Definition
The intended direction of flight between two points on a chart, measured in degrees from magnetic north rather than true north. It is the true course corrected for magnetic variation, and is the heading value used for flight planning before further correcting for wind and compass deviation.
Plain English
The direction you plan to fly from one point to the next, measured against magnetic north — the same north your aircraft compass points to.
Context Anchor
Seen in navigation logs during IFR flight planning, especially when listing each leg of a route.
Derivation
‘Magnetic’ refers to magnetic north, the direction a compass needle points, which differs from true (geographic) north. ‘Course’ comes from the Latin cursus, meaning ‘a running’ or ‘path.’ Together, magnetic course means the planned path expressed in terms a compass can read.
Why Pilots Care
Allows consistent navigation using the aircraft compass when true north references are unavailable or impractical.
Intuition Check
Do not read course here as a class or lesson. In this context, course means the planned path across the ground; magnetic means that path is measured from magnetic north.
Example Sentence 1
The navigation log showed a magnetic course of 095° for the leg from the VOR to the next fix.
Example Sentence 2
After applying wind correction, the magnetic course remained 090 while the heading shifted several degrees.