Is this a radar installation?

That's a lot of airports to search for a better image:-

Give us a clue?

As long as GPS is available. Nice to have a back-up just in case.

I don't think VOR is going to disappear any time soon.

VORs are being phased out. The plan is to reduce the number from a peak of about 800 down to 500 by 2025.

Yes! GA. GPS and inertial navigation have made these radio beacon "lighthouse" systems obsolete but here obsolete means not dead, yet.

If I understand, it Sounds like an triangulation positioning,

Is this where the plane can ‘lock on’ to the signal on a7to pilot that would bring it to the airport?

Pretty much. All autopilots that I know of can be set to follow a VOR radial. But not necessarily direct to an airport. These devices have discrete names and frequencies and are all over the world. They equate to waypoints on the highways in the sky. The routes between VOR's also have discreet names so a pilot and ATC can precisely communicate locations even without radar.

The routes between airways were nicknamed Victor airways. I don't know if that's still the custom.

The reason what I ask, I was on the company plane, a twin engine.. just myself and the VP of product development, and part owner of the company. As well as the pilot and co-pilot.

we were traveling to another one of our facilities,… and the co-pilot was getting his hours in, and had control.and all of a sudden, the plane took a dive, the co-pilot froze the the pilot took control and after he did, he just cut into the co-pilot… saying you can’t relay on the plane to fly itself… you need to be alert and ready to take back control.

The pilot then mentioned that just the week before a plane crash because they lost the ‘beam’.

the VP and I looked at each other in shock.

after we landed, the VP mentioned to me, he talked to the pilot and he said that they lost the navigational beam, and that was the reason the plane took a drive.

he did say that they (the company) will upgrade the avionics.

then I did hear the explanation somewhat correctly…

I’m glad of our experience pilot that we always have. he belongs to a group or club, and brings along another person as a co-pilot to get their flying hours in. we always had to have (2) pilots for redundancy.

I always wondered about that… I thought I throw this out there, to see what it was…

GA,… and I’ll rate this thread also…

NOTAMS… Well, that’s a relief to our more hyper-sensitive community members.

This sounds hokey to me. Can't imagine anyone with a multi-engine rating freezing at the controls.

Losing a navigational signal doesn't result in a 'dive', nor is it likely to result in a crash. A pilot should always know where he is, especially at low altitudes. If things go wrong, you can always climb to a safe altitude and sort things out.

I suspect that your pilot was trying to goad the VP into spending $100K or more on new avionics for 'his' airplane.

Referring to your post #16, while I certainly like the idea of newer pilots gaining experience, it brings into question whether the co-pilot can actually log the time. Insurance companies and the FAA are really making life difficult in situations like this. The rules have changed, and it's very confusing as to who can log what. Does the aircraft require two pilots? Is the pilot also a certified flight instructor giving dual instruction? Is the co-pilot rated in the airplane and is he listed on the insurance policy? Who is actually manipulating the controls?

Regarding "losing a navigational signal"...

It would not be unheard of, if the problem was a nav suite failure, for an aircraft to assume an unusual attitude. i've seen it happen. Of course, this would be beyond simply losing a nav signal. Nav suites have built in fail safes for signal loss. Not necessarily so for equipment failure.

Also, unusual attitude recovery is a skill set acquired early in the training syllabus on the way to acquiring a private pilot license. Anyone who freezes up should either never have gotten a license or should lose their license upon investigation.

Hokey to the uninformed, (maybe due to the lack of details), also Define freezing,

the pilot was a seasoned pilot, he’s on all our flights. The pilot would select from a pool of people (don’t know if it was some type of aviation club) to be his co-pilot. To add to their hours of flight time.

as far as freezing, this all happened in seconds. 3 seconds at the most, when to pilot took controls.

now I just gave what I’d call, a high level post on what was told to me… yes, there could be more to it.

also keep in mind,

what do you call the student that graduated from the bottom of his graduating class to become a doctor? No different from a pilot getting his licenses.

as far as your post as a whole, I was there, and your post is an opinion, and I respect that. That as well as 20/20 hindsight.

one more thing, I never saw that co-pilot again.

Is this the one at DFW??

Always wondered about that.........

Yes. If you click on the blue "Google" in my #2 posting it will take you to Google Maps with the VOR centered. It is on the main drag running north and south at DFW.

Maybe they're building a new helipad terminal....

Yeah, 2 radials work to specify a position, unless you're unlucky enough to be between stations so that the radials are about parallel.

Even one radial helps to know where to look to correlate features on the chart with what is out the window. (Power lines, pipelines, rivers, highways, etc.)

Well, the beauty of continental US airspace is that one is almost always within the range of 3, sometimes 4 or more, VOR's at general aviation altitudes. On airplanes with dual VOR receivers, most nowadays, you usually have the next VOR tuned before you cross the current VOR and the heading bug set to intersect the radial you want to follow. That, of course, assumes you did your flight planning like any sensible pilot who leaves his local area.

Not being able to resolve your position at the intersection of two radials would be unusual, to say the least. Also, the range to the station increases with altitude so the higher you are the more VOR's you "see".

I, personally, have never had a problem of "parallel" radials.

If you have a chance, pick up an FAA "Sectional" map of the airspace you're interested in. Or look at a net version. You will see it clearly marks VOR's, roads, railroads, towers, terrain, populated areas and many other POI's, points of interest. Aviation GPS's do the same. So orienting oneself, especially after gaining experience, is easy.

Besides, some of us prefer flying IFR, I Follow Roads, with Sectionials.

I used to fly "IFR". One day when following the interstate, I noticed truckers flashing their headlights. I think they thought I was a cop...

Skyvector is a free online Sectional source. I too follow roads.

Cool. Thanks for the heads up on Skyvector. I wasn't aware of that site.

That makes sense.

Thanks guys. My initial thought was "trampoline" .

I'm familiar with VOR/DME but have never seen a transmitting antenna. I always thought it would look like an ordinary omni-directional.

I was actually looking for radar antennas but couldn't find them and came across this thing so I thought it must be the radar.

This search was triggered by an event we had in the Philippines back in January 1, 2023, where a UPS conked out at the radar and communications facility at Manila and it caused a halt of all flight operations around the Philippines. I found that mysterious because, why would the shutdown of the radar in Manila cause all other airports to shut down? Don't the other airports have their own radars? So, I checked other airports looking for radar antennas...and couldn't find them. But I did find these VOR/DME thingys so I assumed those were the radars.

But they're not. So, if all the airports in the Philippines are served by only the one radar in Manila, that would explain why the whole Philippines shut down. I'm not sure if that's correct but it's the only theory I've got right now.

Anyway, thanks for the info. I knew I'd get the answers from this community. (",)
regards,

Vulcan