Navaid Line-Up

[badderjet 181]

Hey folks,some other thread actually led me to the idea to show interested people some most commonly found navaids and how they look in real life. You can fly around in the sim too and try to find some, they are all over the place.Being aware this topic might be a bit unusual to deal with I am a little concerned if this is actually of interest to anyone. Anyways, I will take the chance. :blush:Without further ado, let's start with the two most important components of the famous ILS, starting with the localizer. Here we are looking towards the beginning of the runway, you might actually make out the approach lights in the grass. The antenna is aligned with the extended runway centerline:The thing in front is the actual antenna, while the other thing further down is most probably the monitor (not 100% sure). This device will check the transmitted signals and shut down the system if a fault is detected. Also, if the monitor itself should fail, the whole system will shut down as well. In either case an alert will be sent to the local controller so he can take appropriate action or inform the tech crew.Let's continue with a closer side view of the antenna and some of the actual inner workings. Those are housed in a little cabin somewhere near the antenna:Oh, and no, the VOR will eventually NOT cease to work once those two little batteries run out (upper center of right picture)... then again, I don't know for sure! :PI have yet to find a better picture of the glide slope facility but for now this one should be ok to see the major components: The antenna on the right transmitting beams to the left and, also here, a small monitor (landing left to right in this picture). Since these antennas are responsible for the vertical component of the ILS they don't need to be aligned with the runway centerline but rather are located to the side of the touchdown zone. That will usually be around 300m or 1000' down the runway:Let's move on to one of the older navaids you poor IFR students will still use today, the good ol' NDB (yipee!). :( There are a few different types of them, some consist of two poles with a cable attached to those very poles and sorta hanging loose between them. Others simply look like any inconspicuous radio tower:Now one of the most widely used navaids is obviously the DVOR and DVOR/DME today. In flight sim you will usually find conventional VORs as opposed to the newer ones like these:The CVORs have a rotating antenna inside whereas the current DVORs simply have an array of antennas arranged in a circle as you can see. There's gotta be some DME antenna somewhere on top of that metal screen but I can't quite make it out.As you might know VORs are usually placed in flat land like in a corn field or such... I was fortunate enough to visit some quite exceptional facility though, as I think. Not that it's very special but I found it still very interesting to see. This one here is a close up of a system placed in the middle of a forest, and in order to get the signals out to distance efficiently the whole thing is put on a massive steel structure you won't find on most other stations. I can tell you this thing is incredibly HUMONGOUS and really quite impressive, almost scary, from up close! It is hard to tell how tall it is but I wouldn't be surprised if it hit a hundred feet (I am aware guessing such a number is a daring thing, but it could eventually be about right, give or take a bit). Now for your viewing pleasure: :(I surely wouldn't wanna meet it at night though - I'm sure the monster will wake up and start to move by then... haha!Again, I hope this thread is interesting to some. Comments and technical or any other corrections are appreciated.RegardsEtienneEdit:Just got really curious for some reason, and found this resource online. Assuming the circle of antennas is of 46 feet in diameter (which I don't know if it applies to all DVORs) and measuring the pixels in the pictures I took, funnily enough I come up with 99 feet height from ground up. So my earlier guess is probably not that far off indeed.

[Turbine777 13]

WOW, Etienne, that is one great write up! I can't see how simmers wouldn't find this interesting. Seeing the equipment that we fly to and use for our navigation is a lot like the day you finally meet the person you talk to once a day for years on end but never had a face to put with the voice. Great info and great pictures! Thanks for posting.*Haha, not a bad guess at all on the 99 footer.

[Samwise 1]

This is great! It's nice to see some stuff which we completely rely on as pilots, but wouldnt normally "see" up close.

[MrSpeaker 122]

This was great, never really new what these things looked like before. Thanks for posting

[3Green 80]

never really new what these things looked like before. Thanks for posting

And some day "these things" will be no more...Very nice pictures badderjet...Thanks for sharingRJ