V-2 - First Practice Flight - what an experience ...

[Keith Smith]

Thanks so much for the feedback, it's greatly appreciated.

The time will come when we do a small overhaul of the VFR section of the pilot training program. To be honest, the leap from V1 to V2 is fairly harsh...there should be a considerable number of ratings in between the V1 and V2. The current structure is there for historical reasons and needs to be changed at some point. I say all that because if you're moving from V1 to V2 and struggling with some concepts, don't worry...it's not you...it's us There's a lot of material to digest and lots of new concepts being introduced. It would be nice to spread that over a number of flights, gradually introducing the new material, one topic at a time.

Not to worry, the day will come. In the mean time, keep the questions coming, attend the workshops, watch the cockpit videos and do the best you can.

[ChristophPreinfalk]

Good to know that you're going to expand on the Vs. I did think that V2 should be a plain VFR flight between 2 small towered airports with nothing in between. Or even the "introductory" flight would make a great V2. I read through I1 through I9, those seem to be nicely progressing.

Question: if I make a mistake that would get me into trouble in the real world, e.g. If I overfly Chino at 2500 feet straight through their class d, without requesting class d transition, will the PE ATC tell me? In other words, will I be able to learn from a mistake like that?

[Ryan Geckler]

Question: if I make a mistake that would get me into trouble in the real world, e.g. If I overfly Chino at 2500 feet straight through their class d, without requesting class d transition, will the PE ATC tell me? In other words, will I be able to learn from a mistake like that?

We will probably yell loudly.

But in all honestly, yes. We'll try to raise you over the tower frequency or over guard.

[ChristophPreinfalk]

Ryan: Thanks, that's good to know!

So I did some more "studying" and this is how I think it works for VFR advisories from a class C airport to a class C airport:

Take off on tower frequency.
Tower hands me over to Departure frequency.
Departure frequency stays with me until I reach the class C airspace of my destination airport and therefore hands me over to Approach frequency.
Once I tell approach that I have the airport in sight, they then hand me over to the tower frequency.

Does this sound about right?

For a VFR flight without advisories, this is how I think it works (again from a class C airport to a class C airport):

Take off on tower frequency.
Tower hands me over to departure frequency while I'm still in the departure airport Class C
Once I leave class C, departure tells me I'm on my own and approves frequency change. This is when I switch to approach frequency.
Before I reach the class C of my arrival airport, I contact approach and tell them I'm so and so many miles from the airport and request landing on that airport. Once they approve, I can enter the class C.
Once I see the airport, I'll tell them as such and they'll ask me to contact tower.
I'll tell tower where I am and that I'd like to land, rest is history.

If there's a class C or a class D airport that I'd like to fly through, I always have to request transition on the approach frequency (unless stated otherwise), right?

Sounds about right?

[Pieces]

It sounds like you have the just of it, yes. One minor note in your VFR advisories scenario:

Departure frequency stays with me until I reach the class C airspace of my destination airport and therefore hands me over to Approach frequency.

Departure may or may not hand you off to another en route frequency before you arrive at your terminal approach. Whether they do or not depends on where you are going and if you are crossing into another sector. A certain approach/departure frequency has a specific geographic area that the controllers are responsible for.

[ChristophPreinfalk]

Thanks, good input. I'll watch out for that.

[ChristophPreinfalk]

Passed my V-2 today!

Between my first V-2 practice flight on PE and tonight, I did a lot of reading and sectional map (LAX TAC) studying and about 3 or 4 more V-2 practice flights on PE and I think it makes to at least 90% sense to me now! The fact is that after about 5 or 6 V-2 flights every single one was slightly different is one of the (many) things I love about PE. From my reading I learned that every controller does things slightly differently (obviously within the rules) and that makes it so much more interesting.

Tomorrow's workshop is timed perfectly, because it's about class B and C stuff. Seems to be perfect to get prepared for the V-3!

[Pieces]

Congratulations!

[ChristophPreinfalk]

Thank you!