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Originally Posted by tgrayson  You won't find one, unless something has changed in the last few years. The FAA has never defined "established" in any meaningful way. The 1/2 scale deflection is ICAO, I believe. Wouldn't surprise me to see the FAA adopt that definition some day.
The needle "coming alive" is fine for a localizer....you won't be hitting anything with an active needle. However, on a VOR approach with the maximum allowed FAC length, 30 nm, a 1/2 needle deflection would put you outside the protected area (according to some calculations I've seen).
The most conservative point of view for a VOR or NDB is you're established when the needle is centered. |
It's actually in my company's training manual. I remember a few years ago this being a big deal. We always used needle "case" break to define "established on the inbound course". Evidently someone in the FAA decided this wasn't safe and the rules were changed. Now...it's a big deal. If you descent prior to the "5,5 half alive" rule...you'll bust the checkride.
I searched the 8700.10 and 8400.10 and found nothing. Like you said...maybe it's an ICAO thing carried over from international. I'm going to put it on my list of questions for next time in recurrent training.