Tracking TO and FROM a Station

To track to the station, rotate the OBS until TO appears, then center the CDI. Fly the course indicated by the index. If the CDI moves off-center to the left, follow the needle by correcting course to the left, beginning with a 20° correction. However be mindful that if the VOR is set to the reciprocal of the intended course, the CDI reflects reverse sensing – always set the desired course under the course index.

When flying the course indicated on the index, a left deflection of the needle indicates a crosswind component from the left. If the amount of correction brings the needle back to center, decrease the left course correction by half. If the CDI moves left or right now, it should do so much more slowly, and smaller heading corrections can be made for the next iteration.

Keeping the CDI centred takes the aircraft to the station. To track to the station, the OBS value at the index is not changed. To home to the station, the CDI needle is periodically centered, and the new course under the index is used for the aircraft heading. Homing follows a circuitous route to the station, just as with ADF homing.

To track FROM the station on a VOR radial, you should first orient the aircraft’s location with respect to the station and the desired outbound track by centring the CDI needle with a FROM indication. The track is intercepted by either flying over the station or establishing an intercept heading. The magnetic course of the desired radial is entered under the index using the OBS and the intercept heading held until the CDI centers. Then the procedure for tracking to the station is used to fly outbound on the specified radial.