A new compass rose pad was recently constructed at the Martin County Airport in Stuart, Florida.
A compass rose is a calibration tool for pilots to use to check that their on board compass is accurately tuned. Martin County’s new and improved compass rose features the Martin County logo as the centerpiece.
The new compass rose was constructed with a thermo-plastic design that will withstand weather elements much longer than the traditional waterborne paint, according to airport officials. The project was completed within a 60-day timeframe with virtually no interruption to the airside traffic, officials add.
For more information: Martin.fl.us
Yes, with GPS I guess much of the need for a compass rose has evaporated. However, my comment is that most compass rose designs I’ve used have been very difficult to use with the level of precision I wanted., especially if they were copies of the popular 99’s design. And this one in Stuart, Florida, seems similar. My problem with such a design is there is no continuous straight line from each compass point from the center to a distance that is beyond the landing gear since the center is often a logo or some other graphic. My favorite rose was at KPTB, Dinwiddie County Airport, in Petersburg, VA. That rose was a very simple arrangement of long lines through each cardinal and ordinal point. With that design it was easy with a tow bar to position any of my flying club four Cessnas so that the main gear wheel pant bolt was dead over the left-right line, while the nose gear was right over the fore-aft line. Bingo! With the traditional 99s design (and I guess the Martin County Airport design I see) you had to guess when you had the plane lined up properly. Of course KPTB rose was not a design that would win any graphic arts awards, but it was so, so easy to use…accurately.
I have a GPS!