Is there any difference between identifying a VRP and identifying any other feature on the ground?
Before the stop-watch indicates that you should be arriving (at least 4-5 minutes before you are due to arrive, but ideally before you even get in the aeroplane before flight), identify nearby features which will uniquely identify the location. Nearby towns, high ground, roads, railway lines - anything which is shown on the chart. The key is to find things which are
unique - having a road to the south of a town is no use if there are three other towns nearby with a road to the south. Having a railway line crossing the road to the south of the town is more likely to be a unique feature.
2-3 minutes before arriving overhead your VRP (so that it is still definitely in front of you), start looking on the ground for those features you have already identified. Find the biggest features first, then work your way to the smallest features. You need 3 unique features to be sure of having found the correct place.
I think what is confusing you is a couple of things. First of all, when you've done navigation exercises, you've deliberately picked as turning points the features which you think will be easy to spot - the large towns, for example - whereas VRPs are often not the easiest features to spot. In that case, find the nearby easy feature, then work your way from there to the VRP. For example, it's a disused airfield (sometimes very easy to spot, but more often incredibly difficult) - so find the nearby town, then look 2-3 miles south-east of the town for something which looks like a disused airfield. If you really can't see it, then as a last resort call "In the vicinity of <VRP>" when you are 2-3 miles south-east of the town - or alternatively, just call overhead the town which is near the VRP instead.
The other thing which I think might be confusing you is that the locals will know exactly where the VRP is, and will be able to pick it out from 50 miles away when the viz is only 10 miles. Sorry, but there's no way around this except to use the airfield in question often enough to become one of the locals.
That's my "official" answer, but as a responsible pilot, if you're lucky enough to be able to source a good photo of a VRP before you set out from home, then by all means do so, because it certainly won't do you any harm. From experience, I would say that having seen a photo of a site is rarely any help in finding the site, but once you've found it a good photo is excellent for confirming it's the correct place.
As VRP's are things we are advised to avoid flying over
And if ATC ask you to report overhead, or route via, a VRP...??? (Sorry - couldn't resist!)
FFF
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