Can you land on the north pole?

the Earth’s True North pole does move – in circles with the Earth’s axis’ precession. Of course with 25.800 years for one circel it does not even play a role for celestial navigation …,

I don’t think so

or

The effect you refer to is something else

The geographic north pole doesn’t move, for practical purposes.

No, I mean the same. (It was a chapter in my book about the moon).
I know that it has no effect on navigation – but of course the geographic north pole moves (through space) with the precession of earth’s axis. But then … it also moves around the sun … oh well ;-)

… and the solar system moves within the Milky Way galaxy which itself is moving relative to other galaxies… all irrelevant to the thread.

it has no effect on navigation

Indeed.

It would be useful to know how one locates the north pole, using GA gear. Presumably, if the lat/long GPS data still works (and I am sure it does because it would be a bit useless for military applications if GPS didn’t work up there) then there is a means of plotting a track from A to B and steering it.

The geographical North Pole:

- does not move relative to the Earth’s surface
- does indeed move relative to space, as it very slowly oscillates (see Flyer59s post)

The icecap of course is in constant movement, so anything ‘built’ on the geographical North Pole will be there for a given length of time, but not for long. Therefore – if someone was to build a runway at the North Pole and you’d like to land at the Pole, I suggest you fly in there PDQ after construction – you may stand a chance ;-)

Why GPS doesn’t / shouldn’t work I have no idea, all the references I find imply that it indeed does (or at least should), although I am aware that the manuals that come with the type of GPS units GA uses tend to specify a northern / southern limit.

Peter wrote:

That’s the north magnetic pole. But that’s nowhere near the north pole.

True… But then there’s also the pole of inaccessibility (the furthest point from the sea) and you could invent an aeronautical pole of inaccessibility (the furthest point from an airport).

I wonder how much of an ‘event’ it is to get to the north pole – a nondescript point on a big sheet of flat pack ice. I’d rather see mountains, I think.

Is a new EuroGA fly-in on the cards?

172driver wrote:

- does not move relative to the Earth’s surface

Well, according to the Wikipedia article Peter quoted it actually does.

Is a new EuroGA fly-in on the cards?

The €15k landing fee would be comparable with the booking fee for the African (etc) trips organised by one occassional advertiser poster here

according to the Wikipedia article Peter quoted it actually does.

True, but only on a metre scale so not relevant to navigation.

I wonder how much of an ‘event’ it is to get to the north pole – a nondescript point on a big sheet of flat pack ice. I’d rather see mountains, I think.

That’s my view too… flying is flying, but a trip like that is a massive logistical exercise. One person who went up there somewhere even had to obtain permits to carry shotguns, in case of a forced landing, for shooting bears.

@Tumbleweed – what is “gyro steer”? Is it inertial navigation?

I would love to go there and have it on my bucketlist.