landmarks away. That is when dead reckoning carries the flight.
Dead Reckoning: Time, Speed, Distance And Heading
Dead reckoning is arithmetic. If you hold a known heading at a known groundspeed for a known time, you know where you are. The formulas are the ones from school: time in minutes equals distance divided by groundspeed, times 60, and fuel equals time in hours times the burn rate.
On the first leg of the trip below, Van Nuys to Camarillo is 30.0 nautical miles. A Piper Warrior at 115 knots true into a 15-knot headwind makes about 100 knots over the ground. The leg takes 30.0 ÷ 100 × 60 = 18 minutes and burns 9 gallons an hour × 0.3 hours = 2.7 gallons. Write those numbers down before you go and the flight becomes a series of checks: over the checkpoint at the minute you predicted, or early, or late, and by how much.
True Course To Compass Heading: Variation, Deviation, Wind Correction
The chart gives you true course, measured with a plotter against a line of longitude. Three corrections turn it into the number you fly.
- Wind correction angle. Turn into the wind by the angle that cancels the drift. True course plus a right correction, or minus a left one, gives true heading.
- Variation. The difference between true and magnetic north, read from the dashed magenta isogonic lines on the sectional. The Los Angeles sectional shows about 12° east. East is least, west is best: subtract east, add west. True heading becomes magnetic heading.
- Deviation. The error of your own compass, read from the card mounted beside it. Magnetic heading plus or minus deviation gives compass heading.
The wind correction is the part students find hardest, so here is the formula and a worked example before the calculator. Wind correction angle equals the arcsine of (wind speed × the sine of the angle between the wind and your course) ÷ true airspeed. Groundspeed equals true airspeed × the cosine of the correction angle, minus wind speed × the cosine of the wind angle. On leg two of our trip the true course is 289°, the true airspeed 115 knots and the wind 270° at 15 knots. The wind is 19° left of the nose: 15 × sin 19° = 4.9 knots of crosswind, and arcsine (4.9 ÷ 115) is about 2°. Turn 2° left, to a true heading of 287°. Groundspeed is 115 × cos 2° − 15 × cos 19°, which is about 101 knots, so the 39.2-mile leg takes 23 minutes and burns 3.5 gallons.
The calculator does what the wind side of an E6B does. Use it to check your hand work, not to replace it. Our E6B flight computer guide shows the same solution on the circular slide rule.
Filling Out A VFR Nav Log Step By Step (Free Template)
A nav log is the flight on paper before you fly it. Our free student downloads include a printable VFR nav log with this trip already worked, no email address asked for. Fill one in this order:
- Draw the route on the sectional and pick checkpoints roughly every ten minutes.
- Measure true course and distance for each leg with a plotter.
- Take the winds aloft for your cruise altitude and work the correction angle and groundspeed for each leg.
- Apply variation, then deviation, to reach compass heading.
- Work time and fuel for each leg, and add a fixed allowance for start, taxi, run-up and climb. We use 1.5 gallons in the Warrior.
- Total the fuel, add the reserve, and compare it with what is in the tanks.
- List the frequencies, the alternates and the time you checked NOTAMs and TFRs.
| Leg | TC | WCA | TH | Var | MH | Dist | GS | Time | Fuel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start, taxi, climb | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1.5 gal |
| KVNY to KCMA | 271° | 0° | 271° | 12° E | 259° | 30.0 nm | 100 kt | 18 min | 2.7 gal |
| KCMA to KSBA | 289° | 2° L | 287° | 12° E | 275° | 39.2 nm | 101 kt | 23 min | 3.5 gal |
| Total | – | – | – | – | – | 69.2 nm | – | 41 min | 7.7 gal |
The 115-knot true airspeed and 9-gallon-an-hour burn are the Warrior cruise figures on our Piper Warrior PA-28-161 page. For a real flight, take them from the POH chart for your power setting and altitude.
