Navigation for pilots
Finding the way: the Earth and its charts, dead reckoning and the wind triangle, the magnetic compass, radio aids such as VOR, DME, NDB and ILS, and GNSS and performance-based navigation, from EASA ATPL subjects 061 and 062.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
Aeronautical Charts
The families of VFR and IFR aeronautical charts and supporting publications, what each depicts, and how pilots plot and read terrain information on them.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Airways and ATS Routes
The structure of the airway network, from lower and upper airways, Victor airways and jet routes to RNAV Q- and T-routes, with route designators, significant points and VOR changeover points.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Area Navigation (RNAV)
The RNAV concept of flying between waypoints rather than navaids, position sensors and DME/DME updating, waypoint and leg types, cross-track and along-track error, offsets, navigator modes, and the legacy B-RNAV and P-RNAV standards.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Chart Projections
The properties of an ideal navigation chart and how the main projections (Mercator, transverse and oblique Mercator, Lambert conformal conic and polar stereographic) compare in scale, convergency and the depiction of great circles and rhumb lines.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Circling and Visual Approaches
Approaches completed by visual reference, including circling to land, visual and contact approaches, sidestep maneuvers and approaches to closely spaced parallel runways with their breakout procedures.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Continuous Descent Final Approach (CDFA)
Flying the final segment of a non-precision approach as a stabilized constant-angle descent rather than dive-and-drive, including descent gradients, step-down fixes, derived decision altitude and the visual descent point.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Dead Reckoning and Visual Navigation
Navigating by dead reckoning and map reading, estimating position, measuring and correcting track error with the 1-in-60 rule, using visual checkpoints and reporting points, and what to do when uncertain of position.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)
How DME measures slant range by pulse timing, its channeling and frequency pairing, search and track modes, slant-range and groundspeed limitations, flying DME arcs, and its military counterparts TACAN and VORTAC.
PPL · IR · ATPL
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
The satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou), their space, control and user segments, the signals and codes they transmit, and how a receiver computes position from pseudo-ranges and timing.
CPL · IR · ATPL
GNSS Errors and Dilution of Precision
The error sources that degrade GNSS position (ephemeris, atmospheric delay, multipath, low-elevation satellites), how satellite geometry is expressed as dilution of precision, and the threat of jamming and spoofing.
PPL · IR · ATPL
GNSS Integrity and RAIM
How GNSS integrity is assured on board through RAIM, fault detection and exclusion and other aircraft-based augmentation, the alert limits and time to alert, availability prediction, and when GNSS may be used as a sole means of navigation.
CPL · IR · ATPL
GNSS Interference: Jamming and Spoofing
How GNSS signals are jammed or spoofed, what that does to aircraft navigation, surveillance and warning systems, how crews recognize it and the conventional navigation they fall back on.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Holding Patterns
The standard holding pattern, the direct, parallel and teardrop entry sectors, timing and wind correction, maximum holding speeds, holding stacks and the clearance items (EFC, EAT) associated with holding.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Instrument Approach Procedures
The structure of an instrument approach from the arrival route through the initial, intermediate, final and visual segments, the key fixes, and the reversal procedures used to align with the final approach course.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Instrument Departures (SIDs and ODPs)
How instrument departures are designed and flown, from standard instrument departures and obstacle departure procedures to straight, turning and omnidirectional departures, the obstacle identification surface and the procedure design gradient.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Instrument Landing System (ILS)
How the ILS localizer, glide path and marker beacons provide precision approach guidance, how deviation is measured and displayed, the protection of critical and sensitive areas, false glide slopes and the ILS performance categories.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Localizer-Based Approaches (LOC, LDA, SDF and Back Course)
Approaches that use a localizer-type course without a glide path, localizer-only, localizer back course with its reverse sensing, the offset localizer-type directional aid and the simplified directional facility.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Magnetic Compass
How the direct-reading and remote-indicating magnetic compasses are built, their acceleration and turning errors, the aircraft magnetism that causes deviation, and how a compass swing produces the deviation card.
ATPL
Microwave Landing System (MLS)
How the MLS uses time-referenced scanning beams and precision DME to give azimuth, elevation and range guidance, including back-azimuth, and how it compares with the ILS.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Minimum Safe Altitudes and Cold Temperature Corrections
The family of published minimum altitudes for en-route, off-route, terminal and radar-vectored flight, how each guarantees obstacle clearance or signal reception, and the cold-temperature corrections that must be applied to them.
PPL · IR · ATPL
Non-Directional Beacon and ADF
How the NDB and the airborne automatic direction finder work, how relative bearings are read on fixed and movable card indicators, and the errors (night effect, coastal refraction, quadrantal, dip and static) that limit ADF accuracy.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Obstacle Clearance and Approach Minima
How PANS-OPS and TERPS protect instrument procedures from obstacles, how approaches are classified (precision, APV, non-precision; 2D and 3D), and how OCA/OCH, DA/DH and MDA/MDH minima are derived and published.
