UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ENG

ENGINEERING

Bachelor of Engineering (Aerospace Engineering)

DISCOVER . LEARN .
EMPOWER
 20ASB-403

Academic Session : AUG-NOVEMBER 2023

Semester : VI

Miss Moniya
Faculty of Aerospace Department,
Chandigarh University
[email protected]
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This undergraduate level course on Automatic flight control teaches students about the
detailed working principle about control system.
The primary goal of this course is on the teaching about the requirement of flight
controls in aerospace industry as well as let them know about their usage .

3
 COURSE PRE-REQUISITES

Students are expected to have a basic understanding of flight

control .Additionally, students will also get to learn about the various kinds of
system used by them.

4
 COURSE OUTCOMES

On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to:

Calculate the aerodynamics and mathematical model of control system

Apply the advanced concepts of avionics and control to the engineers.

5
 Lect-22-B

SYLLABUS
Unit-I
Introduction
Control system: Introduction to Control System Design, Open vs. Closed Loop Control, Analogue, Digital
and Logical Control

Controllers: Industrial Controllers, Control System Design Objectives, Control System Design Cycle

Unit-II
FCS
Guidance: Introduction to Flight Control System, History, Guidance, Navigation and Control

Control Panel: Flight Control Channel, Flight Control Methods, SAS vs. Autopilot.
6
 Unit-III
Aerodynamic Behavior
Stability: Aerodynamic Considerations of Flight Control Systems, Static and Dynamic
Stability, Stability and Maneuverability

Aeroelastic effects: Static Margin, Variations of the Center of Pressure, Hinge

Moment, Aeroelastic Effects.
PID CONTROLLER-

The term PID stands for proportional integral derivative and it is one kind of device
used to control different process variables like pressure, flow, temperature, and
speed in industrial applications. In this controller, a control loop feedback device is
used to regulate all the process variables.

This type of control is used to drive a system in the direction of an objective location
otherwise level. It is almost everywhere for temperature control and used in
scientific processes, automation & chemical. In this controller, closed-loop feedback
is used to maintain the real output from a method like close to the objective
otherwise output at the fixed point if possible.
 The Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is a widely used control
algorithm in engineering and automation systems. It is designed to regulate a system's
output by adjusting a control input based on the error between the desired setpoint and
the actual process variable.

Control system-

First, let's take a look at control system with negative feedback system. Here we have
considered a case of unity negative feedback system and in that controller is
Proportional controller.

Here input is R(s) , output is C(s) and E(s) = R(s)-C(s)

What is Proportional controller and how it will give output ?

So, here Proportional controller is having constant gain i.e. Kp

where

R(s) is the input,

C(s) is the output,
G(s) is the forward path gain, and
H(s) is the feedback gain.
In the standard form of a second order system,
Transfer function of Proportional controller
Physical understanding of Proportional controller

Now the output is based on constant gain Kp. Output of Proportional controller
will not loose its shape because the frequency of output is similar to the input
here only gain will change.
Significance of Proportional controller

If you choose Kp value low then response will be slower and for Kp value as high
then response will be higher. (Response )
Integral Controller

Integral controller produces an output which is integration of input signal.

where

R(s) is the input,

C(s) is the output,
G(s) is the forward path gain, and
H(s) is the feedback gain.
In the standard form of a second order system,
Transfer function.
The response of the second order system mainly depends on its damping ratio ζ.
For a particular input, the response of the second order system can be categorized
and analyzed based on the damping effect caused by the value of ζ -

ζ > 1 :- overdamped system

ζ = 1 :- critically damped system
0 < ζ < 1 :- underdamped system
ζ = 0 :- undamped system

Without Integral controller, the order of the system was two but with Integral
controller it became three.
So here we can observe by adding Integral controller, we add pole to the system.
Stability of the system will decreased due to the Integral controller.
Advantage
Steady state error can be eliminated

Disadvantage
Stability will decrease as we add pole in the system.
Derivative Controller-
Derivative Controller Produce an output which deferential of input of the
controller.
Introduction (Guidance Navigation & Control )

GNC is focused on the design of systems to control the movement and position of
platforms such as missiles, space, and airborne platforms; ground vehicles; and
maritime and underwater platforms. GNC systems are constantly being improved to
provide better target-location accuracy and precision; faster attitude correction
response of guided platforms; and lower size, weight, and power of GNC electronics.