Checkpoints, Top Of Descent And The 3-To-1 Rule
Arriving over a checkpoint is a test of the plan. Note the clock time. If you are two minutes late after ten minutes, your groundspeed is lower than planned, and every later time on the log needs to move. If the checkpoint is off to one side, your heading is wrong by roughly the angle you missed it by, and the correction goes on now, not at the next one.
The last planned point on any leg is the top of descent. The 3-to-1 rule says a comfortable descent takes 3 nautical miles for every 1,000 feet you need to lose. A second rule of thumb gives the rate: groundspeed × 5 is roughly the descent rate in feet per minute for that same 3° path. From 4,500 feet to about 1,000 feet above the field at Santa Barbara, which sits 14 feet above sea level, is roughly 3,500 feet. That means starting down about 10 to 11 miles out, at around 500 feet per minute at 101 knots. In practice Santa Barbara Approach may assign an altitude first, so plan the descent and be ready to change it.
Diversions And Getting Unlost: Estimating Heading, Time And The 5 Cs
A diversion on a long flight usually starts with weather ahead, a passenger who is unwell, or a fuel figure that looks worse than the log. The checkride task, PA.VI.C in the private pilot ACS, asks you to select a suitable airport and route. Then you make a reasonable estimate of heading, groundspeed, arrival time and fuel, while holding altitude within 200 feet and heading within 15°.
Do it in this order. Turn first, toward the new airport on a rough heading, because every minute spent planning is a minute flying the wrong way. Note the time. Then refine: lay a straight edge or a pencil on the chart from your position to the field, read the course against the nearest VOR compass rose, and estimate the distance. The sectional's scale is 1:500,000, about 6.86 nautical miles to the inch, and the first joint of most thumbs is close to an inch. Say the field is 14 miles away: at 100 knots that is about 8 minutes and 1.3 gallons. Tell somebody, ideally the controller giving you flight following.
Lost is different from diverting, and the ACS covers it as its own task. Students learn the 5 Cs:
- Climb, for better radio range and a wider view.
- Communicate, with SoCal Approach or any frequency on the chart, or 121.5 if you have to.
- Confess that you are unsure of your position.
- Comply with what you are told.
- Conserve fuel by slowing to an economical power setting.
Around Los Angeles a climb of 1,000 feet often brings a landmark you know into view.
E6B Or App? What The Checkride Expects
The private pilot ACS, FAA-S-ACS-6C, asks you to prepare, present and explain a cross-country flight plan to the first fuel stop, including a risk analysis based on real-time weather. It accepts a computer-generated plan and expects you to use an electronic flight bag properly if you use one. What it does not accept is a plan you cannot explain. If the app says 23 minutes, the examiner may ask you where 23 minutes came from.
In the airplane, the pilotage and dead reckoning task wants a flight log prepared and used. You verify your position within 3 nautical miles of the planned route, reach en route checkpoints within 5 minutes of the estimate, and hold altitude within 200 feet and heading within 15°. Our view: plan the first few cross-countries by hand with a plotter and an E6B, then let ForeFlight do the arithmetic once you can check it in your head. The knowledge test allows an E6B, and the oral exam often starts with your own nav log.
A Worked Cross-Country: Van Nuys To Santa Barbara
Van Nuys to Santa Barbara is 68.3 nautical miles direct and 69.2 by way of Camarillo, comfortably past the more-than-50-mile landing point that 14 CFR 61.1(b) asks for in private pilot cross-country time. Westbound, so under 91.159 the cruise is an even thousand plus 500 once you are more than 3,000 feet above the ground. We use 4,500.
Leg one runs almost due west. With Simi Valley off the right wing and Thousand Oaks off the left, the line crosses the hills and drops onto the Oxnard Plain, with Camarillo at its eastern edge. The whole leg stays outside the Los Angeles Class B. The westerly is nearly on the nose, so there is no correction to speak of and the groundspeed falls to about 100 knots.
