Vor Navigation Question...

[ZUKO]

Today in class we started learning VOR navigation and how the to and from differs and I have gotten that part of it down. But for some reason I seem to be confusing my self as to what the line will do depending on where you are in relation to the course.

Does the verticle line show the correction you need to fly either "left" or "right"? Or does the line represent the correct heading to the vor? If that made any sense. Does anyone have a clear way of explaining how to get the VORs down since they can not tell what heading you are going just your location.

Thanks. I thought I understood it in class but I am going over it now and my fatigue seems to be taking over.

[T_Hudson]

We briefly went over VOR the last lesson I had. I was quite confused to say the least.

[Champcar]

Originally Posted by ZUKO

Today in class we started learning VOR navigation and how the to and from differs and I have gotten that part of it down. But for some reason I seem to be confusing my self as to what the line will do depending on where you are in relation to the course.

Does the verticle line show the correction you need to fly either "left" or "right"? Or does the line represent the correct heading to the vor? If that made any sense. Does anyone have a clear way of explaining how to get the VORs down since they can not tell what heading you are going just your location.

Thanks. I thought I understood it in class but I am going over it now and my fatigue seems to be taking over.

If you have the radial dialed in correct then yes just fly to the needle. If the needle is to the right then correct to the right.

Always remember that radials are FROM the VOR...always.

When flying TO the station put the radial in the bottom of the OBS
When flying FROM the station put the radial in the top of the OBS

[Van_Hoolio]

The CDI needle represents the course to or from the station you have selected with the OBS knob.

[the_dmn8tr]

Whatever direction the CDI is, you fly toward it. It sounds like you are trying to make it an NDB/ADF, where it points to the station.

[KW]

The gauge always displays as if the OBS course you have dialed in is it's heading. Likewise, the To/From indicator tells you whether the OBS course you dialed in would take you to or from the station if you were to fly that direction.

Imagine that your aircraft is sitting at a point in space, frozen in time on the 179 radial from a VOR (i.e. you are south of the station). Your aircraft is currently heading 360. You dial 180 into the OBS. The CDI (needle) deflects to the right and you get a From indication - huh? The 180 radial should be to the left and you are flying to the station - what gives? Remember it indicates as if the gauge were heading in the direction you dialed into the OBS - if you imagine yourself facing 180 (backwards from the aircraft heading in this example) the radial would be off to your right and you would be going away from the station.

With that idea in mind, go to Tim's Air Navigation page - http://www.visi.com/~mim/nav/ - set one instrument as a VOR, one as a DG, make the plane invisible and start randomly placing the plane and randomly dialing the heading and OBS. Keep working at that for a bit and you will get to where you can always visualize your position relative to a VOR simply from the gauge indications.

[SpiraMirabilis]

I'm posting from my phone so I didn't read everything but remember reverse sensing: if you're dialed into the 270 radial but are heading 90 then if the needle is deflected left, you must correct to the right. or you could just switch to the 90 radial and be normal.