The all Mighty VOR!

[Bronco Billy]

Hello People!


Here is why I am starting this post. I am now doing my instructor rating and I am still stuck with that evil VOR, I have always been told from private to commercial that I wont really have to understand it (on paper, in flight its a different story) as I would have only one or two question on the exam.
I personally say this is BS, I will now have pretty soon to teach to all those fellas how a VOR works and No I wont tell them to get over it as it is a small part of the exam.

As it can be a great tool in a plane and that I know that I had hard time catching it in flight because I could hardly understand it in class.

So if anybody could help by giving tips on how understand the VOR and how you explain it.

For myself I will put some links on the famous Tim Air sim and another french Canadian program that I find pretty nice.

http://airinstruction.com/click/view.ph ... ownload=33

http://www.visi.com/~mim/nav/

Thanks for your futur replies and I hope it will help not only me but a couple of guys and girls.

Bronco

[Lurch]

The VOR DGARA about which direction you are pointing, so always have the plane's heading the same as the OBS.

Now if it says "TO", that heading, minus wind, will fly you TO the station, if FROM well you'll fly from the station.

On paper this still applies, so during exams they always like to turn the planes to mess you up. Just imagine the plane's HDG matches the top of the OBS and you can see whether you need to turn right or left to pick up the radial.

Never have the OBS showing the reverse to your heading or it will be reverse sensing, unless it's an HSI.

Sorry thats a little brief but we'll start with that for now.

Lurch

[E-Flyer]

Hello People!


Here is why I am starting this post. I am now doing my instructor rating and I am still stuck with that evil VOR, I have always been told from private to commercial that I wont really have to understand it (on paper, in flight its a different story) as I would have only one or two question on the exam.
I personally say this is BS, I will now have pretty soon to teach to all those fellas how a VOR works and No I wont tell them to get over it as it is a small part of the exam.

As it can be a great tool in a plane and that I know that I had hard time catching it in flight because I could hardly understand it in class.

So if anybody could help by giving tips on how understand the VOR and how you explain it.

For myself I will put some links on the famous Tim Air sim and another french Canadian program that I find pretty nice.

http://airinstruction.com/click/view.ph ... ownload=33

http://www.visi.com/~mim/nav/

Thanks for your futur replies and I hope it will help not only me but a couple of guys and girls.

Bronco

Great explanation Lurch

Hey Bronco, try to learn things because of their practicality and not because of their appearance on an exam

As far as the VOR goes, I like to think of it this way.

- A Radial is a line that comes OUT of the VOR and leaves FROM it.
- If I am flying in the direction of the Radial, I am going away FROM it.
- If I am flying in the opposite direction of the Radial, I am going TOwards it.
- It = the VOR

As far as how to set the OBS, just think about whether you have to be flying away FROM the station, or TOwards the station.

Example:

You are north east of a station, and have been asked to fly IN-BOUND on RADIAL 055. Flying IN-BOUND means that you're going to fly IN or TO the station. But Radial 055 is going out FROM the station right? So you would have to dial the 180 degree reciprocal of 235 (180 + 055) on the OBS. This would give you a TO indication. Why?

Take a piece of paper out, draw a STATION, then draw a plane NORTH EAST of it. Then Draw a big circle around this diagram, and see for your self that an approximate track of SOUTH WEST is the only way you can get TO the station. To be exact, that south westerly direction would be a Track of 235 degrees.

Hopefully that makes sense !

[Hedley]

Very simply ...

Within it's limitations (see below), what a VOR
gives you is the radial you are on, in respect to it.

For example, you dial in the VOR freq (and ident it!)
and spin the OBS knobs until the needle is centered
with a FROM indication.

Let's say it says 270. As mentioned above, the VOR
does not know what direction an aircraft is pointed,
or is tracking - it will just give you instantaneous
location information (eg radial from VOR).

If you wanted to fly away from the VOR, turn to
a heading of 270 (for starters) and hold a heading
that keeps the white needle centered. Each dot
is 2 degrees.

