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If I am 100 NM from a VOR and I want to deviate 5 miles to the center of my radial to avoid a weather, how many dots deviation from the centre line of the instrument will represent the 5 miles? If someone here knows of a simple formula for solving such questions, please share with us. I know the 1 to 60 rule but sometimes I get confused because I don't have a formula such as the Distance/Time to a station we learned in our IR.

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3 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Oct 30, 2013

    The formula is roughly 200 ft per dot per NM.

    5 miles off course is 30,000 ft. At 100 NM each dot will mean the deviation is 20,000 ft. I would expect you to be 1.5 dots from center.

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  2. Lion on Oct 31, 2013

    Wes, Thank you. That really help simplify it.

    So basically, First I have to convert NM into ft: 5*6=30000′
    Then I divide the off course distance by 200: 30000/200=150
    Then finally I divide by the distance between between my pos and the VOR: 150/100=1.5

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  3. Wes Beard on Oct 31, 2013

    Lion, that is correct!

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