Any old timers fly "A's & N's" ?

JHW said:
Steven, you'd probably know. Are there (or were there) and NDB/DME stations in the US ?
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Yes. There is a particularly interesting one at Hailey, Idaho. HLE NDB-DME is defines Victor airways V101 and V484. ISTR some in Alaska and on the west coast as well.
 
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Ive got my dad's old 1966 FAR AIM... I will take a look and see if the A-N's are mentioned in it.... not a lot of material in there.. Its only a 1/4" thick or so...
 
Tom-D said:
I've never actually used that system, but my Dad did, I'd listen to the tones when i was a kid riding along in his SR10 Reliant.
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Ahh, so you probably remember him mentioning something about "bisector headings" and "parallel fades."

Does anybody out there remember when ADFs weren't some needle that pointed to the NDB, but you had to hand crank the loop anetenna to detemine what bearing you were from the station? Even then you really didn't know where the station was until you flew a heading for awhile and had to readjust the antenna.

Those guys thought that the fixed card ADF was the Last Word in navigational innovation. They let us know about it every time we complained about not having an RMI!
 
Bobcat1 said:
Does anybody out there remember when ADFs weren't some needle that pointed to the NDB, but you had to hand crank the loop anetenna to detemine what bearing you were from the station? Even then you really didn't know where the station was until you flew a heading for awhile and had to readjust the antenna.
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Thus the 'A' ("automatic") in 'ADF'!
 
Bobcat1 said:
Does anybody out there remember when ADFs weren't some needle that pointed to the NDB, but you had to hand crank the loop anetenna to detemine what bearing you were from the station? Even then you really didn't know where the station was until you flew a heading for awhile and had to readjust the antenna.
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ADFs were never like that, that was DF. When the technology was developed to do those things automatically it became ADF.
 
I have tuned in a range for fun and heard the a,n, and solid tone in the early '70s flying south along the Pacific coast of Canada.

I also once flew an "aural null" approach on a check ride in a T28A. Cursed the check pilot at the time, silently of course. Now really glad I did, I suspect there can't be a lot of people that can claim that. The old "coffee grinder" ADFs were actually pretty good, except the signals could be "bent" by bad guys.

Of course I soloed 50 years ago this month in a T28A.

Ernie
 
ebetancourt said:
I have tuned in a range for fun and heard the a,n, and solid tone in the early '70s flying south along the Pacific coast of Canada.

I also once flew an "aural null" approach on a check ride in a T28A. Cursed the check pilot at the time, silently of course. Now really glad I did, I suspect there can't be a lot of people that can claim that. The old "coffee grinder" ADFs were actually pretty good, except the signals could be "bent" by bad guys.

Of course I soloed 50 years ago this month in a T28A.

Ernie
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I've got you beat by 9 years.

The first 4, or so, of those years L/F range stations were still common in the lower 48, but they were on their way out as more VORs were brought on-line. L/F range tracking was part of the instrument rating practical until perhaps 1959, or so. It was a lousy system.

When I went to work for TWA early in 1964 some of the old timers were very happy those range days were behind them. Quite a change from a DC-3 flying range legs below the tops of higher mountains to VOR/DME/ILS in a 707.
 
roncachamp said:
The term used in period publications is RDF, Radio Direction Finding.
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That's because back in the old days there was no automatic. Receivers had to be manually tuned to obtain the bearing. Automatic Direction Finders came later.
 
Actually doing a course on early aeronavigation for our CAP cadets coming up in January. 4-Course Radio will definitely be a part of that.
 
I tried "flying the beam" at the insistence of my old instructor once back when I was taking flying lessons in the early 70s. It was just before the last of the transmitters were being decommissioned.

I barely remember what it was like, but I remember the older pilots talking about what an improvement VOR navigation was.

My instructor was such an old timer that his license was signed by one of the Wright Brothers.
 
Fearless Tower said:
That's because back in the old days there was no automatic. Receivers had to be manually tuned to obtain the bearing. Automatic Direction Finders came later.
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Yep, navigated up and down the West Coats a few times using an old Ray Jeff RDF. Even got me through the Golden Gate in the fog.
 
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