How to Make VORs Easy to Use | VORs Tips | IFR Training

VORs are every student's nightmare. They're tough to learn, and we don't get much practice with them as so many are being decommissioned. Here are some tips to help you nail VOR navigation.

0:29 Setting the VOR
1:26 Determining Where the Station is
2:04 Flying IN to the Station
3:42 Correcting for Wind
6:18 Reverse Sensing
8:53 VOR Sensitivity
10:20 Intercepting a Radial
11:33 Using Cross Radials

[mikepeterson]

In my opinion, this guy’s videos are the best for training. Very concise, no fluff or opinion, & his choice of training aids & the way they are laid out make the mini-lesson very easy to follow. I wish I would’ve found this when I started 🤦🏻‍♂️

[flyinandjammin]

Dude, your stuff is simply the best training I've ever seen. Your video on holding pattern entry erased a ton of confusion, and this video is an incredibly practical and easy tutorial on VOR. I'm thinking about starting my instrument training and if I do I'll be getting your course. As a former high school physics teacher I'll give you the highest compliment I know: you've got the gene.

[sierrarotorcraftclub]

Good video. I've been lost twice. The first time while in the Air force and in the practice area, the haze drifted in and I couldn't see the base. So I started heading back in the direction where I thought the base would be and after a period of time, I figured it was time to call the base control tower for some help. They found me 90 miles off course and with radar brought me back home. That's when I decided it was time to learn how to navigate using my one VOR in my Cessna 150 rented out of the base aero club I was in.

The second time I got lost was in California while doing a cross country for my 100-mile pilot requirements. Although I know I could follow the freeway to get back home, I thought I would try out my skills to find my position using the one VOR in the Cessna 152 that I was flying at the time.

By homing in on two VOR stations and using triangulation to find my position on my Sectional chart, I found the nearest airfield and headed to it. I landed at the field and asked to see if I had the right airfield, and I did. Now I knew where I was and recalculated a new course and continued on my cross country. Practice, Practice, Practice never hurts.

[joinn]

I don’t know why I just discover your channel, the most simplest and easiest way of explaining for all type of understanding I get it in just under 1 min

[aileensophie]

This is literally the best explanation of reverse sensing I’ve ever heard. You’re awesome, making VORs easy!

[hifiandrew]

This has to be one of the best VOR videos I've seen. I've watched many and this one made sense right off the bat.

[jonathanhernandez]

That was, one of the best explanations of working your VOR. For some reason it clicked to me this time. It's about the 10 video I've watched regarding this. I suppose I was picking up some level of knowlege from the other YouTube lessons, but yours made it all come together. Thanks!

[coriscotupi]

Back in 1984 when had barely had my private pilot check ride, a friend put it in the simplest terms: In order to fly to a VOR, tune it in, rotate the OBS so that the CDI is centered with the TO/FROM flag in "TO", and then fly the heading displayed on top of the OBS. As soon as put my hands on an airplane with a VOR, I played with this in flight and found that it just... works.

[marcusfox]

Your IFR training videos are the best I've found anywhere. Thank you!

[mikesax]

Excellent lessons.
I must say, your lessons are really well made. They are absolutely brilliant.

[eb]

great video, you’re a great teacher. this shit is hard to grasp and you’ve made it click

[jsmorrow]

Wow, these are great videos! Could you consider doing a video on the differences between ATD, FTD, and FFS simulators as well as when/how to log time? I know many pilots (myself included) find this confusing!

[Gabriel.Vargas]

I like to fly in Flight Gear and since it's very limited in terrain textures, I find a lot of fun in navigating through VORs. I actually find it easier than using NDB

[Alienfanatic]

I know this is nitpicky, but the best way to find the exact radial that an airport that does not have a VOR/TACAN on the field is usually the A/FD. In fact, TAOS is not the closest VOR but rather SAF (Santa Fe VOR) is. In the AFD it not only gives you the radial and frequency but also the distance. That way, if you're flying around using radio navaids you can quickly find the proper radial without whipping out your ruler or guesstimating the radial by eyeballing the chart. (Ofc you can also just use Garmin Pilot or ForeFlight's on-screen ruler but that's cheating!)

The other advantage to using the A/FD versus just eyeballing, especially in mountainous terrain, is that the A/FD will also identify unusable radials. It's very possible that at certain altitudes and on certain radials the terrain will block the VOR signal. This becomes more apparent the farther away a VOR is due to both the height of the terrain and the curvature of the earth, especially with small aircraft flying at low altitudes.

The video is terrific, though, and I've subbed to give students some good videos to use when teaching them these concepts.

It's funny that they chose to use KTGI as an example at the last part of the video, though. Maybe they train a lot in that area. In IFR we're generally taught to plan to avoid restricted areas wherever possible, even when they are under ATC control. Yes, ATC will route you around an active restricted area, though you're unlikely to receive an amended clearance instead, and yes you can still use the chart to determine activity times, but it's pretty clear from the chart that Victor-1 is charted to fly between the restricted areas, likely for a reason. R4006 is restricted from 3500 feet to FL250. I'm not sure why the folks producing the video chose to use a VOR chart vs the low-level IFR chart. /shrug

(More nitpicking, but KTGI actually lies on the 156 radial and not the 152 radial. I found this both on Airnav and by setting up a flight plan using Garmin Pilot. At roughly 30NM between the VOR and the airport, a 4 degree deflection would be roughly two miles off course to the NE of the airport. Again, more thought experiment stuff but learning to use the right charts and procedures when setting up IFR flights is extremely critical.)

[videobird]

Excellent material from this channel. Curious to know what flight sim software you're using in the videos. Please let me know. Thx.

[psychastria]

Funny, I never found VORs hard to figure out. The technical specifics of how they work (radial based on phase angle of two overlapping waves, or something like that) I'm not all that clear on, but the use of them always seemed very straightforward and easy to figure out. Even as GPS became more prevalent in aviation I preferred to stick with VORs for the longer trips (and pilotage for the shorter ones).

[aliarjmandi]

Could you plz upload video about point to point nav by tcn?

[nealhere]

what sim software are your using? It really helps with your great descriptions

[thebadgerpilot]

Why do you have to knock VORs as headaches? Lol. I know they are becoming outdated, but love them! Been flying with them since day one. Then again, I didn't have consistent access to a plane with GPS until this week, so I'm sure I'll be transformed soon!

[goneflying]

So if you are flying to the station with a from indication, you will have reverse sensing, but if you are flying from it with a from indication, you will have normal sensing. Is that correct? This is the only area I have trouble with when it comes to VORs.