Bearing Dial

🇮🇱 עברית

Bearing dial (map rotation)

The bearing dial rotates the map, so you can fly track-up instead of north-up.

Where it is

Bottom-right of the map, above the zoom buttons. The red needle is a north arrow: it points where north is on the turned chart. The number field beside it shows the map's rotation, true: north up is 0, in flight too. Only while heading-up turns the chart with a live position (location, recording, simulator) does it show the heading at the top of the screen, magnetic like the strip. A value typed into it is read the way the number was shown. Dragging the dial moves the needle with your finger — north goes where you drop it.

Using it

Action	Result
Drag the dial	Rotate continuously to any bearing
Click the dial	Step 90° per click: 0° → 90° → 180° → 270° → 0°, always true: 0 is the chart square with real north up, in flight too. From an off-axis angle the first click goes to 0. A click ends heading-up.
Type in the heading field	Jump straight to that bearing
Two-finger twist	Rotate on a touch screen — off by default, enable with the touchRotateGesture tuning key

From the keyboard

The dial takes focus (Tab to it) and behaves as a slider:

Key	Result
↑ / →	Turn 1°
↓ / ←	Turn 1° the other way
Page Up / Page Down	Turn 10°
Home	North up
Space / Enter	Step 90°, the same as a tap

Heading is a circle: one degree below north is 359°, not a floor to stop at. A key the dial acts on does not also reach the map, so an arrow turns the map without panning it.

A drag has to travel past a small threshold (rotDragPx, 8 px by default) before it counts as a rotation, so a slightly imprecise tap still reads as a click.

Why rotate

• Track up — turn your course to point up the screen, the way a moving-map GPS shows it.
• North up — the default (0°).
• Anything between — align the map with a coastline or a road you are following.

What rotation affects

• The map, the route overlay, and every marker rotate together.
• PNG and print export match the screen, bearing included — tiles are fetched north-up and re-composited with the rotation applied, so what you print is what you saw.
• The wind field overlay hides itself while the map is rotated and shows a north-up note; it returns at 0°.
• The bearing persists across reloads (navaid.bearing).

See also

• The Map — panning, zoom, and the readouts around it
• Print and Export — how rotation is carried into the output
• Keyboard and Touch