VOR Explained Simply | How VOR Works | IFR Training

whether you're flying vfr or ifr you're going to get exposed to a form of basic navigational aid called a vor vor stands for vhf omnidirectional range the vhf in turn stands for very high frequency this is an overly complicated name and let's acknowledge something from the start vors are overly complicated we all struggle with understanding them not because there's anything wrong with us but because they are not user friendly navigationally it's not you it's them so with that out of the way let's look at what vor is this is salisbury airport in maryland just north of the runway intersection is a white building that looks like a giant bowling pin this facility houses the vor transmitter in the maintenance shed with a bunch of equipment inside of it this big white transmitter sends signals out in every direction hence the omnidirectional o in vor will represent this omnidirectional signal with the 360 degrees of the compass rose with the arrow pointing towards zero degrees which is magnetic north we call this line the three six zero radial radials radiate out from the station in all 360 degrees so if this arrow points along the 3 6 0 radial this dashed line represents the 0 6 0 radial the dashed line radiates out from the station pointed 060 degrees now an aircraft can be anywhere in relation to this vor station but it will be on one of these 360 radials this aircraft here because it's on the dashed line we drew is on the zero six zero radial now here's something important to remember about vors and so we'll say it a few times no matter what heading or direction the aircraft is flying as long as it is on this dashed line it'll be on the same zero six zero radial the aircraft can be flying outbound can be crabbing into the wind can be pointed inbound or can even be moving backwards and it will still be on the same radial it's all based on position not heading or movement if your aircraft has a vor receiver on board is designed to receive the signal sent from the vor station and interpret what radio you're on here's how the vor signals work the transmitter like the one on the field at salisbury sends out two distinct signals there's a reference signal represented by the light green here which is sent out omnidirectionally in all directions then there's a variable signal the blue signal which is a focused rotating signal the reference signal in light green is time to pulse out in all directions when the variable signal in blue is aimed at magnetic north if your aircraft were on the 360 radial in other words you were on that line pointed away from the station towards magnetic north you would receive both of these signals at the same time look at the little aircraft off to the right it receives the two signals at different times first it gets the pulse of the light green reference signal when this happens the blue variable signal is aimed at north after a short time like a tiny fraction of a second the blue variable signal rotates around and is received by the aircraft with the onboard vr receiver does is time the difference between when the two signals were received a particular amount of time equates with the aircraft being on a certain radial the amount of time represented by the red pi diagram equates to the one zero five radial further around the compass rose clockwise and more time would pass between receiving the one signal in the other kind of like an old rotary phone where the bigger numbers would take longer to spin around the dial and if you get that reference please don't date yourself by letting us know okay so that's how the vor receiver can tell which radio we're on here's how to use it for navigation the compass rose we drew is actually depicted on the sectional chart it's centered on the vor station itself notice that the arrow to zero doesn't point straight vertical as it would to true north because again the 360 radial is magnetic north which is great because we use magnetic for navigation the sectional chart has an identification box for the vor it lists the name of the facility salisbury and the frequency 111.2 this is a vhf frequency which is where the v and vor comes from up top are communications frequencies to get in touch with flight service and over here is the morse identifier the dots and dashes that make up the three letter morse identifier for this station sby in the cockpit if we tune in the nav to the sby frequency 111.2 and turn on the nav on our audio panel we'll hear these dots and dashes and this is how we know we're tuned to the right station and that it's working we should always identistation when we first tune into it the aircraft will have one or two vor receivers on it represented by these dials here the vor display shows information about which radial the aircraft is on first it's surrounded by a compass card around the outside very similar to the directional gyro there's a knob at the bottom called an omni bearing selector or obs another very complicated name so we can think of it as the knob when we twist the knob the compass card will rotate this is how we can select a radial the white needle is called the coarse deviation indicator cdi again we can just call this the needle the needle tells us how far off we are from the radial we selected by turning the knob it can display up to 10 degrees of deviation from the radial these dots relate to how far off we are each dot represents two degrees of deviation so right now the needle is fully deflected left meaning 10 or more degrees of deviation but as it comes in each of those dots represent two fewer degrees of deviation so it'll come off by 8 6 4 2 and finally showing us centered when we're on the selected radial notice the edge of the circle or donut there is the first two degrees finally there's an arrow pointing either at two or from as we twist the knob the compass card spins around and causes the needle to deflect and the two from flag to flip all depending on which radial the aircraft is currently on to understand all this let's go back to our plane on the 060 radial of the salisbury vor at first the compass card has the 180 radial selected we already know we're on the 060 radial when we twist the knob to rotate the compass card when we get to 0 6 0 the needle will center and the arrow will point to from why from we've selected this radial and radials radiate out from the station look at it in another way if we fly the heading we selected zero six zero we'll be flying a path directly away from the station here let's reiterate that it doesn't matter what direction the aircraft is pointed in or moving in as long as we have the 060 radio selected and we stay on that radial the needle will stay centered with the from flag indicated let's go back to the beginning and look at the mechanics of the display a little bit more here at first we've selected the 180 radial let's draw that radial on our chart here now let's split the chart into two hemispheres perpendicular to that 180 line we've selected and we'll have these small slices at the dividing lines there's a two hemisphere and a from hemisphere notice the aircraft is in the two hemisphere and that this is what's indicated on the two flag what does this mean it means that if we flew that selected 180 heading we would be getting closer to the station instead of further away from the station okay so let's go through the same exercise of twisting the knob to select the 060 radial and while we're twisting it we'll also move the blue lines and hemispheres that we've charted out as we start twisting it the dividing line between the hemispheres approaches our plane when we get inside the little cone there the two flag disappears there's actually no flag up for either to or from we call this the cone of confusion but it's not as confusing as you think when we don't have either the two or from flag showing we must be on a radial that is 90 degrees off from the one we've selected here we've landed on the 150 radial selected bringing up this cone of confusion which makes sense because our radial is 060 offset exactly 90 degrees from here if we keep twisting the knob we'll end up in the from hemisphere and the front flag will pop up we'll twist until we're almost selected 0 6 0 we're just 10 degrees off now what happens is that as we turn the last 10 degrees the needle will begin to center as we saw before it centers when we've selected our radial 060 as we fly out the needle stays centered as long as again we stay on that 060 radial now let's say we get blown off by a little bit of wind to the right side we're no longer on the zero six zero radial that radial is to our left and so the needle will swing to the left two degrees four degrees six degrees until where we are now is not the zero six zero radial but the zero six six radial these are the basics on what vor is and how it operates there's a lot more to explore about actually using vors and navigation and that's what's covered in the next vor video but hopefully this basis will give you a good foundation of understanding what it is we're dealing with if you're not busy right now why don't you keep your training going by watching some of these videos here and you can subscribe to stay up to date on all the new releases and training articles that are coming out and more head on over to the website flight dash insight.com to really kickstart your flight training

Channel: FlightInsight

Views: 13,797

Keywords: vor explained, how vor works animation, how does vor navigation works, vor navigation, vhf omnidirectional range, vor basics, what is a vor

Id: uqGvbVDp5Jk

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 26 2021