On 7/14/2005 07:56, Longworth wrote:

Trip to Michigan and Illinois, June 29 - July 4, 2005 Rick & Hai
Longworth

Wow! Great story. This really shows why we like to fly. I just have
a question below...


[ snip ]


After refueling and snacking from Hai's backpack, our constant
backseat companion, we picked up new plates and charts for the route
ahead. At 12:41 we were off with Hai in the driver's seat,
destination: MKG - Muskegon. The routing was "as filed" and took
us out over lake Erie, so we donned our life vests as a precaution and
flew at 8000 feet. All went smoothly until we had almost reached the
opposite shore. We began to notice quite a discrepancy between the GPS
path and the VOR. We were 60 miles from the Erie VOR and almost that
to Windsor VOR ahead. We heard a call from ATC about being perhaps a
little off course? Yes, we had drifted more than 3 or 4 miles
laterally. We decided to rely on the GPS while we monitored the VOR
receivers. I think it was just too far for VOR use.

I wonder what the service volume is for those VORs. At 8,000', perhaps
you were too low to pick up a reliable signal from 60 miles distance?
I would be curious to know if this was/was not the case.

I've really enjoyed reading Hai's posts. Nice to finally hear from you!

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Student
Sacramento, CA