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ASI News

Dying art

Don’t skip the fundamentals

By Alicia Herron

Every year, advancements in technology make flight planning easier and more efficient. Our electronic flight bags can plan and file for us, tell us when to start our descent, and even write a flight to our electronic logbooks. Our glass cockpits bring up frequencies, runways, and crosswinds in organized, easy-to-read boxes. But if your EFB failed, are you sure you could read your backup paper chart? If your GPS failed, could you navigate with a VOR and dead reckoning?

By the time you start preparing for your first solo cross-country, you’ll already know the fundamentals of navigation. You will know the practice areas like the back of your hand, and if you have a GPS on board, you will likely already know its basic functions. An aid to navigation you might be less familiar with, however, is the VOR.

In this day and age, learning about VOR navigation and tracking may feel like being forced into mathematical computations on an abacus. But the ground-based very high frequency omnidirectional ranges, while less relevant than before, aren’t dead yet.

There are many reasons why learning VOR navigation is essential to flight training—here are just a few:

Learning to fly by VOR develops and improves single-pilot resource management. Onboard GPSs are more complicated than, say, Google Maps, but the process of entering waypoints and following a line are similarly intuitive. Tuning and identifying a VOR—and verifying that you aren’t getting reverse sensing—is a multistep process that takes practice to perfect. You’ll learn to multitask and will better stay ahead of the airplane with VOR navigation practice.

If you ever want to proceed to IFR training, understanding VOR navigation is a critical precursor to instrument flight. Knowledge of intercept angles, wind correction, and VOR sensitivity will prepare you for instrument approaches in the future.

It is unlikely that your EFB or GPS will fail you, but you will need to be prepared in case the moment comes. And although the virtues of the VOR may not be initially apparent, learning how to navigate via radials will make you a better, safer, and more prepared pilot.

Test your chart knowledge with this VFR Sectional quiz (airsafetyinstitute.org/quiz/vfrsectional).

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School News

‘Born to be a pilot’

California university awards a life-changing scholarship

By David Tulis

Kimberly Rodriguez Gaona worked the past three summers to help her mom make ends meet while dreaming of an aviation career she could not afford. Now, the Bakersfield, California, high school student is able to pursue her professional goals after all.

California Aeronautical University awarded the $151,650 Dreams Take Flight Scholarship to Gaona, who wrote on her application that she “was born to become a pilot.” The scholarship covers tuition, fees, and minimum flight hours in an “effort to help the next generation start successful careers” as professional aviators.

Rodriguez Gaona’s maturity and her interest in aviation allowed her to hold a key position managing a full-motion flight simulator for her school’s aviation class and the drone club. The extra responsibilities allowed her to log about 30 hours in the simulator, and she has also learned how to build, repair, and fly drones. Although her eyes were on an aviation career, the cost has been a stumbling block for Rodriguez Gaona and her mother because “our family can’t afford it,” she said. The financial reality led her mom to steer Rodriguez Gaona toward other careers, but she could not extinguish her passion for aviation.

On June 18, Rodriguez Gaona thought she was going to the college campus for an aviation meeting, but she was instead surprised by a shower of confetti during an announcement ceremony for the full-ride scholarship. She wiped her eyes and shared a hug with CAU President Matt Johnston. “We are happy to have you,” Johnston said before citing the teenager’s “grit and tenacity” and her big dreams.

calaero.edu

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