Any of you kids ever hear of a "radio range?"

That was the thing you had to learn to navigate with in the late 50's. The plane I took lessons in was a J-3 for the first few hours followed by the ultra modern Cessna 150. The 150 had a radio called a coffee grinder. You tuned the radio by turning a dial and getting the loudest signal. Then you had to identify the three letter code to make sure you had the correct station. The radio range put out four different legs that were called "the beam." If you left the beam, which was really a buzz of two signals - the A and the N sector, you would get the code for either an A or an N. A lot of time was spent doing radio range orientation. It was very crude navigation, but it was better than DR. Later this range was replaced by the VOR and serious navigation could take place.

Some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-frequency_radio_range

So how did we get around and find the ILS localizer in the good old days?

Situational Awareness was very important. Keeping track of where you are is the key to good navigation skills. In the 707 days of the 60's the VOR was one of the tools along with the NDB for keeping track of where you were. The VOR, like the NDB can be used as a bird dog to point to the station using the instrument called the ADF in the lower left part of the instrument panel. The ADF dial has a little knob to select either VOR or NDB bearings. With just a little practice, you will see that this instrument was our GPS of the day. You always had a paper map on your lap or in the map clip. You would use bearings to the station to figure a LOP - line of position. Using the LOM to keep track of your bearing to or from the outer marker was pretty easy. There were places where you would not have radar coverage and the ATC people would expect you to be able to find your own way and keep them informed of your progress. This is how it was done in a large portion of eastern Europe and Africa. There just was not radar in all places.

ATC would clear you to a fix or NDB and clear you for the approach. You were on your own! You would navigate to a VOR or NDB, and depart on a heading or bearing which would allow you to intercept the ILS. Altitude was either assigned by ATC or they might clear you for the approach and you would use the paper map or chart to fly the correct altitude. Now remember these places did not have a lot of traffic so this was a doable thing.

Get your self at your favorite airport that has a ILS and at least one LOM. Take off and fly the traffic pattern using the ADF to show you the bearing to the LOM. Using the VOR/DME makes it very easy to keep track of where you are. Fly the pattern VFR and see how it looks. Then drop the weather and do it on instruments.

That's about the long and the short of it!  ::) No sissy pilots back then!  ;D

Lou