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Yes... and no. Skyvector just shows charts...  if you have the  VFR sectional in front of you  (pick one up.. each one has a huge enough area to let you plan and fly countless flights), you can measure the distance from a VOR to an airport...  OR.. if you go to www.airnav.com ;  ...  each airport's main page has a list of nearby nav-aids; their bearing and distance to the airport..

Brett_Henderson wrote on Jan 4^th, 2008 at 7:45pm:


Another simple way is to look at the MSFS navlog: if the VOR in question is loaded as a waypoint, the log will show you bearing and distance to the next waypoint, which is your destination.
VORs are aligned with local magnetic north, so assuming MSFS has the local variation plugged-in, the mag heading it gives you will be the same as the number of the outbound radial you want. this does not account for wind, of course...

But Airnav is better if you don't want to bother making up and saving a plan using the sim. Most airport listings list more than one VOR or NDB nearby with bearings and distance, and they also sometimes include airport diagrams as well as all relevant runway info.

Best of all, of course, for any scenario, is to get a real chart (pilot shops throw them away, unused, when they expire) and find the correct radial and distances yourself. You don't need to buy a plotter- the scale is on the chart. Mark 10 nm increments on a piece of paper or ruler or use dividers, and you're good to go. This will work even if you have printed a chart from skyvector and it's not full-sized.

Brett_Henderson wrote on Jan 4^th, 2008 at 8:47pm:

Yipee!  *Slides into desk and waits patiently...* 

I could use some NDB/ADF practice, since I've only ever used the ADF to listen to AM radio.

....mmm......seems a lot of trouble to me........I just set the GPS.(Cost a fortune so I use it).. connect it to the AP and go to SLEEP..........when I wake up my trusty c172 is doing circuits of the selected airport ...........commoner

commoner wrote on Feb 4^th, 2008 at 3:15am:



I hope you have traffic turned off!

Last few years , when I see traffic in RL that ought to see me but appears clueless, I assume they are watching that doggone GPS like it was TV, or yes, perhaps sleeping while the AP and the GPS do their magic... 

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Oh for sure..    The Sim is for any number of people, for any number of reasons... I spend just as much mental energy building MSFS models, as I do flying the Simulator... but.. umm errr...  we're concentrating on the realistic piloting aspect here.  Right in the middle of navigation fundementals.

"Flight School"  ..  "Sim Flight Trainning"  

I posted in the 'Real Aviation' section, about a real instrument flight I just took... I can promise you two times twice.. that simming has helped keep my real pilot frame of mind sharp.. and re-teaching these fundementals to fellow simmers has been as good for me, as it has been fun.

I too turn the MSFS C172 over to the autopilot quite often... and let a real autopilot fly for me, when one's available. But there are no GPSs and autopilots when you're learning the basics... both in the sim, and in RL  

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ABSOLUTELY !     And an excellent way to do it, VFR. I was hoping someone would suggest that.

You wouldn't want to file it that way, IFR though. Unless the intersection was a named waypoint/fix (and it quite probably would be, if Airport 2 had several, published approaches)