Remember VORs?

nganapathy

Wednesday, November 25, 2020 at 01:20 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Despite the prevalence and ease of GPS, VORs remain the foundational backbone of the National Airspace System and are critical for navigation during GPS outages, highlighting a concerning lack of pilot proficiency.
VOR stations transmit azimuth information (radials), which cockpit indicators translate into guidance using an Omni Bearing Selector (OBS), Course Deviation Indicator (CDI), and "To"/"From" flag to help pilots fly specific courses.
Effective VOR navigation involves techniques like centering the CDI for current position, setting intercept angles to fly desired radials (to or from a station), correcting for wind drift, and managing changeover points when navigating airways.
Pilots are urged to regularly practice VOR navigation skills, even without GPS, to maintain proficiency for both routine system operation and essential backup in emergencies.

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Area navigation using GPS has been around (for us) for about 30 years. Before that we did mostly the same thing using LORAN for a while. But, the National Airspace System was designed around VHF Omni- Range navigation stations, VORs, that long preceded GPS.

Technically, there are three types: VORs that just provide azimuth information, VOR-DMEs that include a DME station, and VORTACs (VOR plus the military tactical air navigation system) that, for our purposes, are the same as VOR-DMEs. Regardless of the type, though, the actual navigation is via azimuth information using the VOR.