First attempt fail.

[mpw8679]

Hi everyone, First a little background. I am not a RW pilot but I would like to pursue my PPL hopefully next summer if possible. I have been simming for a long time but have never done it by the "book" as far as RW procedure's, ATC, flight planning, weather, ect. Basically fire up the sim and fly type of guy. I am hoping to change that. I have used Vatsim a few times but the horrible audio, rude controllers, and realistic lack of coverage turned me off. So here I am. Last night I made my first couple of attempts. And I must say I bombed hard. My first time I set up at KDEN to try a simple VFR departure out of Bravo airspace. I called CD and asked for my clearance. I had my notepad with CRAFT wrote down ready to fill in my clearance. Well when it came time for my read back all hell broke loose. The only thing I got correct on my read back was the clearance out of bravo. The controller was patient with me and got me squared away. Then next I tried calling ground for my taxi clearance. No one would answer. Well I was tuned into departure trying to get taxi clearance. I felt so stupid and frustrated I just disconnected at that point. My next attempt was a VFR departure out of John Wayne. Well the clearance read back went a little bit better. I least got a couple things right. I called ground for my taxi clearance after a little confusion on the frequency (east/west). Well when ground called back my instructions I missed it. I called back and he reread the taxi clearance. I was thinking alright I made it farther then my last attempt. So I started my taxi and totally blew it. I missed a turn but I did make it to 19L eventually. But wait ground instructed me to 20L?? So totally confused and feeling stupid I disconnected and attempted to figure out what went wrong. I looked at the charts for John Wayne and there was no 19L. But here I am in my sim sitting at 19L. So then I decided to back track and figure out where I went wrong on my taxi route. Well the taxiway I was supposed to turn on was not marked in the sim either so I blew right past it. So to sum it up.

- I was totally unprepared and should have started at a smaller airport.
- I will now follow the tutorials.
- My sim airport data is outdated.
- Read the real world charts.
- This takes a lot more prep time to plan a flight then I thought it would.
- I got flustered very easy and was afraid to ask for help.
- I have major mic fright I need to work on.

Just wanted to share my first experience. Thank u to the controllers for keeping patient with me. Any advice is very appreciated!

[Keith Smith]

There is a training program designed to walk you through a carefully crafted series of flights, starting with simple airspace and gradually working up to Class B/C operations. The program is available here: http://pilotedge.net/pages/cat-ratings

Most pilots who join PilotEdge go through the CAT ratings and the I Ratings (http://pilotedge.net/pages/i-ratings), even those with a healthy amount of real world experience.