CPL · ATPL
Oceanic and North Atlantic Operations
Navigating and communicating across oceanic airspace, from the North Atlantic organized track system and track message to NAT HLA requirements, long-range navigation systems, oceanic clearances, SLOP, weather deviation and the prevention of gross navigation errors.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Performance-Based Navigation (PBN)
The ICAO PBN concept, navigation specifications, the difference between RNAV and RNP specifications, the accuracy values for each flight phase, total system error and its components, and on-board performance monitoring and alerting.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
Pilot Rules of Thumb
The mental arithmetic pilots use in flight, from the 1-in-60 rule, the rate of descent for a 3° path and the top of descent to rate-one bank angle, turn radius and crosswind estimates.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Point of Equal Time and Point of No Return
How the critical point (point of equal time), the point of no return / point of safe return and the radius of action are defined, calculated and used in flight planning.
CPL · ATPL
Polar and Grid Navigation
Why magnetic and true references break down at high latitudes and how grid navigation, grivation and gyro steering with wander corrections are used on polar routes.
CPL · ATPL
Radar Principles
How primary pulse and continuous-wave radars detect targets, the pulse parameters that set range and resolution, displays and clutter processing, ground surveillance radar types, and Doppler radar and Doppler navigation.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
Radio Navigation Aids and Position Fixing
General principles common to ground-based navaids (identification, integrity monitoring, protected coverage and interference) and the techniques for homing, tracking, intercepting and fixing position with them.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Radio Wave Propagation
How radio waves travel as ground, sky and space waves, the role of the ionosphere, skip distance and dead space, line-of-sight range, and the anomalies such as ducting, fading and multipath that affect reception.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Radio Waves, Modulation and Antennas
The physics behind aviation radio: electromagnetic waves, the wavelength-frequency relationship, the frequency bands, carrier waves and modulation types, emission designators, polarization and basic antennas.
PPL · CPL
Reading a VFR Sectional Chart
How to read an FAA VFR sectional chart: airspace depiction, airport symbols and data blocks, obstructions, maximum elevation figures, navaids and the legend.
IR · ATPL
Reading FAA Instrument Approach Charts
How to read an FAA instrument approach procedure chart: the briefing strip, plan view, profile view, minimums section and the airport diagram.
IR · ATPL
Reading ICAO Instrument Approach Charts
How to read an ICAO-format instrument approach chart as published in European AIPs: header, plan view and MSA, profile, minima table, missed approach and chart notes.
CPL · IR · ATPL
RNP Approaches (RNP APCH and RNP AR)
RNP approach procedures and their minima lines (LNAV, LNAV/VNAV, LP, LPV), Baro-VNAV vertical guidance, CDI scaling, overlay approaches and the special requirements of RNP AR approaches.
CPL · IR · ATPL
SBAS and GBAS Augmentation
How satellite-based (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS, GAGAN) and ground-based augmentation systems correct and monitor GNSS signals, and the approach capabilities they enable, including SLS and GLS.
CPL · IR · ATPL
Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs)
What STARs are for, how their altitude and speed constraints and crossing restrictions are charted and flown, what a descend via clearance authorizes, and how optimized profile or continuous descents are built into them.
CPL · ATPL
Terrestrial Magnetism
The Earth's magnetic field, its horizontal and vertical components, magnetic dip and poles, how the field changes over time, and why magnetic direction becomes unreliable near the poles.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
The Earth: Shape, Coordinates and Great Circles
The shape of the Earth and geodetic datums, the latitude/longitude grid, change of latitude, longitude and departure, great circles versus rhumb lines, convergency and conversion angle, and the units of distance and speed used in navigation.
PPL · CPL · IR
The FAA Chart Supplement
What the FAA Chart Supplement (formerly the Airport/Facility Directory) contains and how to read an airport entry, from the header codes and runway data to lighting, communications, services and notices.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
The Flight Computer: CRP-5 and E6B
How pilots use the circular slide-rule flight computer: time, speed and distance, fuel and unit conversions, true airspeed, density altitude and true altitude, and the wind side for heading and groundspeed.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
Time, Speed, Distance and Fuel Calculations
The arithmetic of flight planning and navigation: time, speed and distance, fuel burn and endurance, climb and descent planning and the conversions exam questions use.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Time, Sunrise and Twilight
How time is measured for navigation, from solar and sidereal days through local mean time, UTC, standard time and the date line, to sunrise, sunset, twilight and the Air Almanac.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
Triangle of Velocities
The vector relationship between heading/TAS, wind and track/groundspeed, how to solve it for drift, wind correction and wind components, and how it is worked on the CRP-5 or E6B navigation computer.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
True, Magnetic and Compass Direction
The three north references, magnetic variation and isogonals, and how headings, courses and bearings are converted between compass, magnetic and true using CDMVT and the usual memory aids.
PPL · CPL · ATPL
VHF Direction Finding and Q-Code Bearings
How ground VHF direction-finding stations measure an aircraft's bearing, how bearings are classified by accuracy, and how the Q-code bearings (QDM, QDR, QTE, QUJ) and related Q-codes are used.
PPL · CPL · IR · ATPL
VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR)
How conventional and Doppler VORs generate radials by phase comparison, how the airborne receiver displays them, the VOR's coverage and errors, and how pilots check receiver accuracy.
PPL · CPL
Visual Approach Charts (VAC)
How to read the visual approach and landing charts published for VFR pilots in European AIPs, with entry and exit points, circuits, altitudes, frequencies and restrictions.
Test yourself on Navigation
The v1prep banks cover this topic in General and Radio Navigation (061/062), with a worked explanation for every answer.
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