Navigation Using a VOR

A VOR is a radio station that transmits radio

navigation

signals in the very high frequency or VHF band. The station transmits radio signals called radials in all directions away from the station. Pilots use 360 ​​radials, one for each degree in a circle to Determining the position of the equipment on the plane says that the plane is on the radial of three six degrees zero, so the plane is north of the station. An aircraft on the 90 radial is due east, while one on the eight zero degree radial is due south of the station, since pilots rely on the compass for directional guidance the radials transmitted by the vors are aligned with Magnetic North Before

using

a vor for

navigation

, it must be tuned and identified.

Tuning the vor is a simple matter of selecting the appropriate frequency on the receiver, then configuring the aircraft audio system so that it can monitor the audible identifier of the Morse code transmitted by the vor station. Each vor has a unique three-letter identifier. By listening to the Morse code for this three-letter identifier, you have positively identified that the signal is being received on your screen. from the desired vor To find your location from a vor, turn the Omni heading selector knob or the OBS knob on the vor receiver display until the needle is centered and the flag - from indicates that, once the needle is centered, your magnetic or radial heading from the vor is displayed at the top of the screen, for example, if the reading was 135, this tells you that the airplane is located on the 135 radial, in other words, the airplane is southeast of the vor.

One thing that can be very conf

using

when learning to navigate is that the radial you are on has nothing to do with your heading, you could be on a 135 radial and heading north to south or any direction to find the direction to Rotate the OBS until the needle is centered with a to indicate the number displayed at the top of the screen is the heading from your aircraft to the vor. This is exactly the opposite of the direction from the station to the plane, therefore your heading or radial from the station is also displayed at the bottom of the screen to fly directly to where you are. the needle centered with two indications turn the plane towards the heading at the top of the vor receiver screen as the vor shows the direction to the station and your plane is flying the heading you will head directly to the vor however the plane drifts with the wind unless a crosswind correction is applied to correct the win, maintain course and observe the movement of the needle, known as the heading deviation indicator or CDI, if the needle moves to the right or to the left, indicates the need to move the aircraft to the right or left to maintain heading towards the station.

This is another confusing concept of vor navigation. The needle does not tell you to turn right or left. It tells you to move the entire plane to the right or left, of course, in order to do this. You have to turn the plane, however, your goal is to adjust the heading in order to move the plane laterally. Remember that the needle gives you position information that has nothing to do with your airplane's heading, for example, if you were directly south of a scope on your 1/8th zero degree Radial and then center the needle with a indication of two would result in three six zero being displayed, as the vor is directly north of the plane.

Turning the plane to a heading of 360 will take us towards the station while maintaining a three six. heading zero degrees observe the movement of the CDI let's say that the CDI begins to move to the right in this case the instrument is telling us that we are deviating to the left with the wind when we maintain a heading 360 at this point we must choose a new heading to counteracting the drift of the airplane to the left will turn to the right and set the airplane on heading zero one five maintaining this new heading observe the movement of the CDI let's say it continues moving to the right we can deduce that a heading of 15 degrees is not enough to counteract the wind a major correction is required so let's turn further to the right to a heading of zero three zero while maintaining a heading of zero three zero degrees the needle begins to move back towards the center of the screen this means a heading of zero three zero more of counteracts the wind and we return to the desired heading we maintain our new heading until the CDI is centered once the needle is centered we guess which heading will perfectly counteract the wind we know from our experience so far that a zero three zero The heading more than counteracts the wind, but a course of fifteen fails to counteract victory, so we must choose a course between these two.

We decided to try a zero two zero heading after holding that zero two zero heading for a few minutes, the CDI needle is still centered. This process of determining the appropriate heading for wind correction is known as bracketing, as the range of headings within which the desired wind correction heading lies is progressively reduced to fly directly away from a vor with the needle centered with an indication to turn the aircraft towards heading as shown at the top of the VOR receiver screen, this will cause the aircraft to fly directly away from the station. This is because you have turned the plane to a heading that is the same as the direction your plane is facing from the station.

Follow the radial away from the station using the same bracketing technique as when flying to the station if you try to track a radial from the station with two flags displayed the needle will work in reverse the pilot will need to fly away from the needle and not towards it in order to keep you centered, this is also true if you fly to the station with a home flag to alleviate this reverse detection, make sure the home flag shows the correct indication if you do not rotate the OBS until the desired flag appears, the origin may also displays an off indication, authentication is displayed when none of the - from indications are appropriate for the OBS selection, such as a selection that would not be taken by the aircraft or - or from the station, is also displayed when directly over or very close to the navigation aid if none of these conditions exist, then a shutdown flag could indicate a loss of signal from the navigation aid, since the radials transmitted by a vor all originate from the vor station itself, The distance between the radials increases the further the plane moves from the station, this means that the needle is slower to respond to greater distances from the vor since the plane must move a greater distance to move from one radial to the next as the plane gets closer and closer to the station the needle will become more and more sensitive, making it increasingly difficult to stay centered when flying over a vor, the needle will become more and more sensitive until when very close to the navigation, the needle will probably swing completely left or right at these close distances, just stay on your course, the flag will appear as you pass the station once on the other side the flag will appear as you pass the station. track the departure of the station the needle will become less and less sensitive as the distance from the vor increases many times it is desirable to track a specific radial to do so, mark the radial you wish to track using the OBS turn the aircraft to a heading that be the same as the heading you selected with the OBS the aircraft is now approximately parallel to the desired core, then select a new heading that will intercept the desired heading heading If the needle is not offset at full scale, only a small adjustment may be required. heading change, such as 15 or 30 degrees in the direction of the needle deflection, if the needle deviates to full scale, a larger intercept heading may be required, you can choose to use the OBS knob to center the needle with an indication of to see what radius you are currently on and then return the OBS to the desired heading choose an intercept heading in the direction of the needle between 30 and 90 degrees to the left or right of your current heading when the needle begins to rotate to the center towards the desired trajectory the desired radial using the bracketing technique to correct wind drift The DME or distance measuring equipment consists of stations on the ground and equipment on the aircraft The DME operates in ultra high frequency or frequency band UHF when a vor is equipped with DME equipment it is known as vor/dme each VHF vor frequency is paired with a specific UHF DME frequency, this means the pilot only needs to use the vor frequency and does not need to worry about the UHF frequency of the DME Before using the DME identify the DME to be used by listening to its Morse code identifier The DME equipment does not have its own unique identifier, instead it uses the identifier of the vor it is connected to, the DME will transmit its parent vor s Identifier Morse code once every 30 seconds The DME works by measuring the time it takes for a radio signal to be transmitted from the aircraft to the DME equipment on the ground and back the result is displayed in nautical miles to the pilot 8 a can is a navigation aid land used for tactical air navigation by military aircraft.

Its operation is not very similar to a DME vor and the azimuth transmitted from the strike end can only be received by military aircraft. Civil aircraft; however, you can receive the DME portion of a TAC. In the end, it is common for a TAC and transmitter to be equipped with equipment that allows its use as a vor or attack in these joint civil and military navigation aids. From the perspective of the civilian user, they are called vortex. A Vortech is identical in use and function to a vor/dme a vor test facility transmits test signals to allow pilots to verify the accuracy of their aircraft's vor receiver.

The locations and frequencies of VOTs are listed in the airport facilities directory to use a vo t simply tune to its frequency, the vo t does not transmit a usable signal for navigation instead it transmits a test signal that tells the your plane which is directly north of the station vo T regardless of its actual position. This means that your onboard vor will always read zero degrees or 1/8 of zero degrees when the CDI is centered.