Curious if anyone still uses VORs or NDBs to navigate flying VFR.

Ain't skeered. I use everything I have available to back up my Mark I Eyeballs. All 3.

What about a bubble sextant and HO 249 ?

Hahahahahahahahaha! Yeah right.

I turn on the ADF, and tune in a VOR every now and then, just out of curiosity to see if the radios in my panel still work. I also sit on my back patio at night with my sextant and the star chart app on my ipad to see if my brain still works.

Same results with both activities. The lights glow, but not much good for anything else.

Gump

8GCBC wrote:What about a bubble sextant and HO 249 ?

Aviator's octant!

I use the ADF to get Rush and Hannity more than I use it for Nav.

What's an ADF?

I use a VOR ...Big Lake Ak.....for instance.....as a....way point in foreflight...
Mark M.

N300RE wrote:I use the ADF to get Rush and Hannity more than I use it for Nav.

"like"

ADF? You mean the airplane music box?

I use them in the soup. VFR I use eyeballs, sectionals and GPS.

CapnMike wrote:Ain't skeered. I use everything I have available to back up my Mark I Eyeballs. All 3.

Me too.

Cary

There should be a choice for 'None of the above'.

I get all the technology I can stand at work. My J3 has nothing, and my 180 has a couple of comms and a transponder. Not even a VOR receiver.

I find it incredibly relaxing and somewhat therapudic to fly with nothing but a sectional, compass, and a clock, even if I don't refer to any of them.

Isn't that what makes flying great?

+1 to Cannon's post.

The 1951 Super Cub has a ram's mount for a 196, but has not seen it for two years. Sectional, whiskey compass and wristwatch work fine - even when operating in complex airspace under TMAs.

It also builds your appreciation for good visibility, so my VMC limit has edged up where I like to have a solid five miles visibility.

I do have a comm and a transponder working off a motorbike battery, otherwise the a/c is no gyro, no electrics, no lights.

Opinion...

Technologies can become "A ball and chain". More money, more time and more maintenance.

Our senses are incredible, use them don't lose them. It is called VFR not GFR (Garmin Flight Rules).

This is my "five-pack" VFR "panel"...http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense

And what's a VOR??

I only learned a little bit about VOR navigation in ground school. But just enough to where it didn't sink into my brain. And my plane doesn't have VOR Nav and so VOR Nav was not part of my training. Until the day if my check ride. Luckily Dick Miller gave me a 15 minute time out to get with my flight instructor to learn about VOR Nav on my Garmin 396.

But yeah...... I use my Garmin 396 and a sectional to find my way around.

58Skylane wrote:And what's a VOR??

I only learned a little bit about VOR navigation in ground school. But just enough to where it didn't sink into my brain. And my plane doesn't have VOR Nav and so VOR Nav was not part of my training. Until the day if my check ride. Luckily Dick Miller gave me a 15 minute time out to get with my flight instructor to learn about VOR Nav on my Garmin 396.

But yeah...... I use my Garmin 396 and a sectional to find my way around.

I don't mean this as snarky at all, but relying solely on any GPS is not wise. The GPS system can be shut down or made unreliable too easily. I subscribe to an email service from the FAA, which regularly advises of GPS testing. Over the last couple of years there has been such testing throughout the southern part of the US, from Florida to southern California. The latest one dated September 30th advises about interference throughout the month of October, centered at Alamogordo extending as far as mid-Wyoming at 40,000' but even north of Colorado Springs at 10,000' MSL. Here's the attachment to the email: https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices ... visory.pdf

If you're good at pilotage, you're OK, but if you rely on the 396 and fly in the affected area, maybe not. Conversely, the VORs all work when GPS doesn't. I'm surprised that you would have comm-only radios.

Cary

The VOR's DON'T all work when the GPS doesn't. It's a fine system if you're at reception altitude and want to fly airways, but doesn't do you a lot of good flying canyons or out of range from the station. Same with the NDB system (if there is one any more).

When it's working, and for right now most times it is, GPS kicks ass on all the other systems out there for us GA flyers. Especially moving map GPS. I've yet to see a moving map VOR receiver in a panel.

That said, the OP stated for VFR flight. Every single pilot flying out there ought to be "good" at pilotage, and not need anything other than Mark I eyeballs, sectional, and compass for VFR flight. If you're not, you should be.

Do I use VOR, NDB, and GPS on most of my flights. Hell yeah, I'm lazy. IFR you got to. VFR I use my Garmin mostly for it's XM WX, showing me TFR's so I'm not getting in trouble by clipping an edge of someplace I don't need to be, and staying the hell out of airspace where I gotta talk on the radio. And for the XM radio to listen to the old radio shows.

And, if out in the boonies without phone or internet, I can pull up real time WX when it's time to go home.

Gump

Cary wrote:

58Skylane wrote:And what's a VOR??

I only learned a little bit about VOR navigation in ground school. But just enough to where it didn't sink into my brain. And my plane doesn't have VOR Nav and so VOR Nav was not part of my training. Until the day if my check ride. Luckily Dick Miller gave me a 15 minute time out to get with my flight instructor to learn about VOR Nav on my Garmin 396.

But yeah...... I use my Garmin 396 and a sectional to find my way around.

I don't mean this as snarky at all, but relying solely on any GPS is not wise. The GPS system can be shut down or made unreliable too easily. I subscribe to an email service from the FAA, which regularly advises of GPS testing. Over the last couple of years there has been such testing throughout the southern part of the US, from Florida to southern California. The latest one dated September 30th advises about interference throughout the month of October, centered at Alamogordo extending as far as mid-Wyoming at 40,000' but even north of Colorado Springs at 10,000' MSL. Here's the attachment to the email: https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices ... visory.pdf

If you're good at pilotage, you're OK, but if you rely on the 396 and fly in the affected area, maybe not. Conversely, the VORs all work when GPS doesn't. I'm surprised that you would have comm-only radios.

Cary

Good thing I included "sectional" in my last paragraph. (Don't mean to be snarky ). I do have a compass and two good eyes, too.

GumpAir wrote:The VOR's DON'T all work when the GPS doesn't. It's a fine system if you're at reception altitude and want to fly airways, but doesn't do you a lot of good flying canyons or out of range from the station. Same with the NDB system (if there is one any more).

When it's working, and for right now most times it is, GPS kicks ass on all the other systems out there for us GA flyers. Especially moving map GPS. I've yet to see a moving map VOR receiver in a panel.

That said, the OP stated for VFR flight. Every single pilot flying out there ought to be "good" at pilotage, and not need anything other than Mark I eyeballs, sectional, and compass for VFR flight. If you're not, you should be.

Do I use VOR, NDB, and GPS on most of my flights. Hell yeah, I'm lazy. IFR you got to. VFR I use my Garmin mostly for it's XM WX, showing me TFR's so I'm not getting in trouble by clipping an edge of someplace I don't need to be, and staying the hell out of airspace where I gotta talk on the radio. And for the XM radio to listen to the old radio shows.

And, if out in the boonies without phone or internet, I can pull up real time WX when it's time to go home.

Gump

Latest TFR's?? Don't you call Flight Service for the latest TFR's, Wx and file a Flight Plan??

Latest TFR's?? Don't you call Flight Service for the latest TFR's, Wx and file a Flight Plan??

Yeah right, the pilot lounge at Smith Creek dry lakebed has a phone and nice computer for us to use when camped out there.

Gump