How do pilots know to reach their destination??

Have you ever wondered ¿cómo go pilots se guístill in the air to reach your destination?, ¿cóyou can see by dónde van si están inside the clouds? Well today we will clear up these doubts.

In this installment we are going to resolve several doubts that you may have about cóhow does it work aviationón, in the way más simple possible.

Post written by: Capturesán Rodolfo Estrella
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

First of all, We must take into account that the pilots We do courses that allow us to be trained for certain types of flights, these are: visual flights or instrument flights, These degrees allow us to obtain a license or alsoén calls «ratings».

¿Cóhow pilots know how to reach their destination?

For a visual flight, as his word says, the pilot arrives at its destination using references on the ground, cities, pueblos, ríos or any reference that allows you to recognize your locationón, the pilot must fly in meteorological conditionsótechniques that allow you to clearly observe these points and you should not fly in the middle of clouds, además flies with a navigation chartón where you can recognize landmarks on the ground.

When it comes to instrument flight (común on commercial flights), the story is very different, pilots are trained in cóhow to fly using the airplane instrumentsón without the need to use visual or terrain references and allow us to fly in meteorological conditions.ógics where said visual references may not be observable.

For it, navigation systemsón más básicos are those of radio navigationón based on ground aids, sounds complicated, but it's actually a méall simple that has been used by dérock.

The radio navigationón

For this system we must know that the pilots in their aircraftón they have a VHF radio set, who receivesñvery high frequency radio signals originating from fixed earth stations. The más used is the stationón BEFORE O (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range) by its acronym in Englishés o Omnidirectional Radio Beacon, this is a stationóA fixed transmitter located on the ground that transmits in a frequency band a wave that is captured by the aircraft's instruments.ón and allows us to guide ourselves to it throughés of a given radial the course, to understand it más fácil, yes I wasébouquets flying north, tuned to a VOR that isá right in front of us, beímasters flying with course 360 towards the stationón or failing that in the radial 180 from the stationón BEFORE. These stations alsoáThey often offer informationón distance to or from it.

Hereí an example, the grandfatherón has the Condorcocha VOR tuned  on Quito with radio frequency 115.3 MHz. the instruments of the aircraftón determine the positionón of this with respect to the stationón, either towards (in approach) or since (in distance). Además of example, An aircraft may approach or depart toward or away from the station.ón VOR on any course or radial, the instruments indicateán if the aircraft isá in the course or alsoén indicateán course deviations to correct. Así:

We have already seen how the avión is oriented with respect to ground stations, However, between ground stations, they are tracedígirls what, They connect stations with imaginary but identifiable stations or reference points throughés of radials and distances of the stations, These sections are called Aerovíand the sound las “Avenues” through which planes circulate to their destinations.

as we see, there is an aerovía call G(golf)675 between the Condorcocha VOR and the Ipiales VOR, conformándose theí the instrumental route that must be followed to fly between the two points. This aerovía is the route that is in the flight plan and that is known and authorized by traffic controláI'm theéinmate to monitorá the flight of the aircraft and/or giveá relevant route instructions.

In this case, from Condorcocha to ipiales, The pilot selects the Condorcocha VOR frequency on his radio 115.3 and on his navigation instrumentón course 047 degrees if you keep the needle centered, remainá in the airía moving away from the VOR towards Ipiales, Halfway, you can select the Ipiales VOR frequently 113.6 tend to itá tell usócourse number and distance to that stationón.

Now, given that the conditions of tráespecially between large cities, they tend to be very large, arrival procedures have been developed, approximationón and exit with the objective of reducing the communications load and standardizing routes, also providingáwith de separationón sure of the terrain, in that way, Pilots can choose departure or arrival routes that allow them to arrive in the most convenient way.ás safe with the lowest workload. These routes and procedures areán connected to navigation pointsón like those mentioned above. For instance:

as we see, this is an approximationón by instruments to the city of Quito, the initial point of the approachón is the VOR Condorcocha Quito that we met previously. This route takes us to the interceptón of a señat the call ILS for an approximationón end to the track with a guílateral and vertical when visibility conditions are reduced. ¡There are types of approaches that even allow arrival with visibility 0!

Finally, airplanes mámodern cars use navigation systemsón much más advanced as is navigationón using guíto satellite, with these systems, Aircraft may not use ground-based radio aids and may use imaginary reference points located with geographical reference.ásatellite data, así how to use departure or approach proceduresón más complex, where terrestrial reference points are notístill identifiable. Además, are visualizationsón is presented in the cabin on navigation screensón that show the pilots in detail the route and positionón which the aircraft follows, let's see an example:

Hereí to the left, we can see an approximationón guided by GPS and on the right the procedure on the navigation screenón of the avión, In this case, the autopilotático followá each of the points respecting the conditions of the procedure, así as wellén the entire previous route, including departure and all aerovíthose that are used.

Thus, is that planes and their crews fly within what we call “Space Aéreo”, where all aircraft comply with rules and regulations, procedures and regulations, that make us reach our destination safely. This is one way báIt's how pilots navigate to destinations.

Obviously, There are many other conditions and requirements for navigation.ón, for which pilots receive continuous training to stay current on their skills, así as wellén much time is spent studying the rules and regulations that the authority issuedáutica requires for navigationón safe.

The navigationón visual e instrumental son tétechniques that are learned from the beginning of the pilot studies stage, and is applied daily in the operationón of aircraft, fortunately the mámodern technologyías they have increased a lotígreat security, have reduced the workload of pilots and, above all, They help us have better situational awareness by making aviationóin the form más safe to travel.