wrote in news:935q03dtlh7h3m3l5fkdo9b2glcvoh1g37
@4ax.com:

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:55:01 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote:

snip
Is that the same one where they talk about "the cone of silence" ?

Wasn't til years later when I actually learned what that meant...

Can't remember that bit, bu tthe cone of silence they're talking about
is 4 way range, of course, not VOR..


Berti e

Yup.

I learned about four-course navigation in the "classic" manner-using
diagrams on a cocktail napkin and lots of airplane/hand motions-from
an old-timer that had done it...


Yeah. I had to do an exam on them in canada, where they were in use 'til
the 80's. I remember seeing an article about the last one in the US
being decommisioned in and around 1979... The cone was significant,
because it was the only way you knew you had passed the station. If you
missed it, you could fly an outbound QDR for miles before you realised
it and then you had no time for your station passage.. It was considered
wise to fly slightly to one side of the beam so either the A or N was
stronger so if oyu missed the cone you knew from the swappover in signal
strength as you flew into the opposite beam..

Bertie