Africa and South Africa VORs making GA navigation almost impossible

Bug Reporting Hub ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

No

Have you disabled/removed all your mods and addons?

Yes

Brief description of the issue:

High Range Africa VORs are only functioning in TERMINAL mode.

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

I’m going to give you a single example of a problem that I have identified in Africa. I have run a simple test on six different nav aids that all have the same issues. Here is an easy way to prove my point. Launch at (FACI) Citrusdal airport. Dial up Overberg (OBV) VOR at 115.40 on VOR1. Take off, and start flying south. You are just outside the 130 NM range of the VOR. Set your autopilot to NAV. OBV will be white, and contingent. Set your heading mode in the autopilot. HDG Green, and VOR is white. As you fly into the nav range, VOR mode takes over, and goes Green. The plane will turn to ANY course that you dial into the OBS. There is NO directional course line in the course gauge, and no DME indicated. “IF” you keep flying south, and get to the TERMINAL range of 38 NM out, all of a sudden you will get a course direction and DME indication for the VOR, and all looks great. Only problem is, this is a HIGH RANGE VOR, which makes it’s navigational use almost impossible. I ran a short test, and found four of six high range VORs in the area all have the same issue. I am an event coordinator, and run multi events per week, using VOR navigation, and help others learn. I have an upcoming series on the African continent, that is failing, due to VOR issues on the continent. Are these easitly fixed? The VORs are a MAJOR problem for me, and our Discord flying community. Are there any Africans reading? I would love your input as well.

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

This is not a PC related issue. I coordinated with an Xbox user to duplicate the identical behavior.

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

I have first "noticed " it in Sim Update 9, but Sim Update 10 still has the issues.

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Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

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Hi Carl,

I checked the map to verify what I was already thinking, reading your post. The navaids that you name are not VOR/DME beacons like many of us are used to in the USA and Europe.

OBV is a VORTAC/military navaid which requires military navigation equipment. Surrounding beacons that you mention are VOR-only beacons, so without DME reading indeed. CDV and SVV should transmit at 130 miles though, but no DME reading will be there regardless.

I use Little Navmap myself. It’s a free tool that gives a lot more information than the default MSFS planner. It’s very comprehensive and sometimes surprising that it’s freeware. I sure recommend it for flight planning if you haven’t used it yet.

afbeelding
afbeelding1271Ă—978 229 KB

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The VOR only navaids are performing the same way (And no DME expected or seen). No course needle until less than 38 NM, TERMINAL range. And yes, I use LNM, most people do. But that will not explain the TERMINAL behavior on the majority of the VORs. There was identical behavior in South America, and MicroSobo fixed the problem. Look for my writeup on PERU. Not everything is good down in Africa. (CTV) and one other were good.

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Hi there ! Did you get the problem be figured out? I encountered the same problem recently. My lacation is in Taiwan (Asia). In my PC ,Every VOR siginal in Taiwan area my airplane can pick up is almost 38 nm . I tried all the airplane in my MSFS and all the same. But it is interesting that my friend has no problem in same area. I am a big fan in flying VOR navigation. Hope you can share your way to figure out the problem. Thanks and Regards!

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Interesting. Does your friend have Navigraph?

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I checked with him . The difference we got is I installed Flyby wire A320 (no subscribe navigraph) ,and he install PMDG737. I tried to remove Flyby wireA320. But the result is the same, no VOR signial outside 38nm in Taiwan area, another interesting show up. My MSFS works good as I set fly area in CA ,USA. In south California east way west way all good…I can picked up LAX VOR siginal from KSBD.DME showed about 65nm away. Its more reasonable…Maybe the problem is the area Nav data. Does anyone know where the data fold is ? and can we edit it ? Thanks a lot.

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This is NOT an aircraft bug. It is a problem with the navigation database.in the sim. Unfortunately, this will not be an issue of concern for MicroSobo. There just aren’t that many people that fly in Africa. There will be a spotlight shined on it in December, when our group travels through there, using VORs, but we will have to resort to using the GPS to navigate in most cases. It’s just a matter of economics.

1 Like
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The aircraft type is inconsequential. Yes this is a Nav database issue indeed which is why I asked if your friend had Navigraph. This would explain why they work better. The default sim database is the issue.