VDF Approach

why VMC? Do it properly.

I think that every airport (well, not those where the radio is done with an Icom handheld) has DF (direction finding) on the VHF comms. The antenna looks like this

and the ATCO has a display like this

It is done for ATC situational awareness (the ATCO can immediately see the bearing from which the transmission was made) and to help catch out pilots who lie about their position in order to get a joining clearance ahead of somebody else

Potentially every such airport could offer a VDF approach, but I have seen the procedure published only for some UK ones. But I think you must be seeing it in the AIP because Jepp don’t publish it:

I think that every airport (well, not those where the radio is done with an Icom handheld) has DF (direction finding) on the VHF comms. The antenna looks like this

Not anymore, I’d say very few airport got a working VDF equipment these days. It might still be installed but last time it broke, they didn’t fix it. Maybe it’s different in the UK where NDBs are considered to be national treasures?

Every tower I have visited over the years had VDF.

It is standard ATC gear – all part of the standard tower package which includes recording all the audio and keeping it for two weeks or whatever.

I did fly VDF some years ago – at night. We were approaching the airport from the relevant direction and were kindly asked by ATC if they can give us VDF (even we were VFR flight) – they have a newcomer and it was a bit hard for this new guy to have required number of approaches to finish his training…

While we’re on the topic, are there any PAR approaches left at civilian airfields in Europe?

As far as I know, German civilian airfields never had PAR. But many offer SRE (surveillance radar equipment) approaches on request. Precision wise, they are like NDB approaches (whereas PAR is like ILS and even better down to the last foot). I have flown a couple for practise (with and without gyro, the latter is the more interesting option), but unless you have an emergency you need to do it during quiet times because it absorbs most of the capacity of the approach controller.
Many military airfields here have civilian co-usage as well and most of them offer PAR. I guess it is the same in other countries, but I have only flown PAR approaches in Germany and Canada so far.

I am not aware of any in the UK at wholly civilian airfields. Farnborough and St Mawgan (Newquay) were the two that I remember as active and both are gone.

I flew the Newquay PAR once… even though I read up on the phraseology beforehand I could not understand most of what the RAF controller was saying Actually that was a big problem in the UK, where reportedly the RAF bought a load of defective gear (in the 1980s – the usual public exp. contract where the contractor meets the spec but the spec is crap, so it doesn’t work properly but nothing can be done) and RAF units had really crappy radios. RAF Benson was legendary…

southend in particular have had a NOTAM up for years (it seems) that the VDF is U/S.

I wonder if that is because they decided to not pay for the 4-figure cost of a flight test which would give them the accuracy grade which they read out when you ask for the approach, but the controller does actually have VDF.

If I was a controller I would absolutely not give up VDF because it massively assists situational awareness.

I wonder if that is because they decided to not pay for the 4-figure cost of a flight test

That’s why the withdraw the VDF at my frequent destination EDAB. It is still there, but uncalibrated, so cannot be used officially. They are experimenting with an ADS-B receiver instead which would cost next to nothing, but until every aircraft is ADS-B capable it will be of little use.