Guidance involves the vehicle’s current location and trajectory to a designated target,
as well as desired changes in its velocity, rotation, and acceleration for following that
path.
Navigation involves the vehicle’s location and velocity (its state vector) and its
attitude (angular position in space).

Control involves the application of steering controls needed to execute guidance

commands while maintaining platform stability and smooth travel to the target.
A typical GNC block diagram is shown in Figure 1. The guidance system can include
an automatic trajectory generator. The control system includes a main system
controller that can control the trajectory of the platform and correct its state vector
based on external disturbances such as wind, ocean waves, or other environmental
effects. The navigation systems could be based on the Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) or on optical star trackers in a GPS-denied environment.

Figure 1: Block Diagram of a Typical GNC System

An Overview of Guidance Laws
The primary objective of the guidance subsystem in a tactical missile is to generate
suitable commands so that the missile comes closer and closer to its target. This is a
very broad definition and it is somewhat unsatisfactory when you consider the fact
that there are many physical constraints under which a missile has to perform. The
major constraint is that of time. Tactical missiles of the SAM or AAM category
seldom have a flight time of more than 50 seconds. In this short time the guidance
system has to generate a sufficient number of commands to enable the missile to fly
in the proper intercept course and intercept the target. So, the main concern here is
the following: How can a guidance subsystem utilize the information available to it
to generate proper guidance commands within the time limitations imposed upon it.
This was the concern of the guidance system designers in the early days of guided
missile design. Of course, in those days it was more vital to design a proper
propulsion system that could carry the missile and its payload to the desired distance
rather than to design a guidance system that can accurately intercept a target.
 The reasons for this were two-fold. The first was that guided missiles were used mainly for
the psychological advantage that they gave to an army rather than for their accuracy (to be
frank, this seems to be an important factor even now – if you go by the track record of the
Patriot missiles during the recent gulf war!).

 The second reason was that the targets in those days were somewhat clumsy and slow
moving – for example, Zeppelins during the First World War (these were more like huge
balloons that you could hit by throwing a stone – well, almost!), or low-flying and low-speed
aircraft. However, soon after the Second World War, all this changed and demand on the
guidance system went up. They needed to be more accurate and more reliable. So well-
defined guidance laws with a firm grounding on a theoretical framework was essential. Even
then, the Classical Guidance Laws, which were proposed and tried out, were based on very
simple ideas.

 These simple ideas were intuitively appealing but did not initially have any firm theoretical
basis. In fact, they were rather empirical in nature.

 However, their major advantages were:

They were easy to understand,

• easy to implement,
• needed simple information inputs, and
• by their very simplicity instilled a sense of confidence in their designers (which is perhaps the
most important – and quite often the least understood – aspect of all pioneering and successful
design activities).

It was not until the 1960s that a rigorous mathematical framework for these guidance laws began to
emerge with the rapid developments in the area of Optimal Control Theory and its applications,
which basically dealt with problems of dynamic optimization. The kind of problems in which
optimal control theory found applications were related to the optimization of some performance
criterion by a dynamical system working under well-specified constraints. It is easy to see that
many missile-target engagement problems can be quite obviously formulated in this framework.
However, formulation of a problem is one thing and the solution of it is another. It was soon found
that with the available computing resources it was almost impossible to obtain a solution to a
realistically formulated non-linear guidance problem.
The obvious next step was to adopt a linearized formulation and hope for a solution
that can be implemented easily and yield a close-to-optimal solution when
implemented in a closed-loop manner. The fundamental principle behind this approach
was that when you break up a real-life dynamical system into smaller time-frames
then, within that time frame, it can be approximated as a linear system. This approach
yielded rich results in more ways than one. The so-called linear quadratic formulation
gave a simpler solution to the problem with the hope of achieving partial
implementation at some future time when computing capability go up. But the more
important benefit of this exercise was the realization that many of the empirical
guidance laws could actually be shown to have a very good theoretical basis. In other
words, it was found that the so-called empirical guidance laws were optimal under
some simplified assumptions.
From the above discussion we can now classify guidance laws as:
• Classical or Empirical guidance laws
• Modern or Theoretically-rigorous guidance laws
Conceptual Classical Guidance Laws: These guidance laws are the ones that were
conceptually sound and attracted quite a bit of attention in the early days of guidance law
development but very quickly they revealed several drawbacks, mainly in terms of
performance and implementability. But, because the concepts on which their initial premise
was based were quite logical, they reveal a lot about how guidance schemes work in reality.

