Old and New: VOR v. GPS, XMWX v. ADS-B

[Jeff_S]

Based on the latest training IFR scenario scenario on https://pilotworkshop.com/products/ifr-mastery/, I mapped out a flight around north Florida to try to use VORs exclusively for navigation and refresh those skills. I spent about an hour laying out a nice route that would use radials and cross radials off the SSI, AYS, TAY and CRG VORs, with a little AMG thrown in for fun as purely a crossing radial. All those VORs still show up with frequencies and seem fully operational on the Low IFR charts.

But the briefing showed that TAY is fully decommissioned (probably for MON purposes), & AYS was out for a couple of months. So I kept my original flight path but decided to use it as an opportunity to practice blending GPS and VOR navigation.  Cross radials are hard in the G1000 because you don't have two CDIs. This means you have to use the HSI for the primary path and then a Bearing Pointer for the cross radial.  Since I had the GPS flight plan loaded in, I could see that this works, but does take some practice. So, something to consider as the FAA further decommissions VORs, it become interesting to figure out how to navigate. For example, there are no radials I could use to go from AYS to TAY...none. I just used GPS and then tried to identify TAY with the cross radial from GEF.  I guess the lesson is that if GPS ever does go out, better hope you can get radar help from ATC or use the old fashioned pilotage if the remaining VORs don't easily point where you're going.  This was probably hard to follow, so here's a link to the FlightAware path:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1034S/history/20200606/1315Z/KFHB/KFHB

But the other item of note on today's flight concerns ADS-B Wx.  ForeFlight was showing fully connected to the GTX-345 and traffic was coming in fine. And XMWX was painting some minor rain showers (correctly) in my path.  But NEXRAD never showed up in ForeFlight, so I finally went to the Devices page and dug deeper to see a menu item for "Outages" which I had never found before. Sure enough, going to that page showed outages for both NEXRAD and Lightning for much of the country.  So that's another reason to keep the old reliable XM/Sirius service around.  

I guess the theme is that what's old can still be good, when it works!

[MooneyMitch]

53 minutes ago, Jeff_S said:

I guess the theme is that what's old can still be good, when it works!

I often think of myself like that! 

[MooneyMitch]

55 minutes ago, Jeff_S said:

Based on the latest training IFR scenario scenario on https://pilotworkshop.com/products/ifr-mastery/, I mapped out a flight around north Florida to try to use VORs exclusively for navigation and refresh those skills. I spent about an hour laying out a nice route that would use radials and cross radials off the SSI, AYS, TAY and CRG VORs, with a little AMG thrown in for fun as purely a crossing radial. All those VORs still show up with frequencies and seem fully operational on the Low IFR charts.

But the briefing showed that TAY is fully decommissioned (probably for MON purposes), & AYS was out for a couple of months. So I kept my original flight path but decided to use it as an opportunity to practice blending GPS and VOR navigation.  Cross radials are hard in the G1000 because you don't have two CDIs. This means you have to use the HSI for the primary path and then a Bearing Pointer for the cross radial.  Since I had the GPS flight plan loaded in, I could see that this works, but does take some practice. So, something to consider as the FAA further decommissions VORs, it become interesting to figure out how to navigate. For example, there are no radials I could use to go from AYS to TAY...none. I just used GPS and then tried to identify TAY with the cross radial from GEF.  I guess the lesson is that if GPS ever does go out, better hope you can get radar help from ATC or use the old fashioned pilotage if the remaining VORs don't easily point where you're going.  This was probably hard to follow, so here's a link to the FlightAware path:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1034S/history/20200606/1315Z/KFHB/KFHB

But the other item of note on today's flight concerns ADS-B Wx.  ForeFlight was showing fully connected to the GTX-345 and traffic was coming in fine. And XMWX was painting some minor rain showers (correctly) in my path.  But NEXRAD never showed up in ForeFlight, so I finally went to the Devices page and dug deeper to see a menu item for "Outages" which I had never found before. Sure enough, going to that page showed outages for both NEXRAD and Lightning for much of the country.  So that's another reason to keep the old reliable XM/Sirius service around.  

I guess the theme is that what's old can still be good, when it works!

Seriously though..... I do this often too.  It’s kinda fun to integrate both...... 

Such amazing technological advancements available for us these days...... remember flying outbound on that VOR radial, watching the needle start to wander the farther out we got...could be a little concerning as we searched for that little airport .

[Hector]

Based on the latest training IFR scenario scenario on https://pilotworkshop.com/products/ifr-mastery/, I mapped out a flight around north Florida to try to use VORs exclusively for navigation and refresh those skills. I spent about an hour laying out a nice route that would use radials and cross radials off the SSI, AYS, TAY and CRG VORs, with a little AMG thrown in for fun as purely a crossing radial. All those VORs still show up with frequencies and seem fully operational on the Low IFR charts.
But the briefing showed that TAY is fully decommissioned (probably for MON purposes), & AYS was out for a couple of months. So I kept my original flight path but decided to use it as an opportunity to practice blending GPS and VOR navigation.  Cross radials are hard in the G1000 because you don't have two CDIs. This means you have to use the HSI for the primary path and then a Bearing Pointer for the cross radial.  Since I had the GPS flight plan loaded in, I could see that this works, but does take some practice. So, something to consider as the FAA further decommissions VORs, it become interesting to figure out how to navigate. For example, there are no radials I could use to go from AYS to TAY...none. I just used GPS and then tried to identify TAY with the cross radial from GEF.  I guess the lesson is that if GPS ever does go out, better hope you can get radar help from ATC or use the old fashioned pilotage if the remaining VORs don't easily point where you're going.  This was probably hard to follow, so here's a link to the FlightAware path:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N1034S/history/20200606/1315Z/KFHB/KFHB
But the other item of note on today's flight concerns ADS-B Wx.  ForeFlight was showing fully connected to the GTX-345 and traffic was coming in fine. And XMWX was painting some minor rain showers (correctly) in my path.  But NEXRAD never showed up in ForeFlight, so I finally went to the Devices page and dug deeper to see a menu item for "Outages" which I had never found before. Sure enough, going to that page showed outages for both NEXRAD and Lightning for much of the country.  So that's another reason to keep the old reliable XM/Sirius service around.  
I guess the theme is that what's old can still be good, when it works!

Well that explains why I was not getting weather in a short flight this morning in North Florida


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[Ibra]

8 hours ago, Jeff_S said:

I guess the theme is that what's old can still be good, when it works!

"Old but not obsolete" (Arnie S. Terminator Genisys)

Edited June 7, 2020 by Ibra