Hey guys! Jon from fly8MA.com and today we're going
to be going over low enroute charts, and some of the basic symbology on these charts that's
a little bit different than you're regular VFR sectional charts. So as we come down here to the Sarasota/Venice
area, we're going to go ahead and take a look at our basic airport markings, and we don't
see the blue or magenta markings like we're used to. We now see green, brown or possible blue airport
markings as we have up here in Jacksonville. Jacksonville is a blue airport. So, if it's green or blue, realize that there
are instrument approach procedures going into that airport. If it's brown, then there simply is not approach
procedure or radar minimum published for that airport. As we come back down towards our local area
here, we're going to see some more common things that we recognize. Like, compass roses, or VORs, Victor airways
that are often published on VFR sectional charts. The difference is we notice here-- it's a
little bit more obvious when these Victor airways intersect with each other and create
intersections, and of course, all these intersections have names. And these intersections are often found in
a GPS database and can be navigated to, and you'll use those intersections when you're
building VFR-- or, I'm sorry-- IFR flight plans. When you're building an IFR flight plan, you
may name these different intersections on your route of flight along with something
like "From the Labelle VOR via Victor-157, to Rinse intersection." We can see where our Victor airways are named. Victor 521, Victor 157. And we see some numbers below them, and those
numbers are distance markers. What's the difference between this number
that's all by itself "11," versus this "177" that's in a box? Well, if it's in a box, it's a total distance
marker. It's measuring from the Labelle VOR all the
way up to the Lakeland VOR, compared to this "11" which is measuring the distance between
Quincy and Rinse intersection. We can see here we have some notes even on
Victor 157, that it's 77 miles from Lakeland VOR to the Labelle VOR, or 94 miles from the
Lakeland VOR all the way down to the RSW VOR. Now we're used to those minimum elevation
figures-- those big numbers the big first number and the little second number that denotes
the highest obstacle in the area on a VFR sectional chart. Around Sarasota, that number is 1,900-- a
big "1" and then a "9." And that talks to us about that little tower
that's out to the east of Sarasota. It's up pretty high there, and a hazard for
us. Now we notice we have the same big number--
big first number, little second number-- and that is going to be our (OROCA) Off Route
Obstacle Clearance Altitude. So the OROCA, 2,900, is one thousand feet
higher than the 1,900 we normally have in this quadrant because of this number here
doesn't tell you the height of the highest obstacle, it gives you the altitude you should
fly at or the minimum altitude you should fly at if you're off route in that area and
still have your minimum 1000 foot clearance between you and terrain. When you're flying IFR in non-mountainous
areas, you should always have 1000 feet between you and terrain. And then in mountainous areas, like North
Carolina maybe, you need 2000 feet between you and the highest obstacle. So, for us here, the off-route obstacle clearance
altitude is 2,900. If we stick to a published route like Victor
35 here, then we could go down to 2000 feet, if we're along that published route because
that route keeps us clear of that obstacle-- that tower. We can even see here on Victor 579, we could
fly at 3000 feet and that is our "MEA" or Minimum Enroute Altitude. Or we have an asterisk next to 1,600. We could fly at 1,600 feet along Victor 579
and still have 1000 feet obstacle clearance but that is a "MOCA" or Minimum Obstacle Clearance
Altitude and all it guarantees you is that you're not going to hit anything. It does not necessarily guarantee you that
you're going to be able to receive the Viola intersection, or identify it, because you
may be too low, and too far from the VOR to receive a good signal. So, this MOCA is an altitude that will guarantee
you obstacle clearance, and signal reception if you're within 22 miles of the VOR. So if you're within 22 nautical miles from
the VOR, you will get the signal reception, guaranteed, and obstacle clearance. But once you're more than 22 miles, you may
not be able to pick up the signal, and you would have to go up to 3000 feet. The 3000 feet not only guarantees you obstacle
clearance, but it also guarantees you signal reception along the entire route-- along this
entire Victor airway. Now, when would we change over from, say,
the Sarasota VOR to another VOR we're flying to? Well, normally we would change over when we're
halfway to our destination. That makes sense. The signal is half as strong coming from one
place, so we switch over to pick up the stronger signal as we get closer to the next VOR, unless
it's designated otherwise. What that looks like when it's designated
otherwise, it that there will be a change-over point. That change-over point is actually where you
want to switch the VOR signal. I don't see any here in Florida. We may have to look at another map here. We can see that this little L-shaped or zigzag
area is actually our change-over point. The change-over point will tell you not only
where along the route, pictorially, but it also gives you the distances from each VOR
from where you should be switching your VOR receiver for the best signal reception. The next things we notice here along these
Victor airways are these thick black lines, and then an intersection, and then another
thick, black line. But every so often we notice here that thick,
black line terminates with a little stop symbol there. So what is that little stop symbol about comparing
"V" versus "Viola." "V" means that you need to look at your MEAs
and realize that there's a different MEA along that route. Coming up here along the 312 radial, from
Lee County Vortac RSW, we would be at 2000 feet along the route, crossing "Pints" at
about 2000. Then once we hit Viola, we need to immediately
start climbing to 3000 feet because we have a higher MEA. The MEA here, 2000 feet, along Victor 35 is
the same when we cross, say, the intersection all the way down. There are no markers here that denote a change
in the MEA. These funny little boxes here that, with the
arrow, is a total mileage box depicting total mileage to this point from the VOR. Total mileage from the St. Pete Clearwater
VOR, PIE, down to here, is 56. From RSW to "Sabee" it is 40. Here when we see we go 9 miles back to "Charo"
it's 31. And when we come just 2 miles back to "Cexan,"
then it's 29. It's important to note that if you can't pronounce
these intersections, don't feel bad. There's a lot of 30-year captains at Delta
