Yes, you can shoot a VOR approach with GPS only as long as the title of the approach is titled, VOR/GPS. To count the approach as a VOR approach on an FAA flight test will require that the VOR be tuned to the appropriate station and identified.
People Also Ask
Many pilots use GPS as an aid to visual flight rules (VFR) navigation. The key word is aid, because VFR means seeing the terrain well enough to confirm your position on a map. Avionics used for VFR do not check for errors in satellite signals, so your GPS position could be bad.
I've used cell phone gps on planes successfully. I'm sure my watch would work too. It's just getting a signal in the back of a passenger jet is hard (easier in a window seat) and getting an initial fix will take a long time. If you have internet connectivity, gps will work.
When a VOR is decommissioned, it is replaced with a GPS-based intersection and GPS-based airways. Sometimes the DME is retained even if the VOR is removed.
(The simple explanation is straightforward. If you have an IFR-approved GPS, and absent restrictions in the AFM supplement for that GPS, you can use it instead of a VOR, DME, or NDB indicator, even when a charted navaid is out of service or noted as ?required? on an approach chart.
The FAA treats large airplanes the same as any other airplane when it comes to VFR flight. They are required to maintain the same distance from clouds, only fly with the same minimum visibility, see and avoid other aircraft, etc.
This brings us to IFR (instrument flight rule) pilots. IFR flying is astronomically more challenging than VFR flying, but those pilots who achieve this distinction are invariably more equipped to fly IFR and VFR. Aviating under IFR, a pilot is authorized to fly into clouds in what is called zero visibility.