The VHF Omnidirectional Range navigation system, VOR, was probably the most significant aviation invention other than the jet engine. With it, a pilot can simply, accurately, and without ambiguity navigate from Point A to Point B.
The widespread introduction of VORs began in the early 1950s and 50 years later it remains the primary navigation system in the overwhelming majority of aircraft.
If you jumped to this point of the website without proceeding through the earlier sections, I strongly recommend that you return to the Air Navigation section and review the sections on VFR Sectional Charts, IFR enroute low altitude charts, and the basics of plotting a course. Further, you should go to the NDB Approaches/Approach Plates section and read the basics of Instrument Approach Plates, now called Terminal Procedures.
The basic principle of operation of the VOR is very simple: the VOR facility transmits two signals at the same time. One signal is constant in all directions, while the other is rotated about the station. The airborne equipment receives both signals, looks (electronically) at the difference between the two signals, and interprets the result as a radial from the station.
The GPS, Global Positioning System, is making inroads onto the navigation scene and offers a flexibility unavailable with either NDB or VOR systems. However, it is supplementing these systems, not replacing them.
The RMI indicator used in the NDB navigation exercises is as close to a "hands-off" indicator as you will find. In an aircraft the RMI compass card must initially be aligned with the compass before a flight begins and then rechecked every fifteen minutes or so, and that's it.
With VOR, however, course information must be manually entered into the indicator. The VOR indicator below shows an aircraft heading toward, "TO," the Omni station.
NOTE this very important fact, with more info farther down. The radial signals of a VOR always point away from the station. The indicator below shows 345°, but since we are heading toward the VOR, see arrow D, we are actually on the reciprocal radial, or the 165° radial. This aircraft is south of the station. This will become more clear in a moment.
Read More : http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/vor-nav.htm
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