VOR's going away?

[LifeofReiley]

I've heard many conversations about the FAA shutting down VOR's at many airports and the surrounding locals. Is this a new and coming thing? Will they disappear? Updated read about GPS below...

[Scott Will]

Being in the airline dispatch business, I to this date haven't heard of a wide scale effort to decommission VORs. However many NDBs are being decommissioned in the US, especially those used for markers on the ILS. You'll still see many NDB's in South America and Europe/Asia (mainly Russia) as primary navigation facilities. One NDB here in the US that we use a lot is Dixon near Wilminton, NC. You'll see lots of airplanes headed to Florida over this fix.

Even if VORs started to disappear I don't think you'll see ILS going away anytime soon. So then you'll still need a VOR (LOC/GS) receiver for that.

[LifeofReiley]

Originally Posted by Scott Will

Being in the airline dispatch business, I to this date haven't heard of a wide scale effort to decommission VORs. However many NDBs are being decommissioned in the US, especially those used for markers on the ILS. You'll still see many NDB's in South America and Europe/Asia (mainly Russia) as primary navigation facilities. One NDB here in the US that we use a lot is Dixon near Wilminton, NC. You'll see lots of airplanes headed to Florida over this fix.

Even if VORs started to disappear I don't think you'll see ILS going away anytime soon. So then you'll still need a VOR (LOC/GS) receiver for that.

Scott,

What about the GPS satelites going far past there life expectancy without replacement? Any knowledge on this?

[LifeofReiley]

Read this... this may be another concern...

<snip>

GPS satellites were designed for a 6 year life (72 months)
http://www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru/pls/h...7161915674::NO
GPS units are designed for single frequency, which was a big mistake.
Notice the IIR-M satellites. When they get enough -M up there, you will
need a new GPS receiver with both frequencies (twin receiver). That will
cut the error due to ionosphere effects. Personally, I wouldn't go cutting
a hole in my panel for that old obsolete handheld GPS.

<snip>



What do you think?

[Baja_Traveler]

I wonder if stuff like This will take down the whole GPS system when we least expect it - and come to depend on it most.

[Scott Will]

GLONASS is the Russian counterpart to GPS. GPS isn't going away anytime soon. I believe (personal opinion) that the people who put that comment out want to you use their system. There's plenty of satellites up there more than the 24 you hear about. I think they guarantee you'll have 24 operational at any one time.

From Wiki:
GPS: The United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), which as of 2007 is the only fully functional satellite navigation system and is the most utlized satellite navigation system. It consists of up to 32 operational satellites that orbit in six different planes. The exact number of satellites varies as satellites are replenished when older ones are retired. They orbit at an altitude of approximately 20,000 km with an inclination of 55 degrees. The satellites are tracked by a world-wide network of monitor stations. The tracking data is sent to a master control station that continuously updates position and clock estimates for each satellite. The updated data is then uplinked to the satellite via one of several ground antennas.

And here's the blurb about modernizing GPS. Perhaps the -M you were referring to was for military operations?
Having reached Fully Operational Capability on July 17, 1995,[21] the GPS completed its original design goals. However, additional advances in technology and new demands on the existing system led to the effort to "modernize" the GPS system. Announcements from the Vice Presidential and the White House in 1998 heralded the beginning of these changes and in 2000, the U.S. Congress reaffirmed the effort; referred to it as GPS III.

The project aims to improve the accuracy and availability for all users and involves new ground stations, new satellites, and four additional navigation signals. New civilian signals are called L2C, L5 and L1C; the new military code is called M-Code. A goal of 2013 has been established with incentives offered to the contractors if they can complete it by 2011.


GLONASS: The formerly Soviet, and now Russian, global navigation system is called GLONASS. It was a fully functional navigation constellation but since the collapse of the Soviet Union has fallen into disrepair and is only partial operational. It is expected to become fully operational by 2010 with the help of India, who is participating in the restoration project.[2][3]

[gmcjetpilot]

The (H) VOR's, VORTAC's for airways will be around for a long time to come. VOR's you may be hearing about are likely (T) or (L) VOR's that do not have "airway functions". Remember there are a lot of older jets, DC8's, DC9's older 737's and many business jets and turboprops bombing around the sky domestically with with just VOR's and DME's, not to mention some older military planes.

If you fly IFR, you file and fly airways for the most part, which of course are all based on VOR's.

The dream of tomorrow is Free Flight = Fly, autonomously (direct) at the altitude, time and airspeed you want with out talking to ATC, including taxi. Key word is talking. No doubt the NAV of choice of the future will be GPS based and not VOR based. Still VOR's will likely be here for a long time to come. Basically envision Free Flight as computers talking direct to each other direct, verses people talking on radios and reading and copying clearances and commands. Plane to plane and plane to ground computer coordination will handle the traffic. People will be there to monitor and may be vote on the command. Scary. The old joke is the future plane will have one pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to feed the dog; the dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything.


(H)=high altitude, (L)=low altitude, (T)=terminal. This refers to the service volume of the VOR.