Radials

Last week I did a flight with an instructor to practice crosswind landings. We did one circuit at Cooking Lake, only to discover that the fabulous crosswind had suddenly shifted to straight down the runway. So we decided to fly to Camrose, 26 NM away, where the runway is oriented 40 degrees more to the north, to catch that crosswind again.

On the way there, just to use the time wisely, I went under the hood to get some instrument time. Specifically, we practiced tuning into the Edmonton VOR and tracking the radial that intersects Camrose. VOR stands for Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Range. The VOR emits radio signals outward in 360 degrees. An airplane can track any one of the radials and follow it to stay on course. VORs are dotted across the landscape so once one is too far away, another one can be picked up. After we did some circuits in Camrose, we headed home and spent some more time practicing the radio navigation. I understand in a textbook way how the VOR works but I find it confusing and tricky to actually track and use it. I understood it better after our lesson that day, though.

As we were finishing up the lesson and approaching our home airport, my instructor said that he loved hopping from VOR to VOR because, "Once you're on a radial, you can just follow it forever."  As it happens, I am currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, in which he talks about the many ways there are to live life and how we too easily box ourselves in with convention and expectation. The day after my flying lesson on tracking VOR radials, I read his words: "This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre." The coincidence of reading those words after learning about finding and following a VOR radial was striking to me. Just as a pilot can choose any one of the 360 possible directions emanating from the VOR and fly that way for a long time, we have freedom in life to choose our own direction. Flying has shown me that freedom once again.