VOR Navigation

[RoboRay]

well....20-40ish miles is about how close you need to be to pick up a VOR....the higher you go, the farther out you can be. the picture above....i'm not sure the distance, but i have no clue how you could ever pick up a VOR being that far out...aren't these islands at least a hundred miles apart IRL? like the Kauai to Oahu has to be at least 100+ miles.

It's the longest distance between islands, and it's less than 100 miles. And you can fly an outbound radial from the departure island until you pick up the VOR on the next island, if you need to.

[fastcarfastplane]

Just doubled checked FSX.. Same range.. Tuned to Kona VOR and set a FROM course out of Honolulu.. I stopped after 191nm out from the VOR and still picking it up..191nm? thats incredibly unrealistic....you'll never get a VOR past maybe 60 miles, let alone almost 200! lol wow!

VOR-VOR Kaui to Oahu (Honolulu) is 95nm. (both of these shots I didn't dial in the VOR.. Just pulled up the freq for examples)I can pick up the Kona VOR from Honolulu Airport at about 3500-4000ft. I've picked them up as far as 189nm away. When I do this trip I usually fly at about 8500ft. Everything I've ever read I've known VOR's and DME's to have a range of roughly 200 miles give or take.Speed hasn't fully calcuated out yet on this. I snapped this literally as it came online while climbing.DME's have a much farther range than a VOR as i said earlier....what i meant by the 'like tuning a radio station...is that you can actually tune a radio broadcast through your DME...a radio brocast from several hundred miles away, and if you follow it, your DME would take you to that radio station...radio as in, plays music type of radio, lol!As far as the VOR, you're probably confusing the signal protection range, with the range you're able to pick it up at....a VOR has something like 150 miles where the frequency is protected from other frequency interference....where as picking up the signal and getting a lock TO or FROM it, is around 40 miles.

It's the longest distance between islands, and it's less than 100 miles. And you can fly an outbound radial from the departure island until you pick up the VOR on the next island, if you need to.

Wow, i thought they'd be at least a couple hundred miles....i said 100 as a filler..heh, i should of looked before posting...in that case, yes you can fly FROM a VOR until you pickup the next one flying TO a VOR, and if you fly high enough, you'd probably never lose signal.And to the other guy who said he didn't get the elevation/vor range thing...basically its like shooting an arrow...if you angle it up, its going to go farther...i.e. the higher your plane, the more direct angle, the less interference from things like tall trees, and w/e else.....if i was headed 090 @5500ft i'd prob. pick up a VOR at 45miles. if i was headed 090@2500ft you'd maybe pick it up 25nm out.

[n4gix]

Thanks for testing that. I talked to my father who knows just about anything there is to know about radio communications. His response was that UHF at ground level has a much shorter distance (20-30 miles) than it does say at 30,000 feet.

Except for TACAN channels, all navaids are VHF*... which has a much longer range line-of-sight than UHF.* NOTA BENE: See my post below for the technical details. While technically DME and GS transmitters are UHF, from the pilot's perspective they are tuned using the aircraft's VHF radio equipment, so they appear to be VHF frequencies... :Nerd:

[N6330V]

Except for TACAN channels, all navaids are VHF... which has a much longer range line-of-sight than UHF.

DME can be VHF or UHF and ILS G/S are always on UHF.

[Heimi]

VOR`s are VHF. And there are different classes of VOR`s.High Altitude VOR`s have a guaranteed range of 130nm, in good conditions they work more than 200nm.

[deltatango]

And to answer OP's other question:

In terms of flight planning, are VORs used as a navigational reference to fly TO (ie, connect the VOR dots to your destination airport), or are they used for radial intercept to fly a straight course to the next destination which could be an airport, a VOR, or another radial?

