VOR on Navlog
Posted by OkEfficiency3747@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 40 comments
I'm finishing up my hypothetical navlog for a mock checkride and the VOR section has me a bit confused. I understand entering the station identifier and frequency but it's also asking for the bearing and To/From
Most of the legs aren't flown along a single radial so do I enter the distance and bearing of each waypoint from the station?
eagleace21@reddit
Sounds like a great question for your CFI
nyplanes@reddit
I don’t understand these type of comments. This is r/flying why can’t he ask a good question?
eagleace21@reddit
Isn't teaching a nav log a basic CFI responsibility?
nyplanes@reddit
Yes and there’s probably thousands of cfis in this group. You don’t know this guys situation maybe he texted his cfi the same question but he hasn’t responded yet
eagleace21@reddit
Fair point, OP never suggested they tried to ask is all
nyplanes@reddit
I mean not to pile on but why would they need to suggest that to ask a question on reddit? I just don’t understand the sentiment. I see it on so many Reddit post and someone comments “ask your cfi”. Even if you have a really good cfi there’s probably at least 1000 cfi’s on reddit that are more knowledgeable.
Cool-Acanthaceae8968@reddit
And it’s not your place to gatekeep. Answer the question or STFU.
ap0r@reddit
Look at Mr. Born Knowing Everything! Legend says he never made a dumb or ovbious question in his life.
Don't want to answer? Move along quietly with your day.
ThnkGdImNotAReditMod@reddit
CPL ASMEL IR SVFR FAA FBI DMW LGBT and yet you can't even fill out a nav log?
eagleace21@reddit
Point is this is something one generally is taught by a cfi.
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
You don't know my CFI
sunny5222@reddit
we're only a few years from "why is there a VOR column?" like how the youths don't know why we make a turning motion to indicate someone should roll down their window.
dieseltaco@reddit
Why the hell is the call icon shaped like a bulging banana?
What the hell is a circle in a square have to do with saving (and why do I have to manually save)?
Extension_Lab_6564@reddit
I too use this ASA navlog. I put in the VOR FR bearing for each of my visual waypoints as a way to cross-reference my position. I made a point to choose a VOR that would result in mostly perpendicular radials so that there would be as big a difference in angle as possible between waypoints and I kept the number of VORs to a minimum so that I didn’t have to tune in and check a bunch of different ones.
It worked like a charm. As I flew along my plan, I had the VOR tuned and the CDI set to the FR bearing l. As I approached my waypoint the needle centered. Wrote down my time, then adjusted the CDI for the next intercept.
My CFI was extremely surprised that I brought in a fully filled out flight plan and I was surprised that apparently that’s a rare occurrence.
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
That's exactly what I ended up doing with this navlog. I can't wait to try it real time. Thank you
Snacckabllezz@reddit
I didn’t use this chart, but what I think this is significantly trying to do is at your checkpoint you made, if you can also make some sort of second reference that’s not based off of ground.
Say for example you have some “lake o’ fish” or landmark or town as a checkpoint, given the nearest VOR, what bearing is it off when the needle is centered. That way you know you are at the right place. It doesn’t have to be exact but make sure you didn’t drift 20 miles and now are at “lake no fish” or a different town or the wrong power station
Robthenub@reddit
“Lake no fish” kinda stinks anyway
kmac6821@reddit
Not as much as Lake Dead Fish.
akraut@reddit
Practical example: my CFI had me plan a flight from Palo Alto (PAO) to Rio Vista (O88). I planned to fly from PAO to the Mineral Plant (VPMIN) to avoid all the SFO class B. Turn NNE and overfly Livermore (LVK) and the Antioch Bridge (VPANT). My navlog had a point that said "abeam Mount Diablo". So I turn left at the Mineral Plant, and I think "oh! Well this is easier than I thought! There's the bridge straight ahead!" So we're flying along and CFI asks, are we at that next navlog point yet?" I look out the left windows and see some big hills. "Huh, Mt Diablo doesn't look that tall from the air. Yep, we're there."
CFI, slightly more giddy than usual: "Cool, what's our next navpoint?"
Me: "The Antioch Bridge straight ahead."
At this point my CFI was practically bubbling with delight. That's how I knew I had walked directly into a "teachable moment".
