Ancient navaids cross the American landscape.

I've never spotted an arrow, but there is an old lighted beacon atop Mt. Diablo, some 10 miles east of Oakland, the western terminus of the transcontinental air mail route.
 
Every three miles, eh? Hmmm... could it be why we have three miles visibility limits under VFR? I wonder... :dunno:

dtuuri
 
How about painting the tops of water towers with the name of an airport and an arrow pointing in the right direction? I know of a couple of those in my area.
 
This is an old subject. Went around last year. A buddy sent me photos of a couple arrows he found out west. Ya gotta be damn low to see them. Those boys were some tough nuts!
 
Norman said:
How about painting the tops of water towers with the name of an airport and an arrow pointing in the right direction? I know of a couple of those in my area.
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Pointing in the right direction to where?

Makes me think of the scarecrow in Oz giving directions and pointing everywhere! :goofy:
 
I'm dating myself, but I remember when almost every town had their name painted on the roof of some building so planes could identify where they were. Doing a cross country via dead reckoning was much easier in those days. :)
 
Old Geek said:
And in another 10 years the VOR bowling pins will all be gone.
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No. It takes the FAA 20 years to blow its nose. Nothing will be done in 10 that isn't already underway. Most VORs are not currently planned for decommissioning, and the FAA isn't so stupid as to consider that until something else comes around different from GPS.
 
Shawn said:
No...in another 10 years VOR bowling pins will probably be USELESS...but still maintained by the FAA for 20!
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How would they be useless? It took over 50 years and multiple revolutions of better technology (VORs, LORAN, GPS) for that to happen for NDBs. The thing that made them "useless" was the decommissioning of most of them in the Lower 48. Many aircraft are still equipped with ADF.

VOR receivers are present in almost all aircraft now, and the turnover rate for aircraft is a whole helluva lot longer than 10 years. Heck, it's hard to find a rental that's LESS than 10 years old. Or 20 or even 30. They won't become useless unless turned off. And that's not going to happen without something new. GPS is too vulnerable to be the exclusive navigation method.

LORAN might have done away with VORs, but the USCG made the choice for us.
 
How much power do these arrows require?:goofy:Gotta be cheaper to power than all those VORs!
 
MAKG1 said:
Well, it isn't zero, as they had lighted beacons alongside.

But I'll bet the VORs work a whole lot better in IMC.
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They often had more than lighted beacons alongside. After a few years the routes they defined also had radio ranges, which worked pretty well in IMC.

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