![]() ![]() While a MON airport might be slightly further away than another potential alternate, it does guarantee more navigation options.Ī word of caution: It is always a good idea to make sure no NOTAMs are in effect that might affect your smooth transition to an alternate airport. Giving yourself all possible options isn’t a bad thing. Making MON part of your alternate selection process could become part of your best practices when filing IFR flight plans. Using a MON airport as an alternate allows a pilot to use a different navigation system if a transition to an alternate becomes necessary after a missed approach. It might also be a good idea to research what navigation services an alternate airport might have. When we plan for alternate airports as IFR pilots, we most commonly think about weather requirement considerations. This enhanced volume allows a pilot to transition to a VOR and onto an approach at greater distances than in the past. Most notable is that a pilot flying above 5,000 feet agl can expect the VOR service volume to be reliable for 70 nm from the station, an expansion from the previous 40 nm-which is still applicable when flying below 5,000 feet agl. The FAA included the new service volumes for VORs in the 2022 issue of the Aeronautical Information Manual. As the FAA has decommissioned some VORs, it has enhanced the service volumes of those that comprise the MON network. Longer DistancesĪ key part of making this transition possible has been the expansion of the ranges of use for remaining VOR stations. The VOR service volumes typically vary based on the area they are intended to serve-increasing with the MON. With these options, the pilot will likely start the approach with a transition from the enroute environment to an approach utilizing a VOR as a transition point. In each of these cases, a pilot can get down to the lowest possible height above the ground in an emergency when one of these approaches becomes critically needed. ![]() These airports may include an ILS approach to provide a glideslope option for lower approach minimums, or one without a glideslope, such as LOC-only or VOR-only approaches. There is no guarantee that an available approach will be a precision one, however. The approach(es) not requiring GPS or DME might include straight-in and/or circling approach options. The FAA’s goal is to ensure airports throughout the national airspace system are available in the event of a GPS outage. This is not to say all approaches at such an airport will be possible without using GPS or DME, but at least one approach will be available. The VOR MON is designed to be a reversionary service maintained by the FAA for use by aircraft unable to navigate using RNAV-based services during GPS outages. These airports will ensure that a pilot will always be within 100 nm of an airport with an instrument approach not dependent on GPS or DME. MON designations on low altitude enroute charts are the FAA’s method of indicating to a pilot that the airport has at least one approach not requiring GPS or DME systems. MON airports are a relatively recent addition to IFR charts, indicating the airport offers an approach a pilot could complete without assistance from ATC, GPS, or DME systems. These airports are called out as a part of the FAA’s decommissioning of 30 percent of the VOR network by 2025. One of these options lies in the designation of MON-serviced airports. In each of these cases, a pilot should have a backup plan that doesn’t rely on GPS to get safely to the ground. There remains a potential for a GPS outage, signal blocking, or a failure of GPS systems onboard an aircraft. ![]() Most of us are familiar with these systems in the form of GPS. The FAA is decommissioning a significant number of VORs as we transition our national airspace system to rely upon performance-based navigation and area navigation systems. Approaches such as the LOC Rwy 11 into Olney take on new meaning with the implementation of the MON. You can tell by the note on the IFR enroute low altitude chart denoting “MON,” or minimum operational network, over the airport information box. And you don’t have to be psychic or sift through every airport and all the approaches they have to know this. You can fly at least one approach at this airport without the use of GPS, or even DME.
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