Victor Airways and T-Routes

Victor airways are highways between VORs. On the sectional, each one is a light blue band along its center line. The legend shows the parts: the course arrow, the airway name, the mileage box, and the intersection arrows. V230 leaves the Salinas VORTAC on the 068 radial, heading east.

From Panoche, the same airway is the 250 radial. Each radial belongs to its own VOR, so the two need not differ by exactly 180. All radials on the chart are magnetic. The 40 in the box is the distance from Salinas to Panoche, in nautical miles. Each Victor airway is Class E airspace. It starts at 1,200 feet AGL and goes up to, but not including, flight level 180.

It is 8 nautical miles wide, 4 on each side of the center line. V87 leaves Salinas on the 083 radial. RANCK is an intersection on it. Its arrows point to the VORs that define it. T-routes are RNAV routes for GPS-equipped aircraft. The chart draws them the same way, with the letter T and a number. At RANCK, T333 crosses V87.

T-routes also run from 1,200 feet AGL up to, but not including, flight level 180. The four-point star is the symbol for an RNAV waypoint. This one, near Big Sur, is on T257. Flying V230 east on 068, VFR pilots more than 3,000 feet above the ground use odd thousands plus 500, such as 5,500.

Westbound on 250, they use even thousands plus 500, such as 6,500. IFR traffic on the airway is normally assigned whole thousands: odd eastbound, even westbound. The extra 500 feet helps separate VFR and IFR traffic on the airway.