What is the convention for entering lat and long data?

Ron

6600N7000W would be 6670N

or N66W070
Notice the 0 before the 7. (I know it should be there because there's no such thing as W700.)

 

N or S needs 2 digits (N01 up to N90) and E or W needs 3 digits (W001 W010 and W100 up to W180)

 

NxxWyyy

 

Another option might be, say N66°21.5/E101°45.1 = N6621.5E10145.1

 

So we have 3 options.

 

Obviously if you have a partial co-ordinate you need the last one. If the Co-ordinate is a whole degree you'd usually use one of the other 2 methods.

 

Here's a fun one:

S32E132°42.8

 

has to be S3200.0E13242.8 

 

You can't mix and match the 3 methods. One or the other.

 

Obviously N52W030 is the same place as N5200.0W03000.0 and the same place as 5230N

Flightaware may call this place 52000N 030000W

PFPX may call it 52N030W

 

5230N is not the same place as 5230W or 52N30 or 52W30. All 4 of these exist somewhere on the globe, several thousand nm from each other.

 

 

What is the convention for entering lat and long data?

 

Depends on what you're trying to do.

 

Tip:

The full lat/lon format is right on the PERF INIT page.

 

The posts above illustrate the various formats, which are:

Full - S3200.0E13242.8

Short - S32E132

Short 2 - 32S32

 

Short 2 is really weird, and to be honest, remembering its quirks isn't worth saving the 2 extra keystrokes from the other Short form.  It uses N for north latitude, west longitude.  E for north latitude, east longitude.  S for south latitude, east longitude.  W for south latitude, west longitude.  The position of the letter in the group designates if the first digit of the longitude is a 0 or a 1.  The letter will be at the end if the longitude is less than 100, and will be the third character if the longitude is 100 or greater.

 

FCOMv2 11.31.13.

Thanks for the help guys  Gee there is some heavy reading material for this bird.

Ron

One thing I've noticed is that I have to go to the LEGS page to load these as apparently this format is not understood on the RTE page.

One other thing. When I look at a flight plan from FlightAware across the Pacific, it shows a point listed as "0004N13048W/M084F390." Now I get the first part up to the slash but what is the second part?

Mach 0.84, Flight Level 390

(Filing M084F390 is for planning only. ATC will give you what they can, and you can ask for what the plane can do at that moment. Example: you file for FL390 across the NAT, but you get there and can only get up to 380 because a higher than forecast tailwind got you there earlier and heavier than expected. Additionally, ATC may not be able to accommodate that altitude, so they offer something else.)

 

Also, yes, full lat/lon needs to go on the LEGS page. The RTE pages are only good for airways and fixes. Lat/lons aren't exactly fixes, though you can get whole lat/lons by using short form (32S32 gives you S32E132).