No.You can define any bearing and distance from a station as a point. Eg: ITO235028Decoded, that means a point which is reference the Hilo VOR (identifier ITO), on the 235 radial (roughly southwest) and 28 DME (Distance Measuring Equipment, measured in nautical miles [NM]) away. A radial is just a line drawn (radiating) from the station outwards. Don't overthink that bit too much.And here's how to find this point (I used the RV-6 for this):1. Put your aircraft on the ground at Mountain view airstrip on the Big Island of Hawaii.2. Tune your nav radio (the top, right side radio) to 116.9. Hit the key with two arrows to make it the active freq.3. Click the pull ident knob and listen. You should hear the identifier (ITO) beeping away in morse code.3. You might also have noticed that guage next your altimiter moved and the red and white 'off' flag went away.4. The DME (at the bottom of the radio stack should also now read about 11.9NM OOOKT (more about the speed later). That means you are 11.9 nautical miles from the station.5. Turn the OBS knob on the CDI (next to the altimeter) to 235 degrees. You may notice the needle swing.6. Now take off and fly (using your compass - not the CDI guage we just changed) Northwest. About heading 300.7. You will now see the DME readout change and the DME speed will change too. This speed is simply the speed you are moving to or away from the station. If you keep adjusting your speed to keep it at 000, you will eventually fly in a circle all the way around the station!8. As you are flying on heading 300, you will eventually cross the 235 radial that you have set. You'll cross this radial at a 65 degree (300-235) angle. You'll know when this is about to happen, as the vertical bar will start to move. When it does, slowly turn left to heading 235. If the bar moved right across the other side, you need to keep turning left to about 200 which will take you back onto the radial. Eventually you should end up on heading 235, with the needle in the centre. If there's wind, you may have to adjust left or right a couple of degrees, to keep it in the centre. If you get disoriented, just hit the M key to see where you are on the map.9. Now that the needle is centered, simply keep flying until the DME says 028. You have reached your point. If you descend to right near the ground, you may even find an Aerocache at that location .By first researching the Aerocaches and then working out the radial and distance from a nearby station using Google Earth, I've found most of the Aerocaches using this method.

[RoboRay]

DME can be VHF or UHF and ILS G/S are always on UHF.

ILS frequency is given as the VHF frequency of the localizer. The glideslope is a on a corresponding, automatically tuned UHF frequency that you never even need to be aware of. Heck, I used ILS for years before I ever learned that the GS receiver tunes UHF. From a pure operator's viewpoint, it's a VHF system, because those are the only freqs you dial in.

[Guest]

And to answer OP's other question:No.

Well, of course they CAN be used to simply fly to. Some airports for instance have a VOR nearby so in that case it's simpy a matter of flying directly to it and you are there. In that case tune into the VOR and as soon as you get the signal, turn the OBS knob until the TO/FROM is as TO and the needle is dead centered. The number at the top of the gauge will be the heading you need to fly (the actual heading you need to fly may be a little bit different when there is wind). Simple as that. @deltatango: I think your (great) tutorial misses some steps that could come in handy for the OP if he has to fly to a specific bearing-distance of a VOR but without knowing where the VOR is in relation to his aircraft! In your exampe you also let the OP turn left and fly outbound on the 235 radial, but if he was further off the station, he would have to turn right and fly inbound on a heading of 055. Your steps will be fine in specific situations but when something changes (position, radial) the OP will end up totally lost, I think, hehe. (I am no VOR expert (and I sincerely hope that what I just wrote isn't complete nonsense ) and I would also like to read a complete tutorial on all this, but then as short as possible, haha! There is enough information about VORs on the internet, but often it is too much blah blah...)

[Oracle427]

In order to find info on what radial to intercept to get to an airport from a VOR, you should check the FAA website for the A/FD. Search for the airport you want and you will find appropriate info near the bottom of that airports info.It will give you the name of the Nav aid, a distance and a radial if it is a VOR.A/FD = Airport and Facility DirectoryThe info can be cryptic, but you get used to it very quickly if you read the legend.Also note that VHF is blocked by terrain. It is not uncommon for a VOR to lack coverage for certain arcs and altitudes. This is something that UHF gets around, though it is not as accurate due to interference or as long ranged.

