Federal Airway System

GirlInTraining

New Member
During a late night reading of the AIM (ok, ok, I know I'm a big nerd), I came back across the terms "red/green/amber/blue airways". In AIM 20-1-5 it defines these airways are/were used to designate routes between low/medium frequency NAVAIDS (e.g. NDBs). My questions are:

How did you know you were on the airway?
When did these stop being used/depicted? I remember reading they are still in use across Alaska....
 
I met an old guy a couple of weeks ago that was telling me about that. Basically you would take navigational fixes off the light (once you found it) and that would allow you to correct for wind, than you could check your progress on the next one.

I don't recall the color usage
 
Don't know about other areas of the U.S., but the Jepp Florida Low-Enroute Charts still depict a number of these colored airways.

I wonder if they ever get used at all?
 
Heyho,

Actually, a few colored airways still exsist, I think. There were some out by the Eastern shore of North Carolina.

Anyway, they were just like Victor or Jet airways, except that they were designated with NDBs instead of VORS.

You could tell you were on course the same way as when you were on course with an NDB approach (that is, magnetic bearing from/to the station).

I was flying out of Montreal the other day, and part of the airway was made up by an NDB.

Hope this helps,
Richard
 
I think that there are a few lights left from the old lighted airways still in operation out West, mainly in mountain passes. Maybe a poster from out there could comment....
 
[ QUOTE ]
During a late night reading of the AIM (ok, ok, I know I'm a big nerd), I came back across the terms "red/green/amber/blue airways". In AIM 20-1-5 it defines these airways are/were used to designate routes between low/medium frequency NAVAIDS (e.g. NDBs). My questions are:

How did you know you were on the airway?
When did these stop being used/depicted? I remember reading they are still in use across Alaska....


[/ QUOTE ]

Like the others said, most of these airways went out along with the old Consolan Stations, though a few NDB airways exist in very rural areas, mainly Alaska and Canada.

MD
 
There are actually quite a few of the colored airways that run between the Carolinas and the Florida coast.

AR7 and AR14 are based on the Dixon NDB (DIW) and run down toward Florida, and AR1 runs from the Carolina Beach NDB (CLB) to the south. J174 goes northeast from the Wilmington VORTAC on the R-062 25 miles to DIW, and then out on the DIW 031 bearing 67 miles until it picks up the Norfolk (OFR) R-211.

They actually use these quite frequently, and if you listen to the frequencies on the coastal areas, you'll hear quite a few of the airliners and bizjets picking up these routes.
 
If I recall correctly (I know rare) the airways had different colors based on the heading. like a red route may be north and a yellow could be east (or something like that)
 
Amber & Blue Airways are oriented primarily north-south.

Green & Red Airways are oriented primarily east-west.
 
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