I had turned too far left and was currently over Walnut Creek (VPWAL) pointed at the Benicia Bridge (VPBBR). I had inadvertently created a series of visual navpoints that matched a few locations in the area if you aren't familiar with it. Had I used some secondary nav like a VOR, I could have cross checked these points.
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
Excellent, that's kind of what I was thinking. Thank you!
Snacckabllezz@reddit
Your Welcome! Not a CFI but just think about all VFR stuff as just what it is looking outside and enjoy the view.
You will be under the hood soon enough.
carsgobeepbeep@reddit
It's just another set of columns that you can use WHEN IT MAKES SENSE to help locate fixes.
By charting a radial or bearing off a nearby VOR, and then dialing it in properly before you expect to get there in the airplane, you can add "noticing when the VOR needle centers up" to the list of methods you might use (after "looking out the damn window for a bunch of wind mills" and "after roughly 22.5mins on my stopwatch") to confirm you're where you think you are.
Example, if your route has you going southbound in north central Texas, you might tune 095deg TO the Wichita Falls VOR. When the needle centers up, it's an additional way to confirm you're over the town of Electra, TX.
You would most likely never get into such a situation on a checkride but in real-life flying in a plane without GPS (as was the case for most of aviation history and still is for many GA pilots on a budget), this is useful for a lot of reasons. For example you may be on a 200mile VFR flight and get into a perfectly legal VFR-over-the-top situation for 75 of those miles where you just can't tell which towns are which due to the layer beneath you. Very important and helpful to have something besides just your stopwatch and a hope that you did all the E6B math correctly to know where you're at.
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
Thank you for taking the time to explain it this thoroughly. That's exactly what I was looking for.
davejruk@reddit
1 decimal place for fuel should be sufficient
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
Thank you. I was cross-referencing my totals with Foreflight to see how close I was to total burn.
sharth@reddit
If the legs are not on a single radial, how do you know when to turn the plane?
Every turn should cause a separate line on your navlog.
srkjb@reddit
Unless you are traveling directly to or from a VOR then a straight line without turns would not be on the same radial.
sharth@reddit
Ah. I've always used that column to represent a radial I'm overflying.
I guess if you have a VOR DME you could do a radial intersection. Not sure that I would want to bring that up on a PPL check ride though. Seems like it's inviting unnecessary complications.
OkEfficiency3747@reddit (OP)
To clarify, if I'm flying west to east, and the station is to the south of me, I'm not flying along a single radial. I'm fact, I'm intercepting several along the way
skechi@reddit
The bearing would be the bearing from the VOR when you're at each individual checkpoint
daveindo@reddit
Use it when it makes sense, leave it blank when it doesn’t.
Wandrews123@reddit
When you get to instrument you’ll see that some fixes are defined by the intersection of 2 radials, so with 2 VOR’s (or one switching back and forth) you could identify that point - I think that’s what this is getting at, if chose a similar waypoint, but you don’t need to do all that for private, and you certainly don’t need to do it for each row.
Beergoggles222@reddit
If you are on an airway, then go ahead and fill it out. You could also use it to cross check your pilotage based checkpoints if you wanted to. Don't overthink it. If you don't need it, don't use it. I'm a bit confused why the squawk codes are on the nav log, but I guess it's a place to write them down if they change along your route.
Plastic_Brick_1060@reddit
Weird nav log overall, squak code rarely changes from your initial clearance, certainly not every waypoint. Fill out what's useful/ practical for you.
BrtFrkwr@reddit
Ignore it. Somebody's overscrewing the chicken.
chillvilletilt@reddit
This is more important for IFR cross countries. I would talk to your CFI since the cross country portion is a great time to polish VOR work.
HoboSaaz767@reddit
Yea you are correct. You’d want to cross check your location with a VOR on a known radial. So what ever vfr fix you are using find a vor that you can plot out a radial from and check it there.
GeorgiaPilot172@reddit
If you aren’t using VORa for navigation then you can leave it blank
juniorfromgh@reddit
Simple
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
I'm finishing up my hypothetical navlog for a mock checkride and the VOR section has me a bit confused. I understand entering the station identifier and frequency but it's also asking for the bearing and To/From
Most of the legs aren't flown along a single radial so do I enter the distance and bearing of each waypoint from the station?
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