15

RADIO NAVIGATION

18
ATPL GROUND TRAINING SERIES

21
24

3 27
30
BOOK ELEVEN
EASA FIRST EDITION
REVISED FOR NPA 29
© CAE Oxford Aviation Academy (UK) Limited 2016
All Rights Reserved

Copyright in all documents and materials bound within these covers or attached hereto, excluding that material
which is reproduced by the kind permission of third parties and acknowledged as such, belongs exclusively to CAE
Oxford Aviation Academy.
Certain copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the
United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this book, neither
CAE Oxford Aviation Academy nor the distributor gives any warranty as to its accuracy or otherwise. Students
preparing for the EASA ATPL (A) theoretical knowledge examinations should not regard this book as a substitute
for the EASA ATPL (A) theoretical knowledge training syllabus published in the current edition of ‘Part-FCL 1’ (the
Syllabus). The Syllabus constitutes the sole authoritative definition of the subject matter to be studied in an EASA
ATPL (A) theoretical knowledge training programme. No student should prepare for, or is currently entitled to enter
himself/herself for the EASA ATPL (A) theoretical knowledge examinations without first being enrolled in a training
school which has been granted approval by an EASA authorised national aviation authority to deliver EASA ATPL
(A) training.
CAE Oxford Aviation Academy excludes all liability for any loss or damage incurred or suffered as a result of any
reliance on all or part of this book except for any liability for death or personal injury resulting from CAE Oxford
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Book Title Subject

1 010 Air Law

2 020 Aircraft General Knowledge 1 Airframes & Systems

Fuselage, Wings & Stabilising Surfaces

Landing Gear
Flight Controls
Hydraulics
Air Systems & Air Conditioning
Anti-icing & De-icing
Fuel Systems
Emergency Equipment

3 020 Aircraft General Knowledge 2 Electrics – Electronics

Direct Current
Alternating Current

4 020 Aircraft General Knowledge 3 Powerplant

Piston Engines
Gas Turbines

5 020 Aircraft General Knowledge 4 Instrumentation

Flight Instruments
Warning & Recording
Automatic Flight Control
Power Plant & System Monitoring Instruments

6 030 Flight Performance & Planning 1 Mass & Balance

Performance

7 030 Flight Performance & Planning 2 Flight Planning & Monitoring

8 040 Human Performance & Limitations

9 050 Meteorology

10 060 Navigation 1 General Navigation

11 060 Navigation 2 Radio Navigation

12 070 Operational Procedures

13 080 Principles of Flight

14 090 Communications VFR Communications

IFR Communications
1. Properties of Radio Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Radio Propagation Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Antennae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5. Doppler Radar Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. VHF Direction Finder (VDF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8. VHF Omni-directional Range (VOR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9. Instrument Landing System (ILS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10. Microwave Landing System (MLS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11. Radar Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12. Ground Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13. Airborne Weather Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14. Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15. Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16. Area Navigation Systems (RNAV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17. Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19. Revision Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20. Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Radio Navigation Syllabus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Radio Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Frequency Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phase Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Practice Frequency () - Wavelength () Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Answers to Practice Frequency () - Wavelength () Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Radio and radar systems are now an integral and essential part of aviation, without which
the current intensity of air transport operations would be unsustainable. In the early days of
aviation aircraft were flown with visual reference to the ground and flight at night, in cloud or
over the sea was not possible. As the complexity of aircraft increased it became necessary to
design navigational systems to permit aircraft to operate without reference to terrain features.

The early systems developed were, by modern standards very basic and inaccurate. They
provided reasonable navigational accuracy for en route flight over land, but only a very
limited service over the oceans, and, until about 40 years ago, flight over the oceans used the
traditional seafarer’s techniques of astro-navigation, that is using sights taken on the sun, moon,
stars and planets to determine position. Developments commenced in the 1910s, continued
at an increasing rate during the 1930s and 1940s and up to the present day leading to the
development of long range systems which by the 1970s were providing a global navigation
service.

It is perhaps ironic that, having forsaken navigation by the stars, the most widely used navigation
systems in the last few years are once again space based, that is the satellite navigation systems
we now take as being the norm. Whilst global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) are becoming
the standard in aviation and many advocate that they will replace totally all the terrestrial
systems, the ICAO view is that certain terrestrial systems will have to be retained to back up
GNSS both for en route navigation and runway approaches.

The development of radar in the 1930s allowed air traffic control systems to be developed
providing a control service capable of identifying and monitoring aircraft such that aircraft
operations can be safely carried out at a much higher intensity than would be otherwise
possible. Modern satellite technology is being used to provide a similar service over oceans
and land areas where the provision of normal radar systems is not possible.

The syllabus starts by looking at the nature of radio waves and how they travel through the
atmosphere. This is essential to understand why different radio frequencies are selected for
particular applications and also the limitations imposed. The introductory chapters also cover
how radio waves are produced, transmitted, received and how information is added to and
recovered from radio waves.

If a direct electric current (DC) is passed through a wire then a magnetic field is generated
around the wire perpendicular to the current flow.

If an alternating electric current (AC) is passed through the wire then, because the direction of
current flow is changing, the polarity of the magnetic field will also change, reversing polarity
as the current direction reverses. At low frequencies the magnetic field will return to zero with
the current, but as frequency increases the magnetic field will not have collapsed completely
before the reversed field starts to establish itself and energy will start to travel outwards from
the wire in the form of electromagnetic radiation i.e. radio waves.
The resulting EM energy is made up of two components, an electrical (E) field parallel to the
wire and a magnetic (H) field perpendicular to the wire.