VOR Question

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DatDudeMIC
Senior Airman
Posts: 119
Joined: 21 Oct 2016, 22:00
Location: Pensacola, Florida

VOR Question

Post by DatDudeMIC »

So I’m trying to do some VOR to VOR flying. Does the VOR come alive only when you are 60 miles from the station? That’s what I’m experiencing.
Keep The Blue Side Up,

Micah H.

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scottb613
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Location: KMSV

Re: VOR Question

Post by scottb613 »

Hi...

In real life - no - but I recall hearing that’s an issue in the sim - I haven’t tested myself... They set them to some arbitrary limit and as per your testing that would indicate 60 miles...

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Scott


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bobsk8
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Re: VOR Question

Post by bobsk8 »

If you use Plan G, you can click on VOR and it will tell you it's range. Hi level VORs are 120 miles and low , are around 40 miles and some are 25.
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WB_FlashOver
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Re: VOR Question

Post by WB_FlashOver »

When I do VOR flights I use PlanG as well. I look for the 195 NM High Altitude ones and try to space them out around 300 NM apart so I can do a To and then Out and then capture the next To and so on. Some VOR's are VOR/DME, some are VOR and some are DME so look for the VOR/DME for proper VOR navigation. They do have varying ranges and the shorter range ones can be more challenging as you will be doing more changing of frequencies and flying To and Out and even some dead reckoning in the middle.

I do enjoy a good VOR flight but for a real challenge take on an NDB navigation flight. These will really keep you on your toes.

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flapman
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Re: VOR Question

Post by flapman »

I stick to airways. Have never had a problem with going outside of NAVAID range.

DatDudeMIC
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Posts: 119
Joined: 21 Oct 2016, 22:00
Location: Pensacola, Florida

Re: VOR Question

Post by DatDudeMIC »

bobsk8 wrote:If you use Plan G, you can click on VOR and it will tell you it's range. Hi level VORs are 120 miles and low , are around 40 miles and some are 25.
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I took your advice and downloaded Plan G. I am now on a test flight in the 172. I chose a couple of VORs around my home airport to fly around. Plan G is very easy and I can’t wait to use it in the Connie.
Keep The Blue Side Up,

Micah H.

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bobsk8
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Re: VOR Question

Post by bobsk8 »

DatDudeMIC wrote:
bobsk8 wrote:If you use Plan G, you can click on VOR and it will tell you it's range. Hi level VORs are 120 miles and low , are around 40 miles and some are 25.
.
I took your advice and downloaded Plan G. I am now on a test flight in the 172. I chose a couple of VORs around my home airport to fly around. Plan G is very easy and I can’t wait to use it in the Connie.
It is the best. I never fly without it. I sent the person a donation because it is my most used add on.
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P*Funk
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Re: VOR Question

Post by P*Funk »

FSX has a few issues with the range it has set for some short range VORs in that the sim range for them is sometimes a dozen or more miles shorter than it is in real life, creating a few situations where a published procedure or airway segment becomes harder to fly than it should be. You can however easily note this and then edit the VORs using a program available on that site with the free navaid and magdec update.

The example that comes to mind is the SINCA6 arrival into ATL which uses the Dublin VOR for a leg that's over 60nm long before switching to the Atlanta VOR. The range for DBN in FSX is only 40nm which means that if you're on the Colliers transition you won't even detect the VOR ever. Extra fun was had for me before I installed the navaid update because the Atlanta VOR had a very rare magvar update in real life in 2015 so with Dublin not receiving, and ATL out by several degrees flying that procedure made me think that pure VOR nav in FSX didn't work by real life charts anymore!

Its obvious why this is how it is though. The team that made FSX clearly just averaged the range of many VORs and a few ended up well below their real life utility. But once you know it its easy to compensate.

DatDudeMIC
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Joined: 21 Oct 2016, 22:00
Location: Pensacola, Florida

Re: VOR Question

Post by DatDudeMIC »

So last night, I decided to do a VOR to VOR flight from Pensacola (KPNS) to San Antonio (KSAT). Everything was going just perfect. I took off, climbed to 15,000 feet and set cruise power. I navigated to 4 VOR’s before I started my decent into San Antonio. As soon as I leveled off at 10,000 feet, a passenger got sick and I had to make a emergency landing . I was only 80 miles away from my destination. The closest airport with a suitable runway was 70 miles behind me.

So my question is why does a passenger have to get sick that close to landing?
Keep The Blue Side Up,

Micah H.

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flapman
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Re: VOR Question

Post by flapman »

P*Funk wrote:The team that made FSX clearly just averaged the range of many VORs and a few ended up well below their real life utility.
I can't say for sure, but I speculate they used the minimum guaranteed ranges per the FAA (and ICAO?).
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Wow... that's a big image!

Many procedures will rely on reception outside of these minimum distances, but airborne checks (call sign, "flight check") of procedures verify usability.
DatDudeMIC wrote:So my question is why does a passenger have to get sick that close to landing?
I think it's one of the limitations of COTS. Because we don't program a destination into anything, A2A can't tell what our destination is, and how far we are from it. This also is reflected in the setting of pressurization by the FE. He doesn't know the elevation of the landing airport, so he has to configure for all airport elevations (depressurizes the airplane early).

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