Building the Route: Checkpoints and Navigation Methods

Cross-country planning begins by drawing a course line on a current sectional chart and selecting checkpoints along it. The best checkpoints are prominent and unmistakable — towns, highways, rivers, lakes, and airports spaced roughly every 10 to 20 nautical miles so you can confirm your progress. In the air you navigate with two complementary methods. Pilotage means steering by direct reference to those visible landmarks. Dead reckoning means computing where you should be from a known heading, groundspeed, and time. The two work together: dead reckoning predicts your position and pilotage confirms it. To turn a course into something you can fly, you convert directions step by step. True course comes off the chart against true north; adding wind correction gives true heading; applying magnetic variation gives magnetic heading; and applying compass deviation from the aircraft card gives the compass heading you actually fly. Throughout, you must respect the terrain and airspace along the route, choosing altitudes that clear obstacles and avoid airspace you are not equipped or cleared for.