flying with ATC on PilotEdge, VFR from F70 to PSP

[Keith Smith]

For those who are interested in online flying, here is a tutorial of how to conduct a simple VFR flight from a non-towered field in southern California called French Valley (airport code is F70), to a towered airport, Palm Springs (airport code is KPSP). This flight will be conducted on the PilotEdge network.

Here is a quick tutorial of how to conduct this flight on the network, including what to say, and how to navigate each step of the way. Let's use a 172, Piper Archer, or any other 110-120kt airplane. This will be about a 25 minute flight.

Here's a map of the airports, and the planned route.

Navigating the route:

Let's disregard the GPS for this flight. Set your sim to good weather...we're going to navigate by looking out the window to build some confidence in our map reading skills.

Like any VFR cross-country exercise, our trip is split into several legs:

1) F70 to NE corner of Diamond Valley Lake, HDG 025, distance 10nm, speed 90kts in the climb to 5500ft. Time: 7 mins

2) Diamond Valley Lake to Banning Airport, HDG 020, distance 15nm, speed 120kts in cruise, about 7 1/2 minutes.

3) Banning Airport to a point abeam the highpoint of the mountains to the south, HDG 080, distance 10nm, time should be 5 minutes. It's also the point where the valley opens up.

4) East of Banning to Palm Springs, HDG 110, distance 11nm, about 5 1/2 mins. Expect to enter a RIGHT DOWNWIND for RWY 31L or 31R, which should give you ample time for the descent.  This means you'll be on the EAST side of the airport, making RIGHT turns in the pattern to land.

Communicating on the route:

- French Valley is a non-towered airport, with a published CTAF (common traffic advisory frequency) of 122.80.  Tune your COM1 radio to 122.80 and make your way to the runway that you deem to be active (rwy 36 or rwy 18), based on the winds.

- once you reach the runway, scan the area for traffic, ensure the runway is clear, then announce the following, "French Valley Traffic, Skyhawk (or other aircraft type) taking off [runway number], straight out departure, French Valley."  (This assumes you're departing rwy 36).  Note the use of "French Valley traffic" at the start, then the repeating of the airport name (sans 'traffic') at the END of the transmission. This is INTENTIONAL and is standard for non-towered airport ops.

- climb out to 5500ft on course, and on speed, and start looking for that lake!  When you have a moment, call March Approach on 133.50 (published on the chart in the white box just west of the lake), "March Approach, Skyhawk One Two Three Alpha Bravo, 10 southeast of Homeland VOR, request flight following to Palm Springs."  March Approach will respond with a transponder assignment (your 'squawk' code), will provide you with the local altimeter setting, and ask you to verify your altitude, as well as your planned cruise altitude (if you're still climbing).  Set your transponder as instructed and then enjoy the ride.

- You will be handed from March Approach to a various Socal Approach frequencies. Listen for any transmissions involving your callsign. You'll either be getting traffic alerts, or frequency changes to other controllers.

- Eventually, the approach controller will ask you to report Palm Springs in sight. Let him know when you see it, then you'll be handed off to the tower, 119.70.  Follow the pattern entry instruction, most likely to be "enter right downwind runway 31R" (or 31L), and then eventually "cleared to land."

- exit the runway and follow the instruction to either taxi to the ramp, or to swap to the ground control frequency. If the controller says, "say parking," that means he'd like to know where you plan to park.  A reasonable response would be "GA parking on the west side" or "GA parking on the east side."

I hope this helps, and that some of you will consider giving this a try if you haven't flown on the network already. This is a very gentle introduction to flying on the network.  You'll be starting out at your own pace from a non-towered field, so the communications will be very light to start out with.  I highly recommend doing this VFR and not IFR. The navigation requirements are considerably simpler and more flexible.

Take a break from point to point flying with the GPS and try some good old pilotage (looking out the window to correlate what's on the map with what you see outside!).

Also, don't hesitate to swap to an external view to get a better look outside. In a real plane, you can look around much easier than you can in the sim...so do whatever you need to do to get a visual on where you are in relation to nearby landmarks.

Lastly, use the headings and timings in the nav section to cross check with your pilotage skills.  If you fly the speeds and headings, you should cross over the desired landmarks pretty much right on time!

Enjoy!

Note: The communications procedures were specific to PilotEdge but could also be adapted to work on VATSIM.  In that environment, you would use 122.80 for the non-towered comms (regardless of the published freq for the airport) and you would use TEXT to announce your intentions at the non-towered field.  Also, you would not use the published frequencies to call the approach controller for flight following. Additionally, it's highly unlikely the Palm Springs tower and ground will be staffed, so you will need to review the controller list to work out who to call for flight following.