If you want to fly towards the VOR, turn to the
reciprocal of 270: 090. The easy way to do
this, is to spin the OBS knob until the needle
is centered with a TO indication, which in our
example is 090. Track it inbound.

Limitations of the VOR: it's VHF, so it won't
work at low altitude when you are distant
from it. Look up the formula to calculate
minimum distance. The higher you are,
the farther away you can receive a VOR.
Practically speaking, it's not a whole lot
of use beyond 100 nm. If you get high
enough, you can even receive interference
from a distant VOR with the same freq -
see MAA on the chart.

Intercepts inbound are generally 90
degrees, and outbound 45 degrees.

Draw pictures.

[A2G]

I have heard many times that indeed the HSI can still reverse sense if not tuned properly.

[sakism]

Only on a backcourse.

A traditional VOR is subject to reverse sensing because the needle is hinged at one end. An HSI does not suffer from this design deficiency.

[chephy]

A couple of time I got brain freeze in the plane when asked to intercept a VOR , and what helps me is looking at the number at the top of the OBS (say, 200), the needle (say, on the left) and the flag (say, FROM) and saying: "If my heading were 200 right now, the station would on my left and I'd be flying away from it. So if I wanted to intercept that radial with a 90 degree intercept, I'd need to turn 90 degrees left from 200, so I'd have to turn to heading 110." And then it doesn't matter what your heading is right now, just turn to 110 and be prepared to turn to 200 when the needle is close to being centered. This "if my heading were 200 right now" phrase is something I generally find very useful when I look at a VOR and can't instatnly interpret the VOR + HI combo to visualize my position with respect to the station.

[I Я Instructor]

I don't know if this is the appropriate way to teach the VOR but I find the simplest way to do it is:

Homing (Going to the station)
Turn the OBS until the CDI centers and you get the TO flag. -> You're going TO the station
Whatever heading you get at the top, that's what you need to fly.

Intercepting a radial inbound:
Turn the OBS until you get the redial you want
Turn the plane to that heading
Line left, turn left, line right, turn right. Whatever angle of intercept you want.

Over time things start to make sense and the VOR becomes easier and easier.. *shrug*

[E-Flyer]

That's pretty good actually,

But I think that understanding how the VOR works is essential. All the "how-to" simplifications are all derivatives of knowing how the system works. To a person who has no idea how the VOR works, he/she won't feel satisfied if they're just told do "ABCD" and you can use a VOR. I think if they understand the theory behind it, they will appreciate it more and also, it will become second nature to them in practice.

This is especially important if he's going to be teaching the VOR.

[A2G]

Only on a backcourse.

So if I'm on a backcourse, and I set the CDI to backcourse track, it correct senses, but if I have the front course track set on the CDI(while flying the backcourse) then it will reverse sense? I think that makes sense. But if it reverse senses then, why not with a VOR set backwards?

[Zyxt]

I don't know if this is the appropriate way to teach the VOR but I find the simplest way to do it is:

Homing (Going to the station)
Turn the OBS until the CDI centers and you get the TO flag. -> You're going TO the station
Whatever heading you get at the top, that's what you need to fly.

Intercepting a radial inbound:
Turn the OBS until you get the redial you want
Turn the plane to that heading
Line left, turn left, line right, turn right. Whatever angle of intercept you want.

Over time things start to make sense and the VOR becomes easier and easier.. *shrug*

Hi,

I'll just say that you don't need to know a single thing about the VOR to intercept radials outbout or inbound properly (ok, exaggerating a little here).

But as long as you tune up the VOR properly you can never go wrong - also you should never ever ever have to parallel the inbound or outbound track to figure out which way to go, only reason to do that is if you don't really know how to deal with a VOR, and it's a big time-waster and needless crutch, I think if someone did it that way on a commercial test they would get a 2 for a mark. Here are some simple steps:

1. Tune
2. Ident
3. Dial in the desired radial to intercept on top (for an inbound dial in the reciprocal on top)
4. The VOR will then display a To or From flag, and a Needle Left or Needle Right indication (assuming you're not on the radial already, which would be centred, or perpendicular to it, which you would get an Off flag.)

