1 hour ago, jmdriskell said:

There was a good life before GPS, following VOR radials or radio ranges

& let's not forget the "joys" of using VAR's ........

17 hours ago, Flyfaster said:

Also IFR without GPS is insanity

Talk about not having a clue...........

21 minutes ago, W2DR said:

Talk about not having a clue...........

Fortunately when one has licenses they do not need clues! 🙂

2 hours ago, jmdriskell said:

So it appears that all of us who learned to fly in the last century are insane.  There was a good life before GPS, following VOR radials or radio ranges, keeping time from check points, estimating drift and the other techniques required for dead reckoning.  I still us my trusty E6-B.

 

Jim Driskell 

While flying with a former F-4 phantom pilot (vietnam era) and programming older apollo GPS...  he remarked "I don't know how we ever flew without GPS". I asked "how they used to do it?" and he then said "well we would take oil drums with fires going in them, and line them down the runway"

Can we please keep it on topic.  I'm going through some of the resources provided which has been really helpful but now the thread is digressing into a sub topic of opinion.

Here's a nice little radio nav simulator created by a member on AVSIM:

https://www.fergonez.net/projects/ifrsimulator/

 

58 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Here's a nice little radio nav simulator created by a member on AVSIM:

https://www.fergonez.net/projects/ifrsimulator/

 

Hey, wow. This is awesome. A quick way of applying the logic.

Question for anyone really. When I turn the OBS dial to show TO. How can do I turn it. It seems if I turn it to 'To' if I don't get it perfect it'll switch to 'From' and I keep adjusting it it'll end up at my VOR point. But is keeping track of that the best practice?

5 hours ago, Flyfaster said:

What is a VOR ?! 🙂

VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range (VOR) is defined as VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range, an aircraft navigation system operating in the VHF band.

OK you're flying along straight and level. You turn the OBS until it displays TO and the needle is as close to vertical as you can get it. For example if the needle is almost vertical and displaying TO at 200 degrees, then turn your plane! to 200 degrees. You're then heading more or less towards the VOR on the inbound radial (of 200 deg). Watch for deviation of the needle. If the needle is showing slightly to the left turn to the left, how much depends upon how far away from the VOR you are. The further away you are, the greater turn you should make, but say nothing more than 30 degrees off so you stand a chance of correcting your heading in a timely manner when the needle swings the other way.

So.. You're flying on a heading of 200 degrees. Needle slightly to left. Turn to say, 190 deg. Wait for the needle to swing vertical again, turn back to 200 degrees. You're flying down the 200 deg inbound radial to that VOR. You shouldn't adjust the OBS once you've dialled in the radial you need.

EDIT Once you have reached the beacon, or within a mile or so of it (depends on how high you're flying), then you'll see the needle rapily deflect until FROM is displayed and the needle gradually returns to centre.

You can use the instrument to get you direct to a VOR beacon (turning the OBS as above) or you can use it to fly a specific radial TO of FROM the VOR beacon by selecting the OBS course and then flying along until you intercept that radial. You may have heard ATC requesting, or seen flight plans where you have to fly a specific course: fly the 110 radial outbound from (name of VOR beacon).

Edited October 12, 20205 yr by HighBypass

NZAA,

Just to perhaps clarify a bit, in the above scenario you're flying 200 degs inbound on the 20 degree radial. If you then held this course, once passing over the VOR you would be flying 200 degrees outbound on the 200 degree radial. The point being radials are 'named' in terms of magnetic directions radiating outward from the VOR. The name of the radial you are on is independent of the direction that you are flying.

Al

Edited October 13, 20205 yr by ark

3 hours ago, NZAA said:

Can we please keep it on topic.  I'm going through some of the resources provided which has been really helpful but now the thread is digressing into a sub topic of opinion.

Hang around a RL hangar long enough and you soon come to realize that most stuff doesn't remain on topic very long 🙂. No reason it should be any different here.

9 hours ago, n4gix said:

VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range (VOR) is defined as VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range, an aircraft navigation system operating in the VHF band.

+ They operate based on line of sight.