PilotEdge Forums

You'd only hear another pilot if they're on the exact same frequency you're on. Even in real flying, sometimes a tower controller will be handling tower/ground, and you'll hear them give a command to another plane on another frequency and never hear the read back.

That pilot gets a gold medal for courage/stupidity.

In my real flying, after the climb speed is stable, I check at 200 feet by looking back through the rear windows. You just need to be sure you're not drifting, especially if there is a parallel runway. I've had experiences where I've been climbing out next to another plane on the parallel runway, an...

For an approach that just brings you abeam the airport without a specified runway, you'll receive circling instructions with a pattern entry from the tower as you check in. For example you may just receive, "Cessna 123, circle east of the field, enter left downwind runway 19. Report turning bas...

This video is definitely one of the best demonstrations of why you never fly in marginal VFR conditions and also why you really need to impose personal minimums to avoid situations like this. Scary stuff!

You may want to ask the forum on pilotsofamerica. There are tons of aircraft owners there with tons of insight.

You'll be looking to update the AFCAD files. Just look it up in the AVSIM file library (the last airport I updated was SBP, San Luis Obispo). Follow the directions in the downloaded file and it should be a bit more accurate than the stock FSX taxiways.

The AVSIM file library has some good updates to taxiway sign/layouts at many of the airports in SoCal. If you plane to base your flying out of a particular airport, it would be good to download an update to the stock FSX layout. Sometimes the discrepancies are pretty ridiculous.

Check the airport and facility directory for appropriate noise abatement procedures. Usually I make my turns at 500 feet, but sometimes you'll see higher in the AF/D to protect the folks living below the departure runway. Also, sometimes ATC will ask you to expedite sometimes for traffic. Tower woul...

I'll try to make things simple. TEC routes are used to facilitate traffic flow between airports in congested airspace like SoCal. (A real world pilot I just met said to me the other day that he gave up flying VFR in LA because of the general congestion of the area). TEC routes are designed to make s...