[Guest]

 

Also note that VHF is blocked by terrain. It is not uncommon for a VOR to lack coverage for certain arcs and altitudes.

However, that's not simulated, so no worries about that during virtual flying.

[jasonboche]

However, that's not simulated, so no worries about that during virtual flying.

Oddly enough, last night while flying VOR to VOR, I noticed one of the VOR stations (about 30nm out) was tuned in and functioning properly - except for the morse code tone. For the most part there was no tone but I left it turned on and once in a while VOR identifier tone would come in for a brief moment, then disappear. I thought maybe it was a distance issue but as I gained altitude & closed in on the VOR I was flying a bearing to, the tone situation never improved.Bug?

[deltatango]

but if he was further off the station, he would have to turn right and fly inbound on a heading of 055. Your steps will be fine in specific situations but when something changes (position, radial) the OP will end up totally lost, I think, hehe. (I am no VOR expert (and I sincerely hope that what I just wrote isn't complete nonsense ) and I would also like to read a complete tutorial on all this, but then as short as possible, haha! There is enough information about VORs on the internet, but often it is too much blah blah...)

Agreed. I thought I would just write a quick tutorial to show how easy it is to find a bearing/distance using that mysterious instrument - without the blah blah - so as not to put newbies off too much.Hopefully that results in an 'ah-ha' moment, triggering searching for the more in depth stuff on the internets.

[Guest meshman]

Just doubled checked FSX.. Same range.. Tuned to Kona VOR and set a FROM course out of Honolulu.. I stopped after 191nm out from the VOR and still picking it up..

Picking up on this for reference. If the Flight airports are setup the same as FSX and FS9 and there's no reason to believe otherwise, the VORs have a range of 195nm and the ILSs are set to 27nm.

[n4gix]

DME can be VHF or UHF and ILS G/S are always on UHF.

Technically DME equipment is UHF, although this is transparent to the pilot since the DME channel is paired with the corresponding VHF frequency tuned by the navigation radio(s). DME frequencies are paired to VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) frequencies and a DME interrogator is designed to automatically tune to the corresponding DME frequency when the associated VOR frequency is selected. An airplane’s DME interrogator uses frequencies from 1025 to 1150 MHz. DME transponders transmit on a channel in the 962 to 1150 MHz range and receive on a corresponding channel between 962 to 1213 MHz. The band is divided into 126 channels for interrogation and 126 channels for reply. The interrogation and reply frequencies always differ by 63 MHz. The spacing of all channels is 1 MHz with a signal spectrum width of 100 kHz.Similar to the case of VORs and DMEs, Localizers are VHF and GS are UHF, but the GS is paired with the Localizer such that the GS frequency is transparent to the pilot. In other words, localizer and glideslope carrier frequencies are paired so that only one selection is required to tune both receivers. For example:TACAN....Localizer........GS======================18X..........108.10........334.7018Y..........108.15 .......334.5520X..........108.30........334.10....up to........56Y.........111.95.........330.95See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_Landing_System#Frequency_list

[fastcarfastplane]

VOR`s are VHF. And there are different classes of VOR`s.High Altitude VOR`s have a guaranteed range of 130nm, in good conditions they work more than 200nm.

well, ...yeah, partially correct.they only have a range over 40nm if you're above 15,000ft. we have no planes that can do that right now...(well climb to that alt, hold and cruise)...and even so, to get to a 130nm range, you'd have to be near 20,000 feet.even in perfect conditions, it'd be pretty hard to get a 200nm range, i dont know if thats even possible actually...and you'd have to be way the hell up in the sky, lol, like at least 40000edit: oh yeah, there is the mustang (i haven't bought it)...i forgot...that'd get you up pretty high i suppose.