Pursuit guidance law :The pursuit guidance law was based on the simplest of all ideas. It is
also called the dog-and-rabbit guidance law. When a dog – which is known for its friendliness
to the human species, but is seldom commended for its intelligence – chases a rabbit, it tries to
keep pointing its muzzle at the rabbit as it runs toward it. Logically speaking, this should be
considered an excellent guidance strategy since only a moment’s thought will convince you
that if you keep on pointing towards a moving target and continue to come closer and closer to
it, then after some time you are bound to hit the target. But, if you have ever had an occasion to
watch such a chase you would have noticed that quite often towards the end of the chase the
dog, while taking a sharp turn, misses a step, slips, and falls. By the time it gets up, the rabbit
is gone! This is precisely the major problem with pursuit guidance too. The reason the dog
misses its step is because it tries to take too sharp a turn.
• The next stage in the development of this guidance law was precisely this and it was
called the deviated pursuit guidance law. Here, the missile does not point toward the target
but at a point slightly ahead of it. This scheme does reduce the demand on the guidance
system in terms of the turn radius but has other kind of problems. One obvious problem is
the fact that if the target changes its direction of flight (a maneuvering target – for example,
one which executes a circular maneuver) then the angular deviation needed must also change
accordingly.

• It is not a very trivial matter to carry out an implementation of this aspect. Other variations of
the pursuit guidance are the attitude pursuit and the velocity pursuit. In attitude pursuit
the missile’s centerline or the longitudinal axis is made to point toward the target,
whereas in the velocity pursuit the velocity vector of the missile is made to point toward
the target. Note that these two are different since the velocity vector of a missile lags its
longitudinal axis by the angle-of-attack. It is actually not correct to say that pursuit guidance
is unimplementable. It is an inefficient guidance law so far as aircraft target are concerned,
where the target velocity is quite high. But this guidance law works fine with slowly moving
targets like ships and tanks, and realistic simulations have reported excellent performance.
Notice that at every instant in time the missile is pointing towards the target (a low flying
incoming aircraft – also called a crossing target) which is flying in a straight line. At point A on the
trajectory the missile has to take a very sharp turn if it is to continue pointing towards the target.
Now, a missile cannot take any arbitrary turn.

It has a minimum turn radius below which it cannot turn (just the way your motor vehicle has –
you cannot make your vehicle turn in a circle of 1 meter radius). So, it can no longer keep pointing
towards the target and ultimately misses it. The broken line after point A is the trajectory which the
missile would have followed and ultimately hit the target, had it been capable of taking sharp
turns. The solid line shows the actual trajectory of the missile when it is constrained by a
minimum turn radius. This trajectory causes the missile to miss the target. Note that the missile
missed the target in spite of the target not trying to maneuver at all.

It would have been worse if the target had actually maneuvered This guidance law is actually
called the pure pursuit guidance law. A natural question that comes to mind is, what happens if
we train the dog to display a little more intelligence by taking advantage of the information
that the rabbit is running in a particular direction?
Constant bearing course
This is conceptually the best guidance law that one can think of. All guidance laws
actually try to achieve the performance of the Constant Bearing Course Guidance
Law. It is based upon the concept of collision triangle described .To explain how this
guidance law works look at the next figure (Figure 6.3).
• Consider the triangle CMT. Initially the missile is at M and the target is at T. Suppose they move
at constant speeds in the directions shown by the arrows and ultimately collide at point C. Then
it implies that the time taken by the missile to cover the distance MC was the same as the time
taken by the target to cover the distance T C. Which, in turn, implies that the velocity ratio of the
missile and the target is the same as the ratio MC T C between the sides of the triangle. This is
called the collision triangle.

• Now look at the other positions of the missile and the target: When the missile is at position M1
the target is at position T1, when the missile is at position M2 the target is at position T2, and so
on. The line joining the missile position and the target position is called the instantaneous line-
of-sight (LOS). A little thought will convince you that under the given conditions the LOS does
not rotate at all. In other words, MT is parallel to M1T1, which in turn is parallel to M2T2, and
so on.

• It turns out that this is a necessary condition for collision to occur when the missile and the
target are both flying in straight line paths and with constant speed. If, in addition, the rate of
change of the LOS separation is negative, i.e., the length of the LOS is decreasing in time, then
these two conditions together constitute a necessary and sufficient condition for intercept to
occur. This is a very important and fundamental result in guidance theory.
• Now, coming back to the constant bearing course, it appears that the constant bearing guidance law
is the solution to all our guidance problems. Theoretically this guidance law indeed gives the best
performance with respect to reasonable performance measures but, in practice, neither the missile
nor the target flies at a constant speed. Moreover, the target is quite likely to maneuver.

