Can someone explain VOR navigation to me a little more? I read a section in a book on it, and I understand that there is a panal with controls like to and from, to say whether you're flying towards or away from it, a heading indictator, and a left right indicator, to tell you whether you should go left or right to get on the heading you've set with the dial. But how do you know what VOR station you're on, and which one to go to next, and how is going from station to station any different than just using the compass or compass card? I obviously have an imcomplete understanding of VOR navigation.

using VOR is like being a monkey, swinging from one tree to the next to the next, only the trees are the VOR stations.
one of the drawbacks of using VOR is that the range between them is not very great. the higher your altitude, the better range between stations. VOR or GPS is a necessity when flying IFR; it is also very very commonly used by VFR pilots.
you need to be especially alert when flying around VORs as well as airports looking for other aircraft.
ALL VORs have an identification system using at least a three letter morse code identifier; some will also have someone prerecorded saying "Smithville VOR", in between the morse coding. honestly, i do not know morse code after 30 years of flying, but i can look at my chart and match the coding to what i see. i feel that is good enough.

something a lot of people dont understand is that you can make the to/from flag read either way, depending on what you do with the OBS( omni bearing selector, the knob you turn). if you want to go TO the VOR, center the needle and read what the card says. in other words, turn the knob so that the needle centers. if the card read 180, then by turning your aircraft to that heading and keeping the needle sentered, you WILL end up at the VOR. if you want to track away from the VOR on a specific radial, turn the knob so the card reads what radial you wish, and teh to/from flag says FROM, and then fly to keep the needle centered and you will track outbound on that radial.

ATC uses VORs to help them keep you oriented. they always use the FROM bearing to descibe locations. to relate to them, use the OBS knob and center the needle with the to/from flag saying FROM. this helps a lot.

i hope maybe i clarified some things for you. i hope i havent confused you any more though.

Good job cjtyped, but knowing how to navigate with VORs is easy if you know how!!

Hardlanding7, I'm sure your instructors will spend all the time it takes to make you savvy with VOR navigation. The Kings, (John and Martha) do a great job of explaining the in's and out's of VORs too. You can find their adds in many flying magazines and catalogues.

All good info so far. It too took me a while to get it all sorted out and understood. In addition to what others said, a few things.

A vor is a ground based transmitter that you tune in the aircraft radio on a select frequency. Then when you want to nav on the next vor you tune in that ones particular frequency. But first realize that it is a ground transmitter, that happens to look like a big cone, and in the aircraft you are using the vor nav receiver to use it.

The vor is all based on radials; 360 of them that correspond to a regular compass rose. Picture a ring drawn around the vor and divide that into 360 individual radials. (045 northeast, 090 east, 135 southeast, 180 south, etc. all broken down into 360 degrees) The ground transmitter emits those 360 precise radials. In the airplane nav head you turn an OBS and when the needle is centered, with a FROM flag, it tells you what radial you are on. ANYTIME YOU CENTER THE NEEDLE AND GET A FROM FLAG IT MEANS YOU ARE ON THAT EXACT RADIAL ON THE OBS AND THAT IS YOUR POSITION IN RELATION TO THE VOR. Figuring out the TO and FROM part is all based on radials. If you twist the OBS and center the needle and it says FROM, then you are on the exact radial that the OBS reads. So if it said 030 degrees centered FROM it means you are northeast of the vor and means you are on the 030 degree radial. Now if you are northeast on 030 you must turn the OBS to say TO, if you want to fly to the station. Then it will read 210 degrees TO. So if you want to fly from your present position northeast (on 030 radial) direct to the vor, you must turn the aircraft to a heading of 210 which is south south west to get to the vor station.

Its pretty confusing in the beginning but stick with it and it will eventually make sense. Just remember that the airplane can only be on any one of 360 radials at a time and use that to get your orientation in relation to the vor ground station. If you know where you are (on what exact radial) it makes it much easier to understand what direction you need to fly to get where you want.