Flying Victor airways

[matthewlai]

I'm a PPL student that just started flying cross country. I have always been wondering if there are advantages to flying on victor airways?

So far I usually just plan GPS direct (noting terrain clearance and airspaces of course) between airports, and picking visual checkpoints along the route.

Should I be flying on victor airways instead?

Thanks

[n5296s]

It's worth doing a few times to get the experience of using VORs - not that THEY are really of much practical use these days, but it's as well to know how to do it. But for practical purposes, Victor airways have gone the way of the four-way range. For VFR flight they serve no purpose at all. For IFR flight they're needed for planning purposes, and in terminal areas you'll get routings based on them in and out of the terminal area. Everything else is done direct these days.

My 2c...

[Mark 1]

There's no real need. The victor routes are just a "join the dots" path between VORs. So they do give you a fall-back for the GPS and the radials required are handily printed on the charts. They also usually keep you out of restricted areas and MOAs and make filling in a flight plan straightforward.

On the other hand, traffic densities are likely to be higher, especially when close to the beacons.

Getting flight-following advisories is a better safety provision irrespective of whether you fly GPS direct or Victor. It's free and there for your benefit.

[matthewlai]

Ah I see! I didn't know victor airways just connect VORs. I thought they have some special meaning.

I guess there's not much point for me to fly them since the planes I fly don't have VOR receivers (Citabrias; my club's do have IFR GPS, though, which is really nice, even though they are probably as un-IFR-certified as airplanes get).

If the GPS fails, I will probably just use my smartphone GPS and one of those geo-referenced chart apps. Or ask TRACON for help.

Definitely flight following. I use them whenever I go further than about 20nm.

[n5296s]

If your GPS fails, you just look out of the window. There's a pretty good view, and if you keep the sectional around you can track where you are. The old way of doing things is to draw lines on the chart and know the headings to fly as well. This works pretty well though we all tend to get lazy with GPS. You'll need to be able to do this to pass the checkride anyway.

Victor airways are (in theory) more than just joining the VOR dots, they are also used for flight planning (but once airborne you request, and generally get, direct to somewhere close to the destination). And in theory you shouldn't find anyone doing aerobatics in one.

[Ballywalter Flyer]

It would appear that you are more than spoilt over there in the USA.

UK PPL training dictates that for training. Map, Watch, Compass, and MkI Eyeball are all that is needed to get from point A to point B, no matter how far the distance.

GPS is most definately not allowed.

Should something happen to where you have no use of VOR or GPS, you will only have the 4 things listed above.

[n5296s]

The same is true in the US, for the PPL. You have to produce a flight plan with times per segment, fuel, heading, etc. And you even have to fly the first 10 minutes or so of it.

It IS something you need to know how to do. Not that you'll ever do it again after the PPL, but it's the basis of all flight planning. In real life, you use DUATS/whatever to do the hard work at the planning stage.

The skill you absolutely do need is pilotage, i.e. the ability to folow where you are on a chart. It's an extremely bad idea to be dependent on the GPS to the point where if it failed, you'd have no idea where you were. As long as you know where you are ("situational awareness") and can read the chart, you'll be OK.

[matthewlai]

We have to do pilotage (flying by landmarks), too, and I can certainly fly without GPS.

But we also need to learn radio nav, and as it happens, the only radio nav equipment I have access to is GPS.

[lenhamlad]

It IS something you need to know how to do. Not that you'll ever do it again after the PPL

Why not? I have learned the skills of flying and navigation to be able to put them into practice after I have the licence in my pocket. I want to build up confidence in my abilities.

[rgsaero]

Lenhamlad........

Quite right!

You know that old adage - "Jamais deux sans trois" - you never have two bad things happen, they always come in threes?

Well, it's entirely possible for the a/c electrics to fail (thus no avionics feed / NDB / VOR display) and just when you're working that out the "network" fails so you have no 'phone and at the same time there's a solar storm and the GPS' are interrupted. (Sh+t CAN happen)!

So as an occasional test of your AIRMANSHIP, it's great to turn them all off and do it by DR (dead reckoning) and with map compass etc. It's challenging and actually good fun and satisfying!