So how was flying across huge oceans handled? Plan-G shows the nearest VORs to be ~1000nm apart in Atlantic!!  They dead reckoned a heading for over 800nm?

 You also need to plan your route so that you'll be able to maintain VOR reception. In the one image on page 1 where the changeover point was mentioned you'll also see the MEA.. The MEA is there to ensure you will have adequate signal coverage between the 2 stations.

 

 

 

 

So how was flying across huge oceans handled? Plan-G shows the nearest VORs to be ~1000nm apart in Atlantic!! They dead reckoned a heading for over 800nm?

 

Of course VOR's aren't used in Oceanic crossings. That's why back in the day you had a navigator. Before INS, RNAV, GPS etc there was LORAN or SEL NAV and even sextants!

This reminds me of my experience a few years ago with VORs.  I had carefully studied the FSX lesson on VORs, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't pass the test (there's a part of that test that still makes no sense to me).  Finally, I decided to just try flying to a small rural airport in FSX using VORs exclusively.  I figured "the proof's in the pudding", this navigational flight would show whether or not I had a basic understanding of VORs. 

 

After flying for a couple of hours, I was supposed to be at my destination - but there was NO airport to be found, nowhere.  I looked in every direction, but nothing.  Oh no!

 

Then I discovered that the airport was directly beneath me, where I couldn't see it.    : )

VeryBumpy, on 01 Sept 2013 - 11:22 AM, said:

 

So how was flying across huge oceans handled? Plan-G shows the nearest VORs to be ~1000nm apart in Atlantic!! They dead reckoned a heading for over 800nm?

For the most part, yes. navigators on overwater flights had the luxury of being able to tune into radio stations, and use their fixes to pinpoint the flight's position; something that isn't possible (to some degree) in FlightSim.

 

If you go back to the days of the PanAm Clippers, they used a sextant to shoot star sightings and plotted their positions that way. There are Gauges available to simulate a sextant, with the ability to 'shoot' stars in order to plot your location.

 

Take a peek at the odyssey of the Pacific Clipper:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Clipper

 

The first around the world flight by a Commercial aircraft, using only a sextant, rudimentary maps from a World Atlas, under radio silence,

and by the seat of their pants.