[Sep 5, Fri 10:00pm PDT] ENGLAND (London) VFR

[Cyrus]

An hour before the network shuts down tonight, I'm planning to hop in my Baron 58 and lollygag around my old stomping grounds, i.e. SE England. Being well aware of the "flight outside the coverage area" thread, I went for a compromise and scheduled this for a time that's near the end of the PE day. By the end of the flight, ATC should all be nicely tucked in their beds and dreaming of beautiful dancing white seagulls.

Two legs:

1. Calais, France (LFAC) to Stansted (EGSS) at 6,500 ft (~1 hr 15 mins)

2. Stansted (EGSS) to London City (EGLC) at 3,000 ft (~20 mins)

If the weather's decent (yes, I know that's laughable for England), then expect nice views of the English Channel, the Cliffs of Dover, the South Downs, the Isle of Wight, Gatwick airport, Heathrow airport, my old home , London city and Canary Wharf skyscrapers.

http://skyvector.com/?ll=51.46062427379 ... :A.EG.EGLC
(despite all the navigational waypoints, it's just one stop at Stansted and then a final destination of London City)

Equipment: single or twin piston capable of at least 110kts cruise with VOR/DME capability (no GPS required)

All comms on: 122.8 (and I'll be on PE IRC chat as well, http://www.pilotedge.net/irc/)

Yes, it will be strange having no controllers and saying "London City Traffic.....", but I'm in this one for the sightseeing. (Yes, it will also be strange hearing PE controllers in SoCal for the first hour, but that's life!)

Hope as many of you can join as possible. Or, if you're in the middle of a flight towards the end of the PE day, find me at Stansted soon after ATC shuts down.

Start time to announce yourself on Calais Traffic (in your best French accent): 10pm Pacific (i.e. 1am Eastern Sat. morning or 6am GMT Sat. morning)

[Keith Smith]

You could use the published CTAF's for those fields rather than 122.80 if you wanted, but it's up to you.

Also, you won't be hearing any Socal controllers since you're on the other side of the world, regardless of the frequency you choose.

[Peter Grey]

Also, you won't be hearing any Socal controllers since you're on the other side of the world, regardless of the frequency you choose.

So we don't have ULF support yet? I thought we were working on that.

[Cyrus]

You could use the published CTAF's for those fields rather than 122.80 if you wanted, but it's up to you.

Thanks, Keith. I did look for them briefly on Skyvector (http://skyvector.com/airport/LFAC/Calai ... ue-Airport, http://skyvector