• This means that the LOS will tend to rotate in space and to implement the constant bearing
guidance law the guidance system must be able to take corrective actions for every such change
instantaneously. Only then will the guidance law give satisfactory performance results. But this is
too much to expect from any guidance law.

• No physical system has such fast response. Added to it is the fact that the measurement errors
are also quite high. Hence, an exact implementation of the constant bearing course is next to
impossible. So, what is the alternative? It turns out that the alternative is the Proportional
Navigation (PN) guidance law, which tries to implement the constant bearing guidance law in
the most practical way possible, and that is the reason why PN has been found to give such
good performance even at the face of serious odd.
 Implementable Classical Guidance Laws

• In this section we shall talk about some classical/empirical guidance laws which are not only
based upon very simple concepts but were also actually implemented in many missiles during
the early days of tactical missile development. Some of these missiles are being used even
now and continue to give excellent performance.

• Line-of-Sight (LOS) Guidance: The LOS Guidance also works on a simple philosophy.
According to it, if the missile remains on the line-of-sight joining the launch station and the
target, and it is fired in the direction of the target then the missile must hit the target.

• The basic idea behind this guidance law is that the line-of-sight from the launch station to the
target is basically some kind of a reference which defines the position of the missile at any
given instant in time. The missile guidance system acts in such a way that the missile attempts
to remain on this line. Also note that the missile has to turn in such a way that it has to match
the LOS rate, that is, its velocity normal to the line-of-sight should equal the LOS velocity at
that point.
• Before we look into the actual implementation of this guidance law let us see how the guidance
law performs. Let us consider a scenario similar to the one in pursuit guidance, that is, we
consider an incoming target which is flying low and at a reasonably high speed. The next figure
(Figure 6.5) shows the resulting trajectory. You can see that a problem similar to the one in
pursuit guidance occurs even here. That is, towards the end of the engagement the missile needs
to take a very sharp turn. In spite of this drawback, LOS guidance has been used quite
extensively for many types of missiles. It is basically mechanized in two forms: Command-to-
Line-of-Sight (CLOS) and Beam Rider (BR). Their basic principle remains the same. They differ
only in their mechanization.

• Command-to-Line-of-Sight: In this kind of guidance, an uplink is used to transmit guidance

commands from a guidance computer, situated on the ground station or the launch platform, to
the missile. The ground station tracks the missile and the target, computes the guidance
command which would enable the missile to remain on the LOS joining the ground station
(tracking radar) and the target, and transmits this guidance command to the missile via an uplink
which could be a radio link or a wire link.
• Since the ground station tracks the missile, the missile’s position is known to it,
and so the guidance command compensates for the missile position before
transmission of the command to the missile. Normally the guidance command is
proportional to the angular error between the LOS and the line joining the ground
station and the missile, and the distance of the missile from the ground station.
Note that this quantity is the linear displacement of the missile from the LOS and
normal to it. A compensation term is added to this guidance command in a
feedforward mode.
• Beam-Rider: There is an electro-optical beam that joins the ground station with the target. The
missile guidance system which is located inside the missile senses the deviation of the missile
position from the beam and generates guidance commands to enable the missile to stay inside the
beam.
• Figure 6.6 explains the working of the beam-rider missile. The beam may be a radar beam or a
laser one and the source of the beam is attached to the launcher itself. The missile carries a
receiver at its rear end which receives the beam signal and helps the missile to determine how far
away from the beam axis the missile is.

• The beam signal is reflected by the target and is in turn received by the ground radar. This signal
is used to track the target. One problem here is that as the missile turns, its axis has a large
angular deviation with respect to the beam axis. So, if the receiver at the rear end of the missile
does not have sufficient beam width then it can easily miss the signal from the beam. This
situation is likely to occur when the target is a high-speed approaching or crossing aircraft and is
illustrated in Figure 6.7.

• The beam-rider missile requires on-board autopilot compensation since in this case (unlike the
CLOS case) the ground tracker does not know the position of the missile once the missile has
been fired. The Talos beam-rider missile is an example of an early missile which uses this
principle
Proportional Navigation (PN) Guidance:
• Now we come to the most important guidance law of all the classical guidance
laws. This guidance law tries to emulate the principle of the constant bearing
guidance law in the most logical way. Before we try to understand how the PN
guidance law is formulated let us go back in history to the genesis of the PN law.
In olden days when mariners did not have sophisticated instruments to help
them, one of the main problems for a ship entering the harbor was to avoid
colliding with other ships.

