Intercepting and tracking

Setting a course, choosing an intercept angle, and bracketing the wind - on a VOR radial, a localizer, and a GPS course line.

15 min read · Flying IFR: departure to landing

After this lesson you can

  • Use the double-the-difference method to calculate a VOR intercept heading.
  • Compare the angular sensitivity of a VOR, a localizer, and GPS course guidance.
  • Bracket a course once established, reducing correction size as sensitivity increases.
  • Recognize the cone of confusion near a VOR station and fly through it correctly.

Boston Approach turns N7421G onto a heading to intercept the localizer for the ILS Runway 4 Right at Boston Logan. This is the same underlying skill as intercepting a VOR radial en route: figure out where you are relative to the course you want, pick a heading that closes the gap without overshooting it, and then hold a heading that keeps you on it once you arrive. Everything else - VOR, localizer, GPS - is the same three questions with a different needle sensitivity attached.

Get the geometry right and an intercept looks effortless: one turn, a settling needle, a stabilized track. Get it wrong and the airplane porpoises back and forth across the course for the next five miles, which is exactly the moment workload always seems to spike.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Where am I, relative to the course?
  2. 2.How sensitive is the needle?
  3. 3.The double-the-difference method
  4. 4.Tracking once established
  5. 5.The cone of confusion

These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the IFR track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.