and American Airlines that can't pronounce them either. They're very difficult. Now, the next thing we want to talk about
is the difference between this little triangle here-- this little intersection-- and one
that's an intersection, five letters, but not the little triangle, and it's not along
a Victor airway. Well, that's a GPS waypoint. The only way you're going to find it is not
with your VOR, but with and R-Nav or GPS system in the aircraft. Remember, those GPS systems can't be an iPad,
it needs to be panel-mounted, and an approved TSO GPS for the airplane. It does so happen that oftentimes we have
GPS waypoints along Victor airways, but sometimes they can be all by themselves, and the reason
for that is that they are probably lying somewhere along an approach, to get you lined up with
an approach into, maybe, Clewiston, since we do have approach procedures going into
Clewiston. Now, these brown lines here are not anything
we're going to follow. Those IR routes-- if you remember from the
sectional charts-- IR were military routes. When they're skinny military routes, like
this one right here IR-20, that's a military route with a 5 nautical mile or less radius,
or width rather. So, 5 nautical miles on either side of the
center line, so really a 10-mile wide route along here, along IR-20. And then these, down here, are more than 5
miles wide. It doesn't really tell us how much, but more
than 5 miles wide on either side of the centerline, so more than ten miles total diameter across
the airway for IR-34. Now sometimes you'll notice that there are
these VOR compass roses, and then sometimes they're bigger, and then sometimes they're
not there at all. Like, for the homestead VOR. It simply is missing. Well, if it doesn't have a compass rose, but
it's depicted as a VOR with that little droid-type symbol, it is a terminal VOR. It's something you're only going to be able
to receive 25 miles out. It's for a very local area, probably just
to help with approach procedures. Then when you see a compass rose, the size
of it actually doesn't matter. The size is just there to accommodate the
congestion of the airspace. So there are two VORs next to each other here. They made them smaller so they would fit nicely. No rhyme or reason to the size or width of
the compass rose. People often mistake it for being a high or
low VOR based on the size, and that's not the case. What we have here is just a high or low VOR,
for the Dolphin VOR. And a high or low VOR the Virginia Key VOR. We don't know if it is high or low. How we're going to tell that is to look in
the chart supplement, and it will have an "H" or "L" next to that VOR for an airport
that it services. Also, notice the difference between Vortac
and VOR. hen you see these little green dashed lines, that simply just means the same as
like a terminal area chart in our sectional world-- in our VFR world. They have a more detailed IFR chart for this
particular area. We see this green along the coastline, that's
denoting water. So, when you have lakes, they're going to
have green around them to note water. We can see here that we have this funny little
symbol coming off of West Palm Beach: "089." What that is, is actually the localizer, and
there's the localizer frequency, the identifier, and the morse code for it, that you could
tune to, and use that localizer to help you identify "YIGBO" intersection or however you'd
like to say that. So you could identify Yigbo intersection off
of the Vero Beach VOR which is Treasure Coast VOR down Victor 159, and then when you're
on Victor 159 and you intercept and are centered on the localizer for West Palm Beach, then
you must be at Yigbo intersection. You could also identify Yigbo off of the Pahokee
VOR. Either way would work, it just depends on
how you want to do it. Maybe the Pahokee VOR is out of service, so
you have to use the localizer or vice versa. Now, we're familiar with MOAs and restricted
areas from flying VFR. The restricted areas are still denoted in
blue, and MOAs are denoted in this brownish color here. And they simply will just try to vector you
around those MOAs are hot. It's really up to Air Traffic Control to keep
you where you need to be when you're IFR. You really don't have to worry about airspace,
and that's why the only airspace we really see depicted on here is Class Charlie and
Class Bravo airspace. It doesn't really affect us when we're flying
IFR. They're going to take care of sending us where
we need to go, but it's just helpful for situational awareness. Another Class Charlie there at Daytona, and
of course, Jacksonville is also a Class Charlie. Now as we come down our map here, we can find
the ADIZ that we know as that magenta dotted line, and it's depicted with blue dotted lines
that same solid line. And so we still see where the ADIZ is on our
Low Enroute Charts, and of course, if you're crossing it and you're on an IFR flight plan,
you really don't have anything to worry about. It's still good to reference if maybe you're
on a composite flight plan and you want to know where that ADIZ actually lies so you
can activate your IFR flight plan before crossing it. The other thing to notice here, is we have
a lot of intersections-- these little empty triangle boxes-- that are in fact, empty. There are just little blank spaces there. And our VORs are the same way. They're empty as well. Well, what happens when it's colored in? Well, the difference is just that it's a compulsory
reporting point. We'll talk a lot more about reporting points
in another video. But it's a compulsory reporting point. So it doesn't affect anything other than that
it's a point that if you're not in radar contact, you need to report crossing it to ATC. You can see that the vast majority of our
intersections are not compulsory reporting points, simply because you're always in radar
contact when you're in this area. The last thing we'll talk about is a little
bit outdated. We don't really have it anymore, but we have
NDBs depicted here. All of these little dotted brown lines. We can see another NDB here. They were used for many years for IFR and
VFR navigation, and now we no longer test them, we no longer talk about them with students,
and most aircraft either don't have the receivers or the receivers broken. Just simply know that's symbology there if
you're wondering what it is, it is that 3-digit- 3-number, AM frequency for an NDB. That's all we've got for basic IFR Low Enroute
Charts. These charts cover from the ground on up to
18,000 feet MSL, flight level 180. Stay tuned for our next videos on the advanced
IFR Low Enroute Charts, and High Charts. We'll get a lot more in detail. But all the other symbology that's on here,
and all the other great information that's buried in these charts, is very similar to
all the great information buried in all of those sectional charts. Hey guys!Thanks so much for watching, and
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