Whats VOR nav?

Question

I get some of it but whats ridal mean and all that stuff saying if your 270 degress due west of the VOR your still west or w.e

its confusing.....

Answer 1

VOR = VHF omnidirectional range. This is a ground based sytem which radiates in all 360 degress. The corresponding equipment in the aircraft is very much like a radio compass and gives you the direction of the VOR in relation to the aircraft. The directions are referred to as radials on which you can home in and arrive overhead. Once overhead, the needle swings from the nose to the tail showing you have crossed the VOR.

270 degrees due west of the VOR, would indicate the VOR being on your starboard wing. You could intercept inbound by turning onto 090 or thereabouts, putting the needle on your nose and arriving over the facility.

Answer 2

Well the word is "Radial", just to make sure we are on the same page.  But a VOR beacon is a special kind of radio antennae that emits a signal in all 360 degrees.  This signal changes slightly around the antennae so that the gauge in your plane can tell what direction you are from the antennae.  Operating the gauge can be a little bit more confusing.  To dumb it down a bit, there is an outside gauge that will give you your radial position, there is a needle that will give you your variance off of that radial, and there is a TO/FROM flag to tell you if you are traveling to the VOR antennae or away from it.  If you are flying around and went to travel to a VOR antennae, then you look up the frequency (remember it is a radio frequency beacon) for the VOR station.  You set that frequency to one of your NAV (navigation) radio channels.  You then turn the outside dial on your VOR gauge until the needle in the middle centers itself (it can swing left or right).  This will tell you what radial you are off of.  (Imagine a compass rose sitting on top of the VOR station.  The 0 Radial is due north, 180 is due South, etc)  For the purpose of this example, lets say that the needle centers when the outside dial has the number 270 at the top.  This means that you are due West of the VOR station because 270 degrees on a compass is West.  You will then check the TO/FROM flag.  This is usually somewhere near the needle.  If the flag says TO then you are traveling towards the VOR station and located straight West of it.  You could say that you are Traveling towards the station on the 270 radial.  If it says from, then you are traveling away from the station.  If you fly directly over the station, then the TO/FROM flag will immediately flip from TO to FROM.

Since this is kind of hard to visualize, the source list contains links to two pictures. The first is a VOR indicator.  A is the outer dial I told you about.  B is the k**b that you turn to move the outer dial.  C is the needle that swings left and right.  D is the TO/FROM flag currently showing TO.  This VOR is traveling towards the station on the 345 radial.

The second picture is a visualization of the Radials.  The VOR on the plane in this picture would indicate that the plane is traveling FROM the 315 radial.  Soon however, as this plane is not flying right on the radial, the needle will swing to the left to indicate that the 315 radial is now to the left of the plane.

Answer 3

VHF = Very High Frequency.  An ancronym within an acronym.