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4 Answers

Continuing on an airway outside of VOR range

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Instrument Rating

Say you are flying this (admittedly circuitous) route to get from Santa Barbara to the San Diego area (LINK).  Also assume ATC accepted this route and didn't assign a TEC route.  When arriving at TANNR (southeast of PDZ on V186), you are navigating on the PDZ 130 radial until the OCN 027 radial centers and positively identifies you at that fix.  At this point, you are to turn to a heading of 156 and switch nav frequencies to tracking that same radial inbound to the PGY VOR.

My question stems from the fact that PGY is a (L) VOR and therefore the service volume doesn't reach all the way to TANNR, which is 53 nm away.  So for ~13 miles, is the proper procedure to just fly the 156 heading until you start to get reliable nav signal?

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4 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Jun 08, 2018

    A couple of points, along the airway, unless there is a charted switch over intersection or a turn in the airway, you split the difference between two VOR’s along a straight line. The 40 NM service volume applies to off airway random navigation to or from the VOR, it does not apply to airways as the airways are flight tested to assure the VOR provides acceptable signal at the MEA, so from TANNR at 5000 MSL or higher, PGY is used for course guidance along the airway or inbound on the 336 radial. If you were on a random route using the 325 degree radial, to the west of TANNR, you would be outside the service volume as that area is not flight tested beyond 40 NM. With the elimination of many VOR’s, the service volume is planned to be extended from the current 40 NM at 5000 AGL to 70 NM. Expect this to occur sometime in the next year or two.

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  2. KDS on Jun 08, 2018

    John,

    Where can we find more information about the upcoming change in service volume?

    KDS

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  3. John D Collins on Jun 08, 2018

    I attended the ACF 1801 meeting. At that meeting, a MON update presentation was provided. The FAA had intended to increase the 5000 AGL service volume for VOR to 77 NM, but after flight testing found it was not workable. They lowered the goal to 70 NM and that seems to be the current direction. You should be able to get a copy of the MON presentation from the minutes of the meeting when they are published (not published as of this response) at https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/acf/

    I will email you a copy FYI.

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  4. KDS on Jun 08, 2018

    Thanks.

    Just to clarify, the VOR’s are still putting out the same power signal as before, but it’s just that the capability is being more finely tuned. No doubt an effort brought about by the desire to reduce the number of VORs as GPS becomes more the norm.

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