Hi all in the forumI understand the difference between track and heading, and have never tried to do anything about it on a flight when in autopilot with the weather programme running. Today I was doing a flight and thought I would have a tamper with the rudder trim in the 737 and within reason could trim out the difference between the two and get track and heading to be almost together. So my question is: would this be done in real life to avoid "crabbing" or would the autopilot cope with differences?. What do you guys do.thanks for any replies.regardsJohn Calleja

I'm sure you can do it.. But... I imagine it would add extra drag.. it my be more fuel efficient to just fly at an angle off the track with the resolved heading with the wind component the same as track.....CheersCraig

The only time you'd like heading and track the same is at touchdown... you really really really do not want to trim rudder to line up heading and track. Much much less efficient.Fly in the air.. navigate across the ground. The air is moving, we accomodate it.