Looking for information on Loran

[Bill Womack 7]

I've got a Loran R-30A in the 172 I fly, but I've never tried to use it. I didn't see the manual for it in the plane, and a search of the web turned up nothing. It's got no other Markings besides "R-30A" on the face, and the only other thing on it is a sticker reading "Loran for VFR use only" -- which of course is fine by me, as I'm not instrument rated anyway. It's not a huge deal, except that since the equipment is there, it'd be nice to know how to work it in a pinch. Anyone know who makes this puppy and how I might go about getting a manual for it?thanks,

[AWACS 12]

Wow, LORAN is ancient. In the Jeppesen Private Pilot course book, it talks briefly about it. I have found a website that says a little more about it, and a link that sells your particular model, you should contact that company maybe to purchase a manual or something.Supposedly yours is worth somewhere in the $1400 price range.http://www.avionix.com/loran.htmlhttp://www.avionix.com/linelistings/f-loran.txtJeff

[Bill Womack 7]

Thanks, Jeff. If only it were mine, I'd pull it out and put in a nice Garmin. It belongs to the FBO, and they frown on their customers removing avionics ;-)thanks,

[Fitz505 21]

I thought I read somewhere, that they are evaluating the continued existance of the stations, what with GPS pretty much taking over modern navigation. I can't wonder if that would be a mistake. Sort of putting your eggs all in one basket. As for your unit, it's probably the Arnav R30A which I think they haven't made in a few thousand years, give or take a couple. I think it was a Loran C model, which if you can get it working, is still in operation. A good operator could/can do a pretty good job with it. You would be surprised at the number of them still installed in aircraft, most inop, I would suspect. That was a pretty popular unit. Without the manual, you need to find someone who worked with Loran. I was going to say, someone in or approaching the 'old geezer' catagory, but then I would be talking about myself, so I won't say it.You could try Ebay for the manual. John Fitzpatrick

[Guest LahaskaFlyer]

Hi, Loran is awkward to use if you are flying any distance. You will need a series of charts with a loran overlay in order to plot your position both Lat and Lon. Not easy in a small plane with a lot of other things to think about. Jack WilsonBucks County, PA

[KevinAu 441]

You must be talking about some really really old maritime Lorans. The aviation Loran equipment I've used all worked fine in a small airplane environment. The most primitive ones would only deal with lat-long's while later models like Northstar M1s worked almost like GPS units with aviation databases. None of these required any kind of TD plotting. Just plug in the where you want to go and it showed you how to get there.

[Guest LahaskaFlyer]

Hi, thanks for the update, the time I flew with a loran it was with a friend and we had charts all over the place. I haven't seen the later models.Jack WilsonBucks County, PA

[LAdamson 240]

I'd take along a cheap handheld moving map GPS for a "pinch", if I didn't already have an expensive one, and forget the Loran. But that's what I've done for the last twelve years or so, anyway.L.Adamson

[LAdamson 240]

> I thought I read somewhere, that they are evaluating the>continued existance of the stations, what with GPS pretty much>taking over modern navigation. I can't wonder if that would be>a mistake. Sort of putting your eggs all in one basket.I don't think it would be a problem to eliminate Loran. If the government supposeably disables GPS, then it could certainly turn off the Loran transmitters. Other than that, we have a good number of GPS satellites in orbit, along with backups. The number of satellites in a GPS's field of signal interception, is usually twice the amount that a GPS needs for a good three dimensional fix, not to mention additional ground stations for WAAS corrections. For this reason alone, it's never like putting your eggs all in one basket, since the GPS has so many satellites to choose from.L.Adamson