• The detection of collision well in advance was crucial since if avoidance

maneuvers are not put into execution with sufficient time to spare, the ships
tended to collide since achieving even a slight change in the course of a ship
takes a fairly long time. The mariners used a very practical thumb rule for
detecting collisions between ships. When a neighboring ship appears to be
stationary, and also seems to be growing in size, a collision is imminent. This is
the time when they immediately began avoidance maneuvers by changing the
course of their ship.
• If we analyze the observations made by the sailors and compare them with the constant bearing
course that we have discussed earlier we will see that there is a close analogy between the two.
When another ship appears to be stationary with respect to your own ship it implies that the line-
of-sight between the two ships is not rotating. If the other ship appears to grow larger and larger,
it implies that the distance between the two ships is reducing, that is, the LOS separation between
the two ships is reducing. These are precisely the two conditions (necessary and sufficient) which
ensures interception of the target by the missile.

• Proportional Navigation (PN) uses this observation to design a guidance law. To obtain a
collision the LOS rotation rate (also called the LOS rate) must be kept at zero, while the
separation must be reduced with time. It is easy to ensure the latter by launching the missile
approximately in the direction of the target (or a predicted collision point), but to ensure zero
LOS rate the missile has to make its own turn rate proportional to the LOS rate. This implies that
if the missile carried sensors to measure the line-of-sight rate then this information can be used to
easily generate a proper guidance command. Note that the phrase proportional navigation is a
misnomer since it has nothing to do with navigation (which is the determination of the position of
a vehicle).
 The reason why this name has stuck is that when proportional navigation was first invented, the
difference between guidance and navigation was not a clearly understood concept and every activity
related to the task of moving a vehicle from one point to another was termed as navigation. Also, this
kind of work in those days was influenced by naval terminologies where, again, navigation was a word
that encompassed a whole lot of activities. Because of this the name has remained and, out of respect
for its historical legacy, is used even now.
• The word proportional, of course, comes from the fact that the missile turn rate is made proportional to the
LOS rate. It is interesting to note that the proportional navigation guidance law was known to the German
scientists during the World War II in the Peenemunde research laboratories, and a considerable amount of
research had been carried out by them, although, fortunately for the allies’ warplanes, it was never
implemented by the Germans in any missiles during the Second World War1. We will not go into the details
of how the PN guidance law works since we are going to deal with it in greater detail in our subsequent
lectures anyway. But let me stress that of all the guidance laws that we have discussed till now, and even
among those that we are going to discuss later, PN stands apart in terms of its implement ability, elegance,
simplicity, and its wide applicability. Later we shall show how most of the so called modern guidance laws
are just logical extensions and variants of the PN philosophy and a study of them can be easily carried out
under the unified framework of the PN philosophy.
What is aircraft navigation?

Aircraft navigation or just air navigation refers to taking an aircraft from starting point
to the desired destination while never losing control, getting lost, violating regulations
governing aircraft operations, or putting people on board and the ground at risk.

The basic principles of general navigation (sea and ground) apply to aircraft
navigation, including planning, recording, and controlling the movement of the
aircraft in the air. And all this is achieved by using certain navigation aids to help the
pilots know their exact location at all times.
1.Various types of air navigation aids are in use today, each serving a special
purpose. These aids have varied owners and operators, namely: the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), the military services, private organizations,
individual states and foreign governments. The FAA has the statutory authority to
establish, operate, maintain air navigation facilities and to prescribe standards for
the operation of any of these aids which are used for instrument flight in federally
controlled airspace. These aids are tabulated in the Chart Supplement U.S.

2.Pilots should be aware of the possibility of momentary erroneous indications on

cockpit displays when the primary signal generator for a ground-based
navigational transmitter (for example, a glideslope, VOR, or nondirectional
beacon) is inoperative. Pilots should disregard any navigation indication,
regardless of its apparent validity, if the particular transmitter was identified by
NOTAM or otherwise as unusable or inoperative.
1.Nondirectional Radio Beacon (NDB)A low or medium frequency radio beacon transmits
nondirectional signals whereby the pilot of an aircraft properly equipped can determine bearings
and “home” on the station. These facilities normally operate in a frequency band of 190 to 535
kilohertz (kHz), according to ICAO Annex 10 the frequency range for NDBs is between 190 and
1750 kHz, and transmit a continuous carrier with either 400 or 1020 hertz (Hz) modulation. All
radio beacons except the compass locators transmit a continuous three-letter identification in code
except during voice transmissions.

