I had a good learning experience while flying the other day, and thought I would share in case anyone else can take something away from it.
I haven't been doing much flying in the past few years and been trying to get back into it, so I've been flying with an instructor lately to get my BFR (or proficiency check, whatever we're calling it now) done and to get more comfortable in the plane again.
In case you want to follow along on skyvector or something, we decided to go to Navasota (K60R) from Conroe (KCXO) and shoot the VOR approach at Navasota. Weather was good, checked the NOTAMs, good to go so we stepped to the jet. Got airborne and headed west, went to TIM the VOR.
The morse code for the Navasota VOR (TNV) is:
_
_.
..._
The morse code I was hearing though was:
_.
..._
The morse code sounded right except that the first dash was missing. So instead of morse code for "TNV" I was only hearing the "N" and "V."
We talked about it, instructor agreed that something wasn't quite right, so he suggested pulling it up on NAV2, but it sounded the same. Then he looked on his knee board where he has the morse code all spelled out, and aha, the morse code is spelling "test." So the VOR must be out.
So then he called up the Montgomery County RCO on 122.2 and asked about it, and they said yep it just got NOTAM'd out. So even though the VOR seemed to be working we figured the signal may not be reliable, so we just did some visual approaches and came home.
So back home I looked at the NOTAMs again, and sure enough, there was a NOTAM for the Navasota being out of service starting right at about the time we took off. Also I looked at the morse code and sure enough, "TEST" in morse code is:
_ . ... _
which sure did sound a whole lot like the last 2 letters of the navaid, which are:
_. ..._
So I know this got long-winded, but I was reminded of a few things and thought maybe someone else can learn from it too. Things I learned:
1. Pay close attention when you tune, identify, and especially MONITOR your navaids! This ties into #2 which is:
2. Those things can go out at any time with little or no notice! If we had taken off just a few minutes earlier, we might have tuned and identified the navaid and called it good, then it easily could have gone out in the middle of our approach or something. Maybe the navaid was still working right and maybe it wasn't, I don't know. But if we were IFR in the middle of the approach when it went out, I think its likely that we wouldn't have even known. I mean, how closely do you MONITOR the morse code while you're dealing with everything else that goes with an instrument approach?
And finally,
3. I had either never called up a FSS in flight, or it had been so long ago during my Private Pilot training that I don't remember it. But there's nothing to it, and they are very helpful. I told the instructor that I don't remember ever doing that before, so he had me call them back up and ask for the altimeter setting at my current location and the pertinent NOTAMs back at Conroe. Did it, and it was easy. So if any of you guys are like me, and unsure about calling up a FSS in flight, just call them up and ask your questions. They'll ask your tail number and current location, then they'll tell you what you want to know and do whatever they can to help.
I haven't been doing much flying in the past few years and been trying to get back into it, so I've been flying with an instructor lately to get my BFR (or proficiency check, whatever we're calling it now) done and to get more comfortable in the plane again.
In case you want to follow along on skyvector or something, we decided to go to Navasota (K60R) from Conroe (KCXO) and shoot the VOR approach at Navasota. Weather was good, checked the NOTAMs, good to go so we stepped to the jet. Got airborne and headed west, went to TIM the VOR.
The morse code for the Navasota VOR (TNV) is:
_
_.
..._
The morse code I was hearing though was:
_.
..._
The morse code sounded right except that the first dash was missing. So instead of morse code for "TNV" I was only hearing the "N" and "V."
We talked about it, instructor agreed that something wasn't quite right, so he suggested pulling it up on NAV2, but it sounded the same. Then he looked on his knee board where he has the morse code all spelled out, and aha, the morse code is spelling "test." So the VOR must be out.
So then he called up the Montgomery County RCO on 122.2 and asked about it, and they said yep it just got NOTAM'd out. So even though the VOR seemed to be working we figured the signal may not be reliable, so we just did some visual approaches and came home.
So back home I looked at the NOTAMs again, and sure enough, there was a NOTAM for the Navasota being out of service starting right at about the time we took off. Also I looked at the morse code and sure enough, "TEST" in morse code is:
_ . ... _
which sure did sound a whole lot like the last 2 letters of the navaid, which are:
_. ..._
So I know this got long-winded, but I was reminded of a few things and thought maybe someone else can learn from it too. Things I learned:
1. Pay close attention when you tune, identify, and especially MONITOR your navaids! This ties into #2 which is:
2. Those things can go out at any time with little or no notice! If we had taken off just a few minutes earlier, we might have tuned and identified the navaid and called it good, then it easily could have gone out in the middle of our approach or something. Maybe the navaid was still working right and maybe it wasn't, I don't know. But if we were IFR in the middle of the approach when it went out, I think its likely that we wouldn't have even known. I mean, how closely do you MONITOR the morse code while you're dealing with everything else that goes with an instrument approach?
And finally,
3. I had either never called up a FSS in flight, or it had been so long ago during my Private Pilot training that I don't remember it. But there's nothing to it, and they are very helpful. I told the instructor that I don't remember ever doing that before, so he had me call them back up and ask for the altimeter setting at my current location and the pertinent NOTAMs back at Conroe. Did it, and it was easy. So if any of you guys are like me, and unsure about calling up a FSS in flight, just call them up and ask your questions. They'll ask your tail number and current location, then they'll tell you what you want to know and do whatever they can to help.
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