Compass

[Old Detroiter]

A few weeks ago, during one of the latest Ford software updates, the compass feature was added to the driver's dashboard. I drive a 2025 Mach E GT with the Performance Package. My previous 2022 Mach E Premium also had this feature, but the 2025 did not when it was delivered. I asked my dealer, DeYarman Ford, Indianola, IA, to contact Ford headquarters and make a request to add the compass back in. They said spring of 2026 and they kept their promise!
Thank you, Ford Engineering!

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[rad1234]

It seems like a worthless feature but comes in handy on occasion such as exiting a confusing subdivision. Or nice to know when you pull onto a highway that you are indeed going right direction. Had a friend drive halfway across Pennsylvania on I-80 only to see the "welcome to New Jersey" sign instead of Ohio.

 

[RickMachE]

It seems like a worthless feature but comes in handy on occasion such as exiting a confusing subdivision. Or nice to know when you pull onto a highway that you are indeed going right direction. Had a friend drive halfway across Pennsylvania on I-80 only to see the "welcome to New Jersey" sign instead of Ohio.

Laughed at this. We had relatives that didn't do drives come visit us in PA, from Michigan. We were living west of Philly. They called us (from a pay phone, they didn't have a cell at the time), when they got to NJ...

My in-laws used AAA Trip Tiks, pages of maps you flip as you go. It said get off at exit 269 (number is irrelevant, may be wrong). PA had renumbered the exits from mile markers to exit numbers (or vice versa). They also called us from NJ...

The compass is helpful when using navigation that hasn't yet figured out which direction I am headed as I exit a parking lot. I can look at GoogleMaps and see (I use North UP) that I am going north out of the parking lot. I can look at the compass and see I am currently pointing east, so I know I need to make a left.

 

[rreddy3]

Laughed at this. We had relatives that didn't do drives come visit us in PA, from Michigan. We were living west of Philly. They called us (from a pay phone, they didn't have a cell at the time), when they got to NJ...

My in-laws used AAA Trip Tiks, pages of maps you flip as you go. It said get off at exit 269 (number is irrelevant, may be wrong). PA had renumbered the exits from mile markers to exit numbers (or vice versa). They also called us from NJ...

The compass is helpful when using navigation that hasn't yet figured out which direction I am headed as I exit a parking lot. I can look at GoogleMaps and see (I use North UP) that I am going north out of the parking lot. I can look at the compass and see I am currently pointing east, so I know I need to make a left.

AAA Trip Tiks … now that’s a blast from the past!!

 

[phil]

It seems like a worthless feature but comes in handy on occasion such as exiting a confusing subdivision. Or nice to know when you pull onto a highway that you are indeed going right direction. Had a friend drive halfway across Pennsylvania on I-80 only to see the "welcome to New Jersey" sign instead of Ohio.

I did the same thing, on the same stretch of I-80 in Pennsylvania, about 45 years ago. Except I figured it out and turned around after only 75 miles or so. If only I had known that Bellefonte comes before Snow Shoe, not after!

I think it's a mistake young people make once, and then never again.

 

[Bad Dolphin]

Laughed at this. We had relatives that didn't do drives come visit us in PA, from Michigan. We were living west of Philly. They called us (from a pay phone, they didn't have a cell at the time), when they got to NJ...

My in-laws used AAA Trip Tiks, pages of maps you flip as you go. It said get off at exit 269 (number is irrelevant, may be wrong). PA had renumbered the exits from mile markers to exit numbers (or vice versa). They also called us from NJ...

The compass is helpful when using navigation that hasn't yet figured out which direction I am headed as I exit a parking lot. I can look at GoogleMaps and see (I use North UP) that I am going north out of the parking lot. I can look at the compass and see I am currently pointing east, so I know I need to make a left.

I remember AAA TripAToks! I guess that makes us officially old...

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

It seems like a worthless feature but comes in handy

On the other hand, compasses can be confusing. Just ask Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan departed New York in his patchwork aircraft bound for Long Beach California on July 17, 1938. He landed in Ireland. He said he misread his compass. For all 26 hours of the flight. The New York Post printed a backwards headline announcing his “mistake.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan

 

[Space_Pony]

On the other hand, compasses can be confusing. Just ask Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan departed New York in his patchwork aircraft bound for Long Beach California on July 17, 1938. He landed in Ireland. He said he misread his compass. For all 26 hours of the flight. The New York Post printed a backwards headline announcing his “mistake.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan

That sounds like a publicity stunt.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

That sounds like a publicity stunt.

No. But ….

Mr. Corrigan was flying a really cobbled together aircraft. He had just made a record setting flight from the west coast (Long Beach) to New York’s Floyd Bennett Field. It was record setting because it was from Long Beach, not Burbank or what later became LAX. He wanted to fly to Ireland to try and set a record crossing. The CAA (FAA predecessor) wouldn't certify his airplane because it was a cobbled together leaking POS. Plus, they were busy dealing with Howard Hughes’ around the world flight departing from the same New York airport.

So ol Doug filed a flight plan back to LGB, turned west as expected, then very soon thereafter entered a cloud bank and some 28 or so hours later landed his highly modified Curtiss Robin J-1 at what is now Casement Aerodrome outside Dublin. His first words were, “Where am I?”

Mr Corrigan was a very good aircraft mechanic and pilot. He maintained that his flight was an accident up until the time he passed away in 1998.

An Ai mock up of the cockpit and compass of a stock J-1. There is more than 1 error, but its the compass that is most important, and it’s accurate.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[rreddy3]

No. But ….

Mr. Corrigan was flying a really cobbled together aircraft. He had just made a record setting record n from the west coast (Long Beach) to New York. It was record setting because it was from Long Beach, not Burbank or what later became LAX. He wanted to fly to Ireland to try and set a record crossing. The CAA (FAA predecessor) wouldn't certify his airplane because it was a cobbled together leaking POS. Plus, they were busy dealing with Howard Hughes’ around the world flight departing from the same New York airport.

So ol Doug filed a flight plan back to LGB, turned west as expected, then very soon thereafter entered a cloud bank and some 28 or so hours later landed his highly modified Curtiss Robin J-1 at what is now Casement Aerodrome outside Dublin. His first words were, “Where am I?”

Mr Corrigan was a very good aircraft mechanic and pilot. He maintained that his flight was an accident up until the time he passed away in 1998.

An Ai mock up of the cockpit and compass of a stock J-1. There is more than 1 error, but its the compass that is most important.l, and it’s accurate.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

My father, born in 1905 and died in 2001, is said to have learned to fly in a Jenny. From the very little I know of them, I’d guess a JN4. His flying days predate me by more than a few years.

 

[kjlebleu]

My maiden name is Corrigan. I’ve heard the main story before and been called “Wrong Way Corrigan” on (many an) occasion. Had not heard this much detail though, thank you!

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