navigation question

[Guest paulwaldron]

Hi all,I am trying to learn to fly jet airway routes, using radio navigation as opposed to the gps. I don't use any add-ons at the moment. I'm wondering why the navlog in fs gives a seemingly incorrect course to pick up the radial that I want to fly. For instance, if I want to fly on J36 to DKK and file as such, why does the navlog give me a heading of 304, while the correct radial is 295. I don't know if I'm missing something fundamental, whether it has something to do with gps vs magnetic north (I don't think it does, as the vor has a 3 deg. magnetic deviation, not a 9 deg. one.) Or if its something else entirely. Anyone have pointers, corrections, links, etc?Thanks

[Guest RonB49]

According to my outdated (Jul 22, 1990) High Altitude Enroute Chart (Jeppesen US(HI)3), the magnetic variation for DKK is 9 degrees W. But I don't think that is what you are seeing.I believe that the flight plan shows the heading that you should take from your departure VOR not heading into the arrival VOR. Therefore if you are departing from LHY toward DKK, your heading from LHY is shown (on my old chart) as 301. If you plan says 304, use that number. The normal procedure is to depart using the departure VOR frequency and flying the heading given to you (304), fly to the halfway point, change frequency, change heading if required, and finish flying into the arrival VOR. This leg is a little different.LHY is a low altitude (short range) VOR so (according to the chart) you should change frequency to DKK, a high altitude VOR, 50 Nm from LHY before you go beyond it's 50+ mile range. So you leave LHY at 301 or 304 degrees; fly 50 Nm; tune 116.2 (DKK); then, if needed, reset your OBS until the needle centers or turn to the heading on the RMI; and follow that radial into DKK.R-

[Guest paulwaldron]

Thank you. That's helpful. I will give it a shot.