A Couple Of Things

As GPS becomes more ubiquitous-and as the FAA works to reduce its expenses for things like navigation facilities, airports and controllers-it has long-range plans to unplug hundreds of VOR facilities throughout the U.S. in favor of the satellites. There were 967 U.S. VORs operating in late 2012, and AOPA says the FAA wanted that number to be 500 by January 2020, when ADS-B and the next-generation ATC system are supposed to be in place.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The FAA is proceeding with plans to decommission hundreds of VOR facilities and cancel numerous VOR/NDB approaches across the U.S., transitioning towards GPS-based navigation, though at a slower pace than initially projected.
The FAA is developing a smartphone app called "B4UFLY" for model aircraft and UAS users, designed to inform them if their current or planned flight location is safe and legal, with a beta version available on iOS.

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As GPS becomes more ubiquitous—and as the FAA works to reduce its expenses for things like navigation facilities, airports and controllers—it has long-range plans to unplug hundreds of VOR facilities throughout the U.S. in favor of the satellites. There were 967 U.S. VORs operating in late 2012, and AOPA says the FAA wanted that number to be 500 by January 2020, when ADS-B and the next-generation ATC system are supposed to be in place.