Leg two swings right to 289° true. Ventura and the mouth of the Santa Clara River pass under the nose, then the coast runs north-west past Rincon and Carpinteria into Santa Barbara, a Class C airport with airline traffic. The direct line runs just offshore along that stretch, so many pilots fly the shoreline instead and accept a slightly longer leg for a beach within reach. Military flying at Point Mugu, off the left side of the Oxnard Plain, and launch activity at Vandenberg, beyond Santa Barbara, are both worth a NOTAM check; our guide to NOTAMs and TFRs shows how.
The whole trip takes 41 minutes and 7.7 gallons including the start and climb allowance. Under 91.151(a) the legal day reserve is 30 minutes, which is 4.5 gallons at 9 an hour, so the plan needs 12.2 gallons against 48 usable. We plan student cross-countries with an hour in reserve. The route counts toward the private pilot cross-country requirements, and the rest of the destinations are on our cross-country destinations from Van Nuys list. To read the symbols along the way, see how to read a sectional chart.
Related Reading
- E6B flight computer: the wind side and the calculator side, step by step.
- How to read a sectional chart: the symbols you pick checkpoints from.
- Private pilot cross-country requirements: what 61.109 asks for and how to log it.
- Cross-country destinations from Van Nuys: distances, runways and what each trip teaches.
- Free student downloads: the printable nav log used on this page.
- VOR navigation — radials, the CDI and HSI, DME and VOR checks.
Pilotage And Dead Reckoning FAQ
What Is The Difference Between Pilotage And Dead Reckoning?
Pilotage is navigating by landmarks you can see, which 14 CFR 1.1 defines as navigation by visual reference to landmarks. Dead reckoning is navigating by computed heading, groundspeed and elapsed time. On a real cross-country you use both at once, each checking the other.
What Goes On A VFR Nav Log?
For each leg: checkpoints, true course, wind correction angle, true heading, variation, magnetic heading, distance, groundspeed, time, fuel and frequencies, plus the start and climb fuel allowance and the reserve. Our printable log also has boxes for the weather briefing, the NOTAM check and the alternate.
How Do You Convert True Course To Magnetic Heading?
Apply the wind correction angle to get true heading, then subtract easterly variation or add westerly variation. Around Los Angeles the sectional shows about 12° east, so a true heading of 287° becomes a magnetic heading of 275°. Compass deviation from the card in the airplane gives the final compass heading.
What Is The 3-To-1 Rule For Descent?
Allow 3 nautical miles for every 1,000 feet you need to lose. Losing 3,500 feet means starting down about 10 to 11 miles out. Multiply groundspeed by 5 for the matching descent rate: at 100 knots, about 500 feet per minute.
How Do You Divert To An Alternate Airport In Flight?
Turn toward it on a rough heading first and note the time. Then measure the course and distance on the chart, work out time and fuel at your groundspeed, and tell ATC or Flight Service. The ACS expects a reasonable estimate of heading, groundspeed, arrival time and fuel, not a perfect one.
Can I Use ForeFlight On My Private Pilot Checkride?
Yes. The private pilot ACS accepts a computer-generated flight plan and expects proper use of an electronic flight bag if you use one. You still have to explain every number on the plan, so be able to work a leg by hand with an E6B.
How Far Apart Should Checkpoints Be?
Roughly every ten minutes of flight, which is about 16 to 20 miles in a trainer. Closer than that and you spend the flight looking for them; much further apart and an error grows large before you catch it.
Plan Your First Cross-Country From Van Nuys
Navigation clicks the first time a checkpoint slides under the nose exactly when the log said it would. If you have not flown yet, a discovery flight is $229 for 60 minutes in a Piper Warrior from Van Nuys, logged as dual instruction toward your certificate. If you are ready to train, the private pilot license in Los Angeles starts at $10,400, and you can book a free consultation or call (818) 330-1318, 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days.
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