Navigation & Flight Planning

Introduction:

  • Various types of air navigation aids are in use today, each serving a special purpose
    • Be aware of the possibility of momentary erroneous indications on cockpit displays when the primary signal generators for a ground-based navigational transmitter is inoperative
    • Disregard any navigation indication, regardless of its apparent validity, if the particular transmitter was identified by NOTAM or otherwise as unusable or inoperative
  • These aids have varied owners and operators, namely: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the military services, private organizations, individual states and foreign governments
  • The FAA has the statutory authority to establish, operate, maintain air navigation facilities and to prescribe standards for the operation of any of these aids which are used for instrument flight in federally controlled airspace
  • These aids are tabulated in the Chart Supplement U.S.

Radio Aids to Navigation:

  • On VFR Charts, information about radio aids to navigation (NAVAID) is boxed, as illustrated
  • When two or more radio aids in a general area have the same name with different frequencies, Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) channel numbers, or identification letters, and no misinterpretation can result, the name of the radio aid may be indicated only once within the identification box
  • Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency (VHF/UHF) Navigation Aid (NAVAID) names and identification boxes (shown in blue) take precedence
  • Only those items that differ (e.g., frequency, Morse Code) are repeated in the box in the appropriate color
  • The choice of separate or combined boxes is made in each case on the basis of economy of space and clear identification of the radio aids
  • A NAVAID that is physically located on an airport may not always be represented as a typical NAVAID symbol
  • A small open circle indicates the NAVAID location when collocated with an airport icon
  • The type of NAVAID will be identified by: "VOR," (VHF Omni-Directional Range) "VORTAC" (VOR Tactical Aircraft Control) or "VORDME," (VOR-Distance Measuring Equipment) positioned on and breaking the top line of the NAVAID box

Flight Plans:

IFR Alternate Airports:

  • IFR alternate airport data is published in the U.S. Chart Supplement

Conclusion:


References: