Air traffic over Iowa City is always busy with scores of transcontinental flights. A Variable Omni Range transmitter is located in nearby Hills, Iowa that helps navigate air traffic over what the media calls "fly over" country. On cold air days people who live near the 42N latitude just a few miles north of Iowa City can look to the south and see this kind of traffic. And with apps like FlightAware you can easily identify those aircraft bound from NYC to LA.
Correction. It is not a "transponder beacon." A transponder is what is in the aircraft sending signals to the RADAR stations on the ground so as to identify the particular aircraft on RADAR. What you are referring to is a VOR (Variable Omni Range) transmitter used for navigating off of. While all radials transmitting are useful for navigation, specific radials are used as low level airways or high level jet routes; like highways in the air. VORs can also be used as elements in an instrument approach, such as the Iowa City VOR you refer to, which is used for airways, jet routes and instrument approaches.
ReplyDeleteThanks Glenn. I'll get it corrected.
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