Technique: Riding the radials

The VOR receiver will continue to plug along in many general aviation training airplanes. If there’s a functioning VOR in your airplane, you must demonstrate its use to a designated pilot examiner if requested. And as you progress into instrument training, you’ll discover many airports do not yet have GPS approaches—but chances are good they’ve got an instrument landing system or a VOR approach.

So, embrace the VOR and its sometimes-complicated elegance. Once you’ve mastered the VOR, try using it as your primary navigation source, relying on GPS as a backup. That’s a very satisfying feeling.

For practice, let’s track a radial inbound to the Westminster VOR (EMI), 23 nautical miles from Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK).

1. Tune in the VOR receiver (on the ground before takeoff, if you wish). Find the discrete frequency on a sectional chart and put that into the airplane’s navigation radio. Identify the frequency by listening to the Morse code signal over the frequency, which also will be included on the sectional chart. Sometimes, you may not be able to hear the VOR’s Morse code until you are airborne. For EMI, it’s a dot, followed by two dashes, followed by two dots.
   
   With the ongoing decommissioning of VORs, it’s imperative to check a VOR before you try to navigate by it. An inoperative station may give out no Morse code signal, or it may transmit a test signal.
2. Departing Runway 5 from FDK, turn to the heading shown on the CDI. Because you are not yet flying directly toward the VOR as you depart the airport, the CDI needle will swing to the right to show that you are not on course—that you are to the left or north of the radial, and you need to move the airplane right or south.
3. Fly a heading that intercepts the course at about a 45-degree angle. As the needle begins to center again, turn back so the heading matches the heading on the OBS. Keep the adjustments small so that you don’t overshoot.
4. When the needle is centered again, fly that heading until you reach the VOR, continuing to make adjustments as needed for winds. As you get closer to the station, the needle becomes more sensitive and may move back and forth more rapidly until it moves all the way to the right or left.
5. Stay on the last best heading; as you fly over the VOR, the TO/FROM indicator will flip to OFF, or show a hatched pattern, and then to FROM to show that you are now flying outbound on the radial.