Frequency chart?

[Perk]

Out of curiosity, is there a chart that shows all the various center and approach frequency zones for the Pilotedge area? The Sectional and TAC charts have the "CTC X App within 20nm" boxes all over them, but they often don't correspond with the frequencies I get handed off to as I trundle into that area. Nor do the radio boxes on the Enroute - Low charts seem to match up. Those boxes are useful for initial contacts, but don't really help anticipate the next frequency I'm going to be given so I can dial it in early.

I've seen this map - http://www.willametteair.com/images/sea ... ectors.gif for the Seattle Center sectors. I believe it was published by the Seattle Center itself however, and I don't know how accurate it is anymore. Is there something similar for LA Center?

[Peter Grey]

The simple answer is no, we don't provide a list of frequencies (or a map with them listed) that we primarily use during PilotEdge operations. We do have an internal map (for obvious reasons) but it's not in a format that a pilot will be able to read without a lot of assistance.

As a note dialing the real world frequency for a given area (as listed on the chart) will ALWAYS work and ALWAYS ensure you are talking to the correct controller.

We don't run every single real world frequency as it would result in effectively isolating every pilot on a different frequency. Generally we are using a 7 to 1 reduction, meaning that for each 7 real world frequencies we tend to run 1.

Another way to look at it is that we run what the real world runs in the middle of the night. During late night operations the real world will combine multiple frequencies with 1 controller. This is similar to how we staff here at PilotEdge.

[Keith Smith]

Perk, I'd also like to add that you these resources generally don't exist for the real world either. It's a level of planning that isn't really needed and doesn't buy you much from an operational standpoint. Your goal is to establish contact with the first controller. After that, you just swap to whatever frequency you're given.

I routinely do long distance flights in the real world with 10+ frequency changes enroute. It would take a long time to try to plot the frequencies I'm likely to be given ahead of time, and ultimately, wouldn't be worth the effort. It would also be quite hard to do since the TRACON sector boundaries are not published, nor are the staffing configurations.

[C-JBCS]

I was wonderding about this exact question also. I was wondering how someone might determine whichever frequency to tune and contact if say you wished advisories mid flight? (i.e. If you departed an airport VFR without advisories; then later in route you decided you wished advisories...).

Also, that being said, would it be legal to be flying VFR without advisories, and the pickup an IFR Tec route while in route to a particular destination? And if so, how would you be able to determine what frequency to do so on? (No doubt that wouldn't be the preferred way if legal... I was just wondering if it was possible in the first place...).

Thanks

[Pieces]

Hey everyone. This is another of the commonly asked questions on the forum. Here are some discussions on the topic:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2130
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3281
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3635
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4523
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1166
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1087
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=649

Enjoy.

[Keith Smith]

Life is simpler is you can coordinate the flight following with the tower prior to taking off. If they can't coordinate it in advance (ie, they don't have the equipment in the tower to enter you into the system), they'll provide you with the overlying approach or center frequency so you can request advisories once you leave their airspace.

If you want to derive this information from scratch, there are a few ways to do it:
1) most aviation GPS systems have databases containing the approach/center frequencies for each airport

2) an electronic flight bag, such as ForeFlight, will have a similar database

3) you can review a VFR sectional chart and locate the frequencies associated with the nearest Bravo or Charlie airport. They have lists of frequencies for each Bravo or Charlie in textual form. They also publish it on the chart in boxes that say "contact xxx approach within 20nm on yyy.yy"

4) you can locate the nearest airport with instrument procedures and check one of the approach plates to see which frequency is listed.

Edit: thanks Reece.

[Keith Smith]

Perk,

Forgot to mention...while I'm enroute, I listen to the handoffs that are taking place for other aircraft. When they are handed to another facility, if the name of the new facility sounds like the one I'm likely to get next, I'll dial that frequency into the standby. Then, when the freq change finally comes, I compare it to what I've dialed in. It's more of a game than anything else, there is truly very little value in knowing the frequency in advance.

The only time I really care about having a frequency dialed in ahead of time is during a high workload phase of flight, such as shooting an instrument approach in bad weather. In those cases, I'm thankful that I have the tower frequency dialed in as part of the standard approach brief. That way, when they swap you to tower, it's ready to go. Other than that, dialing as assigned frequency enroute is not something that is worthy of planning in advance.