The National Weather Service is proposing a shift from using Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) navigation beacons to three-letter airport identifiers to define forecast and alert areas in several aviation weather products. The proposal applies to a variety of aviation weather products including SIGMETs, AIRMETs, Center Weather Advisories and Meteorological Impact Statements issued nationwide, including Alaska. The agency said it is accepting public comments on the proposed change through May 15, according to an NWS service notice.
The change is tied to the FAA’s ongoing transition to performance-based navigation, which is leading to an overall reduction in the number of active VOR navigation aids. Many aviation weather products currently describe hazard areas using distance and direction from VOR locations. Under the new NWS proposal, those reference points would be replaced by nearby airports. The NWS said this will allow forecasters to define weather boundaries using a broader and more consistent network of locations.
According to the service, this transition would aim to address the decreasing number of VOR reference points as the system shifts toward a minimum operational network. The agency said airport identifiers would provide improved coverage, particularly in areas such as Alaska where VOR infrastructure is limited. NWS said the proposal is part of a broader effort to maintain clarity in communicating hazardous weather areas, including in radio and voice transmissions where textual descriptions remain necessary.
With GPS spoofing so rampant these days they’re still trying to reduce the number of VORs?
What criteria are they going to use for the airports they are going to reference? Are the selected airports going to vary based on the advisory? In the West and Southwest there is a lot of airspace without major airports. Would they reference small, local airports or use larger airports located hundreds of miles away from the sigmeted area? I think VORs still play a useful role in both identifying, navigating and communicating in our national airspace. I think it’s wrong to keep decommissioning them..
This sounds like a bad idea in areas where VORs are more easily/quickly/reliably identifiable than airports – ie, just about everywhere!
I haven’t used the location description based on VOR’s in a couple decades. Let’s move on from the “good old days” to the “current era” where those weather products are nicely displayed on a map on my iPad.
The skills from the “good ol’ days” are the ones that define the best pilots. Relying on ipads breeds complacency and lassitude.
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for ipads in some cockpits, but replacing very reliable technology with something less than very reliable isn’t a great idea.
This sounds like a prelude to requiring GPS onboard all aircraft with a Type Certificate, i.e. not homebuilts and Experimental. No, not the GPS-capable moving map on your iPad; GPS that can be used for navigation,
i.e. equipment and installation certified by the airframe OEM or to a TSO. Expensive!