- Pilotage is flying by reference to landmarks.
- Sectional charts provide the largest scale and most detailed representation of visual landmarks for most cross-country flights.
- The best checkpoints are those that cannot be mistaken for any other nearby features.
- Select checkpoints that present a number of features to create a unique combination or a distinctive pattern.
- Highlighting your course line on the chart will make it easier to follow.
- Maintaining a constant awareness of your position will reduce your chance of becoming lost.
- Pure dead reckoning is navigating by time, speed, distance, and direction calculations, without reference to visual landmarks.
- A navigation plotter combines protractor, straightedge, and distance scales for various charts.
- Navigation logs help keep track of headings, times, distances, and fuel consumption during dead reckoning flights.
- The true course must be corrected for magnetic variation, wind drift, and compass deviation to arrive at the compass heading.
- The VFR cruising altitude rule dictates cruising altitudes above 3,000 ft. AGL.
- Required VFR fuel reserves are 30 minutes for daytime flights and 45 minutes for night flights.
- A VFR flight plan is a request that a search be started if your flight does not arrive at your stated destination.
- If you become lost, climb, communicate, confess, comply, and conserve.
- VORs only provide course guidance while VOR/DMEs and VORTACs also provide distance information.
- There are three classes of VORs with different coverage areas - terminal, low altitude, and high altitude.
- VOR radials and courses derived from radials are oriented to magnetic north and are depicted on most aeronautical charts using compass roses.
- Before using a VOR for navigation, always identify the station using the Morse code or voice identifier.
- To determine your location after tuning and identifying a VOR station, turn the course selector or OBS knob until the CDI needle centers with a FROM indication and read the radial next to course index. To determine your course to a VOR station, turn the course selector or OBS knob until the CDI needle centers with a TO indication, and read the magnetic course on the course index.
- The indications of a VOR receiver are not directly affected by aircraft heading. To avoid reverse sensing, always set the VOR indicator to generally agree with your intended course.
- Tracking involves flying a desired course to or from a station using a sufficient wind correction, if necessary.
- Bracketing is the process of determining and applying a wind correction which keeps you on course with the CDI needle centered.
- You can determine your position by cross checking between two VORs.
- You can check your VOR receiver accuracy using ground and airborne checkpoints, or by using a VOT.
- An HSI is a VOR indicator combined with a heading indicator.
- DME automatically displays your slant range distance to a suitable equipped VOR ground station. Slant range error is greatest when your aircraft is directly over the transmitting station.
- An ADF receives low and medium frequency transmitting stations, including NDBs (190-535 kHz) and AM broadcast stations (535-1605 kHz).
- An ADF utilizes a directional antenna and a sense antenna, which are often combined into a single antenna mounted on the bottom of the fuselage.
- The head of the ADF indicator needle points to the station relative to the nose of the airplane.
- A fixed-card ADF indicator always displays 0 degrees at the top of the azimuth card and the needle points to the relative bearing to the station.
- When you set your magnetic heading value under the top index of a movable-card indicator, the head of the ADF needle directly indicates magnetic bearing to the station.
- Magnetic heading plus relative bearing equals magnetic bearing to the station. (MH + RB = MB)
- To fly to an NDB using the homing procedure simply turn toward the ADF needle, then keep the head of the ADF needle directly indicates magnetic bearing to the station.
- A radio magnetic indicator (RMI) combines a heading indicator with two bearing needles which normally provide VOR and ADF indications.
- The low and medium frequency radio waves used by ADF can be adversely affected by a number of factors including the ionosphere, mountains, and shorelines.
- Area navigation equipment is designed to allow you to fly any desired course within the coverage of a navaid's signals or within the limits of a self-contained system.
- VORTAC-based area navigation systems allow you to create waypoints at any location within the reception range of the VORTAC or VOR/DME station.
- The long range navigation (LORAN) computer determines your location by measuring the time difference between the reception of a master station's signal and that of two secondary stations. The intersection of the two associated LOPs mark your position.
- An inertial navigation system (INS) computer uses initial data and information it receives from accelerometers to calculate aircraft attitude, velocity, and heading.
- The global positioning system consists of space, control, and user segments.
- Signals collected by GPS receiver from three satellites can produce a two-dimensional position. When a fourth satellite is added, a three-dimensional fix can be determined.
- Even with inherent errors, GPS can accurately calculate your true horizontal position to within 100 meters 95 percent of the time and within 300 meters 99 percent of the time.