Plain English Meaning

A simple in-flight calculation that tells the pilot roughly how many minutes and how many miles they are from a navigation station, by turning to fly across the line to the station and timing how fast the bearing changes.

Full Definition

A navigation procedure used to estimate the time and distance to a VOR or NDB station by flying a known heading perpendicular to the bearing to the station and timing how long it takes the bearing to change by a specified number of degrees. The result gives the pilot a usable estimate of minutes to the station and nautical miles to the station, based on groundspeed.

Context Anchor

Seen in radio-navigation work with an RMI when the pilot needs distance information from a station without a distance readout.