bearing from or bearing to

[saviboy]

What is the right terminology/ phraseology?
bearing form or bearing to when using NDB

 

[minitour]

Well...the bearings go from the NDB...but you can intercept a bearing and track it TO the NDB too...


-mini

 

[MauleSkinner]

from the Pilot/Controller glossary...

Nondirectional Beacon - An L/MF or UHF radio beacon transmitting nondirectional signals whereby the pilot of an aircraft equipped with direction finding equipment can determine his bearing to or from the radio beacon and "home" on or track to or from the station. When the radio beacon is installed in conjunction with the Instrument Landing System marker, it is normally called a Compass Locator.

 

[saviboy]

from the Pilot/Controller glossary...

That is what I had read too. But I always heard Bearing To and since the needle always points TO the station it made perfect sense to me.

Has anybody been given a NDB bearing interception intsruction by ATC?
If yes what terminology did they use?

 

[Donsa320]

Well...the bearings go from the NDB...but you can intercept a bearing and track it TO the NDB too...


-mini

No, I'm afraid that bearings on the ADF are "To" in general use.
I just dug out a Radio Facilities chart for Europe for 1959 when all their airways were Low Frequency Airways. All bearings describing the routes were "To" the appropriate facility just as I recalled they were in the USA. Also all the Low Frequency Range legs were shown with "To" bearings on the legs.
I then pulled out a very recent Pacific (Japan) Jepp chart and found a few intersections on VOR airways which were defined by bearings "To" the appropriate Rbn. Of course they were all non-compulsory intersections since an ADF receiver is not required on the VOR airways. There used to be a few of those ADF bearing intersections around the US but I've not seen any lately.

We found it best to refer to ADF bearings as "To" and VOR Radials as radiating out "From" to avoid confusion, having grown up with both.

Best
DC

 

[MauleSkinner]

That is what I had read too. But I always heard Bearing To and since the needle always points TO the station it made perfect sense to me.

Has anybody been given a NDB bearing interception intsruction by ATC?
If yes what terminology did they use?

That's what I was taught, too, but I tend to believe what I see in print moreso than what some instructor somewhere "knew" to be true...even if it WAS my Dad that taught me that.

Fly safe!

David

 

[nosehair]

What is the right terminology/ phraseology?
bearing form or bearing to when using NDB

Sounds like you are trying to relate the "to/from" ambiguity of the VOR to ADF. That doesn't exist. When talking about "bearings", it can be either "to" if the intended action is to intercept and track "to" the station, or "from" if the intended action is to intercept and track "from" the station to another point. The terminology would be self-explanatory.
Unlike the VOR, where all references are "radials from", and we have to know that the reciprocal number is "to" the station, the ADF references are "bearing to", or "bearing from". Simple.
Of course this is more confusing to the student, because most students learn VOR orientation first, so they are trying to read some ambiguity into the term "bearing", but if ADF were the first nav aid we learned, "bearing to", and "bearing from" would be self-explanatory.
​

 

[Donsa320]

That is what I had read too. But I always heard Bearing To and since the needle always points TO the station it made perfect sense to me.

Has anybody been given a NDB bearing interception intsruction by ATC?
If yes what terminology did they use?

Yep, be VERY careful when ATC gives you a clearance involving an ADF. They will many times refer to bearings "from" a Rbn, so be sure you know what they mean. I've noticed that mostly in holding instructions on a Rbn. IE; hold East on the 090 bearing, Arg!. <grin>

DC

 

[say again]

Thank god for FMS!!!!!:beer:

 

[MauleSkinner]

Thank god for FMS!!!!!:beer:

So...you're flying your FMS, and you're issued a hold "east of the NDB on the 090 bearing"..now what?

You've still got to set up your FMS hold on the proper "bearing".