2.When a radio beacon is used in conjunction with the Instrument Landing System markers, it is
called a Compass Locator.

3.Voice transmissions are made on radio beacons unless the letter “W” (without voice) is included in
the class designator (HW).

4.Radio beacons are subject to disturbances that may result in erroneous bearing information. Such
disturbances result from such factors as lightning, precipitation static, etc. At night, radio beacons
are vulnerable to interference from distant stations. Nearly all disturbances which affect the
Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) bearing also affect the facility's identification. Noisy
identification usually occurs when the ADF needle is erratic. Voice, music or erroneous
identification may be heard when a steady false bearing is being displayed. Since ADF receivers do
not have a “flag” to warn the pilot when erroneous bearing information is being displayed, the pilot
should continuously monitor the NDB's identification.
1.VHF Omni-directional Range (VOR)

A)VORs operate within the 108.0 to 117.95 MHz frequency band and have a power output
necessary to provide coverage within their assigned operational service volume. They are subject
to line-of-sight restrictions, and the range varies proportionally to the altitude of the receiving
equipment.

B)Most VORs are equipped for voice transmission on the VOR frequency. VORs without voice
capability are indicated by the letter “W” (without voice) included in the class designator
(VORW).

C)The only positive method of identifying a VOR is by its Morse Code identification or by the
recorded automatic voice identification which is always indicated by use of the word “VOR”
following the range's name. Reliance on determining the identification of an omnirange should
never be placed on listening to voice transmissions by the Flight Service Station (FSS) (or
approach control facility) involved. Many FSSs remotely operate several omniranges with
different names. In some cases, none of the VORs have the name of the “parent” FSS. During
periods of maintenance, the facility may radiate a T-E-S-T code (- ● ●●● -) or the code may be
removed. Some VOR equipment decodes the identifier and displays it to the pilot for verification
to charts, while other equipment simply displays the expected identifier from a database to aid in
verification to the audio tones. You should be familiar with your equipment and use it
appropriately. If your equipment automatically decodes the identifier, it is not necessary to listen to
D)Voice identification has been added to numerous VORs. The transmission consists of a voice
announcement, “AIRVILLE VOR” alternating with the usual Morse Code identification.
E)The effectiveness of the VOR depends upon proper use and adjustment of both ground and
airborne equipment.

1. Accuracy. The accuracy of course alignment of the VOR is excellent, being generally plus or
minus 1 degree.

2. Roughness. On some VORs, minor course roughness may be observed, evidenced by course
needle or brief flag alarm activity (some receivers are more susceptible to these irregularities
than others). At a few stations, usually in mountainous terrain, the pilot may occasionally
observe a brief course needle oscillation, similar to the indication of “approaching station.”
Pilots flying over unfamiliar routes are cautioned to be on the alert for these vagaries, and in
particular, to use the “to/from” indicator to determine positive station passage.
---Certain propeller revolutions per minute (RPM) settings or helicopter rotor speeds can cause
the VOR Course Deviation Indicator to fluctuate as much as plus or minus six degrees. Slight
changes to the RPM setting will normally smooth out this roughness. Pilots are urged to check
for this modulation phenomenon prior to reporting a VOR station or aircraft equipment for
unsatisfactory operation.
F)The VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON). As flight procedures and
route structure based on VORs are gradually being replaced with Performance-Based
Navigation (PBN) procedures, the FAA is removing selected VORs from service.
PBN procedures are primarily enabled by GPS and its augmentation systems,
collectively referred to as Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Aircraft that
carry DME/DME equipment can also use RNAV which provides a backup to
continue flying PBN during a GNSS disruption. For those aircraft that do not carry
DME/DME, the FAA is retaining a limited network of VORs, called the VOR MON,
to provide a basic conventional navigation service for operators to use if GNSS
becomes unavailable. During a GNSS disruption, the MON will enable aircraft to
navigate through the affected area or to a safe landing at a MON airport without
reliance on GNSS. Navigation using the MON will not be as efficient as the new
PBN route structure, but use of the MON will provide nearly continuous VOR signal
coverage at 5,000 feet AGL across the NAS, outside of the Western U.S.
Mountainous Area (WUSMA).
Thank
You!