Cat 8 test - lost in the weeds

[spenconk]

Hey Folks,
I am hoping to get some direction here since I nearly failed the CAT8 test today.
I flew the supplied heading of 86 degrees for 75nm after take off. At least I thought I flew that far. I was using the 112.5 Fillmore Vortac as a Nav aid for distance and direction.
I guess I descended from 7500 too soon (what I thought was 15nm from airport) and found myself in the wrong valley (before all the airports) at about 4000ft.
I called the busy controller who graciously tried to help me locate the airport that was probably on the other side of the mountain.
I flew around the hill and started to see airports, one after the other, all wrong until she helped me find Burbank.
There must be something I am missing so that I can know the direction and distance to the airport without using a GPS.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Spencer

[Keith Smith]

The VNY VOR might be helpful as a navigation aid. There is no stated requirement to fly a heading of 86 degrees for 75nm.

I would suggest watching the VFR workshops (http://pilotedge.net/workshops) which helps cover VFR cross country flight planning.

[spenconk]

OK - Now I am even more confused. The chart in the CAT test has the bearing and distance to the target.
I have attached it and drew an arrow pointing at it.

Soooo, the airports don't broadcast a beacon that tell you the direction and distance to it?
Studying the charts I see that LAX has its own Vortac.

I am studying the workshops.
Thanks Keith!

[Keith Smith]

That line is there as a reference to relationship between the origin and destination airports. That's not to say you must fly a direct line between the airports. Such a regimented requirement would go against the premise of flying VFR.

To your specific question, no, there isn't necessarily a navigational aid at every airport. Look closely at the sectional and TAC chart as part of your flight planning to determine which navaids might be useful. For example, the VNY VOR might come in handy for locating Burbank.

Again, I'd suggest that the VFR workshops on XC flight planning might be a good idea. I've flown coast to coast in the sim over the years several times in aircraft with no GPS or moving map and didn't tune a single navaid on a couple of those flights. The two skills you want to practice are called pilotage and ded reckoning.

[Ryan B]

I'd also highly recommend the training workshop videos. https://www.pilotedge.net/workshops There is a time and a place for following navaids etc but the CAT8 is more about working the comms while flying between two airports (and watching out for other traffic). I'd also suggest picking some waypoints, or points that you could easily find along that magic pink line you made in skyvector. SV makes it easy, you can just right click on the map where you want a point and it will mark a GPS coordinate/LL. You don't care about that but what you do care about is distance between your waypoints. If you're flying a cessna you might be at 120 kts - 2 miles a min. Along with your mark I eyeball and a watch/timer, you can easily see if you're on or off course. You might not know winds aloft, but you can plan for that too (https://www.windytv.com) .

The above is just ONE way of many to fly VFR to another airport. You could simply note that you have approx 75 miles to fly, and at 2 miles per min it will take you about 37 min to fly it at 120 kts (assuming no wind), and just pick a heading to start your venture on. Use skyvector to backup your eyeball with points of interest like road intersections, lakes/rivers, towns etc.

That's VFR!

[jiva602]

I'd also highly recommend the training workshop videos. https://www.pilotedge.net/workshops There is a time and a place for following navaids etc but the CAT8 is more about working the comms while flying between two airports (and watching out for other traffic). I'd also suggest picking some waypoints, or points that you could easily find along that magic pink line you made in skyvector. SV makes it easy, you can just right click on the map where you want a point and it will mark a GPS coordinate/LL. You don't care about that but what you do care about is distance between your waypoints. If you're flying a cessna you might be at 120 kts - 2 miles a min. Along with your mark I eyeball and a watch/timer, you can easily see if you're on or off course. You might not know winds aloft, but you can plan for that too (https://www.windytv.com) .

The above is just ONE way of many to fly VFR to another airport. You could simply note that you have approx 75 miles to fly, and at 2 miles per min it will take you about 37 min to fly it at 120 kts (assuming no wind), and just pick a heading to start your venture on. Use skyvector to backup your eyeball with points of interest like road intersections, lakes/rivers, towns etc.

That's VFR!

You make a great point here - one which I unfortunately missed during my first few days VFR. Many ways to achieve makes it interesting and an ongoing challenge. A lot of folks have told me not to worry about fancy scenery but it is extremely helpful to have at least decent scenery when using dead reckoning and waypoints

[zerofay32]

A lot of folks have told me not to worry about fancy scenery but it is extremely helpful to have at least decent scenery when using dead reckoning and waypoints

There is a difference between fancy scenery and accurate scenery. I few years ago I got an add on for FSX that changed/updated the land-classes, roads, and water features. Now everything down to the smallest lake, road, even little town that is on the sectional chart is in the sim. But the graphics are certainly not fancy (still uses stock building and trees for the pop in) While FTX products (and the like) look very nice they are overkill for what you need to get the job done IMO. To each their own.