Aviation Theory

INTRODUCTION

Since most of the flying we are concerned with using SB/PC is IFR, we will be looking at navigation mainly from that standpoint. Although it is possible to fly cross country without the aid of any navigation other than ATC radar vectors, learning navigation will do a couple of things for you. First, it will make the controllers VERY happy when they clear you "...direct XYZ VOR" and you do it! Second, it will allow you to find your way around the skies by a variety of navaids and open up a whole new world of simulator flying.

LESSONS

In the following lessons, we will cover Radar, VOR/VORTAC, DME, ADF/NDB and ILS navigation. We will discuss both enroute navigation and approaches using each navaid. There are three other types of radio navigation that are not usable in simulation (at this time) and these will not be covered. They are RNAV, MLS, and LORAN.

The goal of these lessons will be to familiarize you with the navaids and how to use them for tracking to for from a ground station. A thorough understanding of the lessons in this section will help you greatly in later lessons when we will be considering more advanced procedures such as SIDs, STARs, holding patterns, and instrument approaches.