Clock position

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A clock position, or clock bearing, is the direction of an object observed from a vehicle, typically a vessel or an aircraft, relative to the orientation of the vehicle to the observer. The vehicle must be considered to have a front, a back, a left side and a right side. These quarters may have specialized names, such as bow and stern for a vessel, or nose and tail for an aircraft. The observer then measures or observes the angle made by the intersection of the line of sight to the longitudinal axis, the dimension of length, of the vessel, using the clock analogy.

In this analogy, the observer imagines the vessel located on a horizontal clock face with the front at 12:00. Neglecting the length of the vessel, and presuming that he is at the bow, he observes the time number lying on the line of sight.^[1] For example, 12 o'clock means directly ahead, 3 o'clock means directly to the right, 6 o'clock means directly behind, and 9 o'clock means directly to the left.

The clock system is not confined to transportation. It has general application to circumstances in which the location of one object with respect to another must be systematized.