Definition
A navigation aid (such as a VOR, NDB, or similar ground-based facility) located inland from a coastline, used by aircraft for en route navigation over land rather than over water.
Plain English
A radio navigation station on land, away from the coast, that pilots tune into to find their position and stay on course while flying over the interior of a country.
Context Anchor
Seen in route descriptions, flight planning, and air traffic procedures for flights transitioning between North American airspace and longer overwater or long-range routes.
Derivation
Inland' simply means away from the coast or interior of a landmass. The term distinguishes these facilities from coastal or offshore navigation aids serving overwater routes.
Why Pilots Care
A pilot may see this term when checking a filed or cleared route. Understanding it helps the pilot recognize where the land-based part of the route connects to the next route segment.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as just any navigation facility that happens to be inland. In FAA route language, it means a specific land-based navigation point used to mark where a route segment begins or ends.
Example Sentence 1
The flight planning route relied on a chain of inland navigation facilities to guide the aircraft from the East Coast to the Midwest.
Example Sentence 2
Charts note that signals from inland navigation facilities remain stable over large land areas.