Aviation Theory

The study of navaids is thought by some to be boring. It can be rather fascinating though. A good foundation in the workings of navaids will serve you well in future lessons. Therefore, I encourage you to spend the time necessary to understand this series of lessons.

The following excerpt is contained in Chapter 1. NAVIGATION AIDS, Section 1. AIR NAVIGATION RADIO AIDS, of the Aeronautical Information Manual.

1-1-1. GENERAL

Various types of air navigation aids are in use today, each serving a special purpose. 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 Airport/Facilities Directory (A/FD).

Navigation's prominent position in the manual is significant. In today's complicated, busy world of air travel, it is virtually impossible to operate without a thorough understanding of the different types of navaids and their use.  The following sections will cover each type of navaid in common usage and discuss their proper use, limitations, and application to the aviation world. In later sessions, the techniques of how to use the various types navaids will be covered in detail.

The lessons here will cover NDBs, VORs and VORTACs, DME, Marker Beacons, ILS, and GPS.  There are other types of navigation, such as LORAN and Omega, but, since those are not implemented in Microsoft Flight Simulator, they are beyond the scope of these lessons.