Vectors to join a Victor airway

[zkline]

Hi All,

I was trying to fly the I4 this afternoon, from KSNA to KSDM. The route I found was V23 MZB.

I was given vectors to join the V23 airway, and made the assumption that flying direct to MZB via FSXPilot's GPS would be acceptable. I was told soon after that I was apparently not on the airway. This seems to be a limitation of that particular program, but I was still kind of startled.

What do people typically use for navigation if just given vectors to an airway without an initial fix to join it from? I thought I might use, say, SLI, even if that isn't part of the assigned routing. Confusing me farther is the FAA notice about certain segments of MZB being unusable for navigation beyond a certain range.

I have no idea what V23 looks like from KSNA to MZB, one of the downsides of not actually being able to read the charts. I wonder if ItsYourPlane, the alternative program I have, might have helped me handle this situation any better. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated, even though I'll almost certainly get a different I4 destination next time.

[wmburns]

Hi All,

I was trying to fly the I4 this afternoon, from KSNA to KSDM. The route I found was V23 MZB.

I was given vectors to join the V23 airway, and made the assumption that flying direct to MZB via FSXPilot's GPS would be acceptable.

Just wondering. What was the Last instruction that ATC gave you? Was it perhaps to fly a heading and then JOIN V23? If so the method is to fly the heading assigned and wait until the CDI of the HSI centers. Then turn to track the Victor airway.

In the absence of instructions, another method is compute a 30 degree intercept course to the Victor airway (subtract or add 30 degrees to the airway's course).

Yet another way is to turn in the direction of the Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) until the course line just touches the CDI. Track that course until the CDI begins to center.

Finally an automatic way to do this is to fly an intercept heading and then ARM the auto pilot NAV function. Let the auto pilot join the Victor airway. Obviously this assumes the NAV radio has been set and the HSI course is set to track the Victor airway in the correct direction.

[zkline]

Just wondering. What was the Last instruction that ATC gave you? Was it perhaps to fly a heading and then JOIN V23? If so the method is to fly the heading assigned and wait until the CDI of the HSI centers. Then turn to track the Victor airway.

In the absence of instructions, another method is compute a 30 degree intercept course to the Victor airway (subtract or add 30 degrees to the airway's course).

Yet another way is to turn in the direction of the Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) until the course line just touches the CDI. Track that course until the CDI begins to center.

Finally an automatic way to do this is to fly an intercept heading and then ARM the auto pilot NAV function. Let the auto pilot join the Victor airway. Obviously this assumes the NAV radio has been set and the HSI course is set to track the Victor airway in the correct direction.

Yes, I was told to fly heading 090 and join V23. A lot of these methods seem to require visual scanning of the instruments, which I'm not really able to do for obvious reasons.

Is there any way to figure out the correct course to track an airway? If I could read the IFR low alt charts it would be pretty easy, but I have a friend whom I asked for help in converting them to some kind of accessible format and he threw up his hands, understandably. I gather airways can "turn," at fixes, which only confuses the issue further.

I was obviously able to fly I1-I3 successfully, but those didn't seem to require this same technique, unless I missed something or got too reliant on the GPS.

[Althar93]

Do you use or have access to an autopilot on the aircraft(s) you fly? Typically, with the autopilot on, if you select the NAV mode, to track a specific VOR radial (which will place on the victor airway), the aircraft should maintain its previously assigned heading mode (HDG) until the radial is intercepted after which the aircraft will automatically track/stay on the radial.

As for figuring out what radial to pick, I would need to to some research as I am unaware of any text-based database of fixes & victor airways. The airway will run through a bunch of fixes, so if you know from/to which fixes you will be travelling on it, you can derive the radial you need to follow. If all fails, I guess it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask ATC for the tracking radial to follow.

[zkline]

Hi All,

In doing some research into this, I stumbled onto this thread. There, it is suggested that for Foreflight purposes I input "SLI v23 OCN," even if I'm actually going to get vectors to join the V23 in mid-stream. I wonder if the same logic applies to other flight planners, such as the FSX default.

I do have access to the FSX default autopilot, but I'm not sure about its interface to the voice control software I use. THe commands for tracking VOR radials seem a bit broken, which is why I keep fretting about the FSX GPS flight plan

I guess I'll just try the I4 again at some point soon, and hopefully be able to carry it off properly this time.