Page 11 - Tuskegee Airmen Drone License Preparatory Course Chp.2 Manual

o Latitudes describe your position as how far North or South of the equator,
latitudes are parallel to each other hence also called parallels. The equator is
zero degrees,
o Longitudes describe your position as to how far West or East of the prime
meridian. Meridians or longitudes converge at the North and South poles
• Let’s look at figure 26, see if we can figure out Lat / Long for Cooperstown Airport.
o First of all find a line of latitude near the airport, there is a line just north of the
airport but there is no number on it so go down to the next line of latitude
▪ And there is a 47 degrees
• On a Sectional Chart the lines of latitude are shown every half a
degree or 30 minutes
• So we know the line N of the airport is 47 degrees and 30 minutes
o Latitude is measured from the equator so as we go further
north the numbers get bigger
▪ Now all we have to do is count up from the 47 degree line
• Each tick mark is 1/60 of a degree, or 1 minute
th
• The major tick marks are 10 minutes
▪ So we get 47 degrees and 26 minutes north as the latitude for
Cooperstown
o Now let’s figure out the longitude
▪ The line of longitude just east of Cooperstown in labeled 98 degrees
▪ Since longitudes are measured from the Prime Meridian the numbers get
bigger as we go West (since Prime Meridian is zero)
▪ Each tick mark is 1 minute so we get 6 minutes west
• So the longitude for Cooperstown is 98 degrees and 6 min. west
o We normally say the latitude first and then the longitude
o So the Cooperstown airport is located at 47 degrees 26 minutes north and 98
degrees and 6 minutes west.

11