[January 24th 08:00pm PST] Westcoast fly-in: KIFP to KLAS

[Tim Krajcar]

Reading this thread and although my sim setup is mothballed for the moment, my audio/TS setup might be helpful to some folks.

My yoke (PFC Cirrus) has two identical pushbuttons, one on each 'horn' of the yoke, so I have the left side mapped to the PilotEdge PTT and the right side mapped to the Teamspeak PTT. In addition to my PC's onboard sound which comes out through a set of speakers, I have a USB sound card and a mon-aural (meaning, only one side has an earpiece) headset. I have TeamSpeak routed through the main speakers and PE through my headset. That way controller transmissions will always be more 'hearable' to me than TS chatter, but I can still hear it easily. I can also have engine/avionics sounds turned up nice and loud without struggling to hear controllers. I also do have a mute keystroke mapped, as Bruce suggested. Lastly, I mapped my PE PTT in TeamSpeak to mute speaker output on keydown and unmute speaker on keyup. This prevents TS audio from playing while I am transmitting on PE and eliminates 'crosstalk' heard by the controllers/other pilots (and also makes it easier for me to concentrate on what I'm saying).

It is what works for me, maybe it could work for you too

[Cyrus]

Thanks Tim! It's a shame you can't bottle up all that magic into some sort of config file and share it with us.

I guess I'll try to do something pretty similar.................

[djrisc]

Actually, I have the same setup on my yoke, so I could set that up without an issue. I'll get this setup tonight, and test it out.

Brett

[Cyrus]

Can anyone tell me what the solid blue line with the small blue dots is? (click here, then remove all the waypoints to see where I mean). Is it the "Lake Mead National Recreation Area" and, if so, shouldn't there be some information about it on the top of the LA TAC?

UPDATE! Looks like there's a 2000ft *AGL* restriction for that whole river corridor between Laughlin and Vegas. It's here on the Vegas TAC, not the LA one.

Thanks.

[Vincent Meier]

Cyrus,

Yup that is what it is. I first noticed the same symbology when flying from KSBA to KSNA. There is a bird sanctuary around the islands by KSBA

[djrisc]

I was 15 minutes late to the planning session tonight due to an emergency.

Sorry if I missed anyone.. We can finish planning via the forums.

Brett

[Cyrus]

Hi Brett,

I do hope your emergency is resolved/ok.

I did a little VFR sightseeing from Kingman to Searchlight yesterday. I got a nice view of KIFP from 6500ft, but I've gotta say, it's pretty barren country out there (as least with my default FS2004 scenery, and my SoCal Megascenery doesn't reach that far). I turned off the GPS and found the river/lake, power lines, and a few mini-mountain peaks to be helpful. I also spent some time trying to master double VOR tracking, e.g. to find the UNIPAS intersection. I need waaay more practice at this... until reading and interpreting the CDI/markers becomes second nature.

But, anyway, for tonight, I just plan on following behind you... so you'll be my GPS! Lol. So what's your preferred route?

Also, there doesn't seem to be a Ground frequency for KIFP. So will we just request our Flight Following from the Tower? (anyone?? ...Bueller? ...Bueller??) I also wonder which ATC entity will provide the Flight Following for us once we're out of the Laughlin's class Delta (until we get to the 30 mile circle for LAS)?

Again, I'm just going to be tagging along...........

[bruce]

I guess if no ground ask the next in line -- Tower.

Re scenery, check out http://www.blueskyscenery.com/download.html it's quality freeware

[djrisc]

My plan is to follow the Colorado river up the valley to lake Mead (right past the Hoover dam), I'll be using the BLD VOR to keep me on track, (and for DME). I'll then use the LAS VOR (set OBS to 25 and it should lead us almost right to runway 25) to head towards KLAS once I hit lake mead.

Yeah, I'll just ask for FF from the tower. I'll be sure to wait until people show up at KIFP to depart.

I also now have DTP TeamSpeak setup on a second button on my yoke, so if people want to use the PilotEdge room on DTP to talk during the flight, I'll be in there.

Hope to see a bunch of people there!

Brett

[Cyrus]

Sounds great. I'll be the baaaaing sheep about mile behind you

Oh, and I didn't get around to setting up DTP TS last night, but will try tonight (well in advance of 8pm PST).

See you on the ramp!