Radial / distance calculator

Mar 30, 2006 14 Replies

I just found a program on the FAA web site that converts Lat/Long info into radials and distance. Haven't played wit it yet, or figured out how to use it, but it should be handy both for filing waivers, and for doing GPS related math.



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Now, can any one remind me where I found that list of lat/long for all the VORs across the country? Now that I've got something to use the data in, I can't seem to find it :-(


Are you referring to

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?

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seems to work but you'll need to query for each navaid. I did a web search and found a few shareware flight planning programs that claim to have the data internally. Will

Bob Kaplow wrote: ...

Cool, something to play with Saturday morning!

I don't have a list, but here's how to find the lat./long. for a specific VOR: Go to:

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on "Navaids" Enter the three letter code for the VOR in the box next to "Enter the navaid identifier, name or frequency:"

-- Mark Recktenwald Stow, Ohio NAR #77432 L1, MTMA (#606) President MTMA web page:

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Interesting stuff, but not what I was looking for. It doesn't even have VORs as an option. And doesn't list that many of the airports.

That's not what I was looking for either, but it will give me the info I'm looking for. Thanks.

Of course I'm sure it would help if I knew what a "VOR" was...

VHF Omni Range. These days many of them are VORTAC or VORDME. A radio navigation beacon used by pilots. They mark the airways that planes fly. When FAA references locations, they give them as radials and distance from a VOR.

So if our club waiver states "Richmond VORTAC 012 degrees radial at 8 NM", could you tell me in laymen's terms what that means?

bruce: this means your launch site waiver is located at 012 degrees which is slightly NNW of the Richmond VOR and is located 8 Nautical Miles from this Richmond VOR. It can probably be said better. On our waiver it also states for 1 NM radius of this spot....

shockie B)

the degrees are a 360 degree circle where 0 is due north 90 is due east 180 is due south and 270 is due west....

O.K. then how is 012 degrees NNW???

I did find a good reference for understanding VOR's:

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NNE!

You need an FAA map to tell where things like VORs are, or use the URL someone posted in this thread a day or two ago:

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Bur from the Richmond VOR you go at 12 degrees (almost due north, just a tad towards the east 8 nautical miles to get to your launch site. BTW, VORs and airports are usually referenced by their 3 letter code. Richmond seems to be RIC.

When a NOTAM is issued for a rocket launch, be it LMR or HPR. you can find it posted at

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Search for your location (RIC, or for our NIRA launch this afternoon ORD), and you will find a bunch of lines. Search for the word ROCKET and you'll find something like

!ORD 03/179 ORD UNMANNED ROCKET 1NMR ORD239007.8/4.3 SSE 06C 4000/BLW WEF

0604011600-0604012300

ORD is the reference location.

03/179 is the identifier from the local Flight Service Station.

1NMR is 1 nautical mile radius around the point

ORD239007.8 means from the ORD VOR, we are on the 239 degree (SW) radial at

7.8 nautical miles

4.3 SSE 06C puts us 4.3 miles SSE of Schaumburg airport, a general avaition field

4000/BLW means that our operations are below 4000 feet above mean sea level We are jsut below 1000 MSL, so our flights are to 3000' Above Ground Level.

WEF 0604011600-0604012300 is the date and time. 2006 april 1 from 1600-2300Z (GMT) Pilots do all times in Zulu (GMT) time, which is 6 hours ahead of Central, 5 hours ahead as of tomorrow.

yes I meant NNE of course..sorry about that

shockie

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