Definition
A VOR navigation aid that exists only as a coded reference point inside the FMS or RNAV navigation database, used to define a procedure leg, fix, or course alignment. It is not transmitted by an actual ground-based VOR station tuned and tracked by the aircraft's radio receivers; it is a stored coordinate and bearing reference the flight management system uses internally to fly the procedure.
Plain English
A VOR-style point that lives inside the airplane's navigation computer, not a real VOR transmitting from the ground. The computer uses it as a reference to draw the path, but the airplane is not actually receiving a signal from it.
Context Anchor
Seen in RNAV and instrument procedure coding discussions, especially in path-and-terminator leg descriptions that use a VOR as the reference for where a leg goes or ends.
Derivation
"Database" here means the onboard navigation database loaded into the FMS. The term distinguishes a NAVAID that exists only as stored data from one that exists as a real radio station in the world.
Why Pilots Care
Because the aircraft is not actually tuning or tracking this VOR, you cannot raw-data check it on a NAV radio. If the navigation database is wrong, missing, or out of date, the procedure based on a database VOR will not behave as expected. It also means the procedure relies on the FMS position, not on a live VOR signal.
Intuition Check
Do not read “database VOR NAVAID” as a made-up or virtual VOR. It means a real VOR facility that is represented in the aircraft’s navigation database and used as a procedure reference.
Example Sentence 1
The course leg on this RNAV approach is built off a database VOR NAVAID, so the FMS uses the stored coordinates rather than tuning a live station.
Example Sentence 2
Select the next waypoint from the database VOR NAVAID list to continue the arrival routing.