Are VORs on the decline? Will they die and vanish? Long story short: yes, VORs will die.
I’ve been in aviation for more than ten years now and I’ve heard lots of theories about the end of the VOR system. Because VORs have to be installed at specific location, they are expensive to build and maintain. And because of their limited coverage, many of them are needed to cover wide areas.
GPS is much better. It offers a worldwide coverage and it is much more accurate than VORs. GPS is also easier to use. No frequency to tune in, no need to select a radial or to identify a Morse code. GPS provides a direct position, where VORs require a second station or a DME to establish a position.
Despite all of these drawbacks, VORs are still around, and I bet that they will still be there in ten years from now. Aviation evolves very slowly. Installations like VORs have a life-cycle of several decades. Modifying procedures and publications also costs a lot of work, effort and money. Switching the whole system from VOR to GPS can not be done in one single “big-bang” step.
VORs are also used as backup in case of GPS failures. Not total failure of the GPS system, but failures of the receiver on board aircraft. In a GPS only system, the only navigation system left is radar vectoring. Before predicting the death of the VORs, the same oracles predicted the death of the NDBs. This finally happened – or is still in progress – but way later than they predicted.
GPS continues its extension. In the US there are now more GPS than ILS approaches, and almost all en-route navigation is based on GPS. I don’t know what could replace the VORs as a backup system at this time, but I’m sure that as soon as there will be one, VORs will die.
Vincent Lambercy is a Swiss private pilot now living in Germany. He holds a private pilot certificate with single-engine, multi-engine and instrument ratings and has logged more than 430 hours of flight.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Why should there be a backup for GPS? The very design of GPS means that SYSTEM redundancy is built in. As for redundancy if the in-cockpit GPS fails…well, please. Do we worry about the aircraft with a single VOR receiver? (Perfectly legal to fly IFR with only one VOR in the U.S.)
A case can be made to maintain the Localizer capability. That certainly provides an accurate, reliable way of finding the end of a runway in extremely bad weather. But all of these enroute VOR’s? Shut ‘em off!
Pseudolites on ground. Multiple receivers in aircraft. Enough.
Self Build VORs
As a relatively inexperienced UK PPL holder I like the concept of VORs. I will use them whenever possible on cross country flights as I build up my experiance. Quite often though they are not quite in the right place for the route I am planning. However, with my Garmin G1000 equipped Diamong DA40 I can create a GPS user waypoint and treat it as a VOR by selecting OBS mode. This may be a feature common to all GPS systems. I can then intersect or fly radials using my self build VOR. As far as redundancy is concerned I allways have my Map and route planned between readily identifieable ground objects which I could use on its own in the event of a GPS failure. Clearly this is a reasonable fallback for me at 2500 ft but not for commercial or more experienced pilots. As you say, VORs will eventually die but I wonder how much longer their concept will live on in GPS systems.
Roland, I’m glad to see one more G1000 pilot around using more than the “Direct To” function. The “OBS” mode is common to all the panel mounted Garmin GPS like the GNS430 and GNS530. I don’t know about other product.
Whatever the source of the position signal, the concept of HSI used to display the selected course and deviation applies and allows for accurate navigation. Following the line on the map is naturally possible but it is not that accurate, specially at large scales.