Definition
An airway or route segment that requires a course change at a fix, producing a bent rather than straight path between two navigation aids. On a dogleg segment, the changeover point is normally located at the fix where the course change occurs, rather than at the midpoint between the two navaids.
Plain English
A piece of an airway that bends at a fix instead of running straight. The point where you switch from tuning one navaid to the next is at the bend itself.
Context Anchor
Seen on IFR enroute charts and in changeover point explanations, especially when an airway or route bends between navigation stations.
Derivation
From the everyday word 'dogleg', meaning anything shaped like a dog's hind leg — straight, then bent, then straight again. Used in golf for bent fairways and in aviation for routes that change direction at a fix.
Why Pilots Care
The bend changes where the pilot must switch navigation sources to stay on the correct course and remain within protected airspace.
Analogy
It is like a road that does not go straight from one town to the next, but bends at an angled corner along the way.
Intuition Check
Do not read dogleg as a traffic-pattern leg or anything involving an animal. Here it means a bent or angled segment of a published instrument route.
Example Sentence 1
Because this is a dogleg segment, the changeover point is at the fix where the course bends, not halfway between the two VORs.
Example Sentence 2
Pilots identify the dogleg segment on the chart before departure to plan the correct navigation receiver switch.