Now, talking about this condition for a moment, you could wrack your brain and figure out what quadrant you're in and which way you have to go to intercept the radial, drawing the little picture in your mind. Or:

5. The Needle of the VOR points at the heading required to intercept the radial. Therefore if I wanted to intercept, say, the 210 Degree Radial at 45 Degrees Intercept Angle, going outbound, and the Needle was to the Left with a From Flag, all I would have to do is turn to the heading 45 Degrees to the Left of 210. Heading 165 would give me this intercept perfectly.
6. As the needle centres turn to the heading on top of the VOR and track inbound or outbound as required.


Some examples

Intercept the 330 degree radial inbound, at an intercept angle of 60 degrees.

You dial in 150 on the top after tuning an identing (because reciprocal for inbound), and get a Needle Left and To indication

By looking at the VOR you know the proper intercept heading is to the Left of 150 by 60 degrees. 150-60 = 090 heading

#2

Intercept the 030 degree radial outbound, at an intercept angle of 45 degrees.

You dial in 030 on the top after tuning an identing, and get a Needle Right and From indication

By looking at the VOR you know the proper intercept heading is to the Right of 030 by 45 degrees. 030+45 = 075 heading


I hope that helps.

[fly-drink-chicks-music]

http://selair.selkirk.bc.ca/Training/in ... works.html

My personal fav, gives the "how it works" as well as the, "how to use it" aspect.

[FlaplessDork]

I don't know if this is the appropriate way to teach the VOR but I find the simplest way to do it is:

Homing (Going to the station)
Turn the OBS until the CDI centers and you get the TO flag. -> You're going TO the station
Whatever heading you get at the top, that's what you need to fly.

Intercepting a radial inbound:
Turn the OBS until you get the redial you want
Turn the plane to that heading
Line left, turn left, line right, turn right. Whatever angle of intercept you want.

Over time things start to make sense and the VOR becomes easier and easier.. *shrug*

Nope its not.

[joco]

I'll just say that you don't need to know a single thing about the VOR to intercept radials outbout or inbound properly (ok, exaggerating a little here).

But as long as you tune up the VOR properly you can never go wrong - also you should never ever ever have to parallel the inbound or outbound track to figure out which way to go, only reason to do that is if you don't really know how to deal with a VOR, and it's a big time-waster and needless crutch, I think if someone did it that way on a commercial test they would get a 2 for a mark. Here are some simple steps:

1. Tune
2. Ident
3. Dial in the desired radial to intercept on top (for an inbound dial in the reciprocal on top)
4. The VOR will then display a To or From flag, and a Needle Left or Needle Right indication (assuming you're not on the radial already, which would be centred, or perpendicular to it, which you would get an Off flag.)

Now, talking about this condition for a moment, you could wrack your brain and figure out what quadrant you're in and which way you have to go to intercept the radial, drawing the little picture in your mind. Or:

5. The Needle of the VOR points at the heading required to intercept the radial. Therefore if I wanted to intercept, say, the 210 Degree Radial at 45 Degrees Intercept Angle, going outbound, and the Needle was to the Left with a From Flag, all I would have to do is turn to the heading 45 Degrees to the Left of 210. Heading 165 would give me this intercept perfectly.
6. As the needle centres turn to the heading on top of the VOR and track inbound or outbound as required.


Some examples

Intercept the 330 degree radial inbound, at an intercept angle of 60 degrees.

You dial in 150 on the top after tuning an identing (because reciprocal for inbound), and get a Needle Left and To indication

By looking at the VOR you know the proper intercept heading is to the Left of 150 by 60 degrees. 150-60 = 090 heading

#2

Intercept the 030 degree radial outbound, at an intercept angle of 45 degrees.

You dial in 030 on the top after tuning an identing, and get a Needle Right and From indication

By looking at the VOR you know the proper intercept heading is to the Right of 030 by 45 degrees. 030+45 = 075 heading


I hope that helps.

+1.

[yzfer]

This might help you out.
http://selair.selkirk.bc.ca/Training/i ... works.html