Vor Intercepts

[veneratio]

I just started part time flight instructing after a yr absence and I forgot the formulas and tips/tricks to teach intercepts, particularly intercepts with large intercept angles....

Suppose I am on the 160R (south) of a station at about 10 to 15 NM. And I get instructions to intercept the (050 Radial From). Is 90 the maxiumum intercept angle that I can use. I dont have an HSI or an OBS handy and was looking for a good formula to calculate the heading to fly to intercept the radial.

Thanks.

 

[great cornholio]

I'm not sure what formula you are talking about (I've been out of the CFI world for over 3 years now). But I'm not really sure what you are asking. If ATC wants you to intercept the 050R then they will give you a heading to fly. If you are on an airway and it turned at the VOR so you are on the 160R and now you hit the VOR and the airway is now the 050R then there would be 2 things you could do. One would be to fly over the VOR which would make you overshoot the outbound radial, but you would turn to a heading of 080 or so to get a good intercept angle on the outbound 050R. I don't really like to use more than 30 or 45 degress in order to intercept because then the course becomes alive too fast and you might shoot thru it again. The second way to do this would be to lead the turn by a little bit if you have DME. The lead could be 0.5 to a few miles depending on your ground speed. In this case you usually end up closer to the outbound radial when you roll out of the turn compared to the first way. Anyways hope that helps. If that wasn't the question you asked then sorry if I missed it, but thats all I can think of.

 

[satpak77]

I just started part time flight instructing after a yr absence and I forgot the formulas and tips/tricks to teach intercepts, particularly intercepts with large intercept angles....

Suppose I am on the 160R (south) of a station at about 10 to 15 NM. And I get instructions to intercept the (050 Radial From). Is 90 the maxiumum intercept angle that I can use. I dont have an HSI or an OBS handy and was looking for a good formula to calculate the heading to fly to intercept the radial.

Thanks.

don't make this hard, its not. First all radials are FROM, you don't need to emphasize that. If you are told to intercept the XYZ radial off Maverick, then you intercept it, period. Radials physcially in space are broadcast FROM the VOR antenna, period.

No magic formulas I have heard of (thats just my West Texas education, I am not a Riddle grad), when told to intercept a radial, just do it and be done with it.

 

[twighead]

I just started part time flight instructing after a yr absence and I forgot the formulas and tips/tricks to teach intercepts, particularly intercepts with large intercept angles....

Suppose I am on the 160R (south) of a station at about 10 to 15 NM. And I get instructions to intercept the (050 Radial From). Is 90 the maxiumum intercept angle that I can use. I dont have an HSI or an OBS handy and was looking for a good formula to calculate the heading to fly to intercept the radial.

Thanks.

it's in the instrument flyng handbook. the intercept angle should be half of the amount of degrees difference in the course change. minimum is 30 (or was it 20?) degrees and max is 90. in your exapmle 160-50=110/2=55 degree intercept. of course no one actually does this in real life, but it is what you are supposed to teach.

 

[falcon20driver]

Come on man, that's simple basic algebra, just turn north.

 

[GravityHater]

Autopilot: Hdg mode, bug centered.
Nav1: dial in fqy (identify, if not feeling lazy)
OBS: turn to 050
Autopilot: Arm Nav1 mode
sit back and verify between, reads of USAToday.