If a particular VOR is NOTAM'ed out of service, is there some place you can go to see what they are doing to the VOR, and what repairs they intend to perform? I am curious about one in my area that is NOTAMed out of service for a month and whether they intend to fix some of the failed radials while its down.
VOR repairs
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RussR
En-Route
Not that I'm aware of.
Radials don't "fail" really. I mean electronically they are still transmitting. It's just that interference from things like buildings and mountains causes them to be unusable. So whatever they're doing to it probably won't correct any unusable radials.
Radials don't "fail" really. I mean electronically they are still transmitting. It's just that interference from things like buildings and mountains causes them to be unusable. So whatever they're doing to it probably won't correct any unusable radials.
Grr. Ok, thanks for your input. The radials on these that are not working define a couple of airways. The en route low chart has them marked as unusable. (it's OOM, for what it worth.) So, I would think they would want to correct that if they can.
MichiPilot
Pre-takeoff checklist
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MichiPilot
The thing you should google is whether the VOR your asking about is part of the VOR minimum operational network (MON) which are the few VORs the FAA intend to maintain after nextgen becomes complete. If the VOR has been out for a while, it likely is scheduled to be fully decommissioned in phase 1 or 2 of the VOR MON program.
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Bob Gardner
Michipilot has the best answer, but my guess is that the questionable radials flunked an FAA flight test. If that VOR is on the hit list it will never be fixed.
Bob
Thanks, guys. Found the list here: https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...ration-air-transportation-system-nextgen#p-27
Looks like it won't be repaired. Assuming that's true, I am curious why they felt the need to issue a NOTAM advising that it has been decommissioned it for a month, rather than permanently.
Looks like it won't be repaired. Assuming that's true, I am curious why they felt the need to issue a NOTAM advising that it has been decommissioned it for a month, rather than permanently.
RussR
En-Route
It's not scheduled for decommissioning until between 2021 and 2025. So it may be repaired for the immediate reason that it's down now, whatever that may be, hence the temporary outage NOTAM.
Or it may not be fixed at all, but think about the generic process for any NOTAM. The monitoring agency sees it's not working right for some reason, but they don't immediately know why or what it will take to fix it. Could be a popped circuit breaker
or it could have been run over by a tank. No idea at this point, they just know it's not working. So they have a NOTAM sent out immediately for a month, during which time technicians are evaluating the fix action. At the end of the month they should have a better idea of whether it's worth fixing or not.kkoran
Pattern Altitude
Based on the Federal Register posting, it doesn't appear that the final decision has been made, so they can't NOTAM it decommissioned.
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Bob Gardner
It seems that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how a VOR works. There is not a magic machine in a building that transmits 360 individual radials, any one of which is subject to failure..there is a continuously rotating electromagnetic field and a fixed field oriented to magnetic north...the receiver in your panel receives both signals and measures the phase difference between them; the result is displayed as a magnetic direction from the VOR. Many things can disrupt a VOR signal...buildings, trees, etc, and if an FAA flight test aircraft experiences a wonky signal (and their equipment is far more sophisticated than what we have in our panels) they NOTAM that radial(s) as unusable until the techs can visit the site and determine the problem.
Bob
No doubt that's true.
Palmpilot
Touchdown! Greaser!
The attached document may be the current flight inspection report for the VOR. Most of it is pretty indecipherable to me, but the Restrictions section is clear enough. I found it via the second link on this Web page:
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/avn/flightinspection/onlineinformation/
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/avn/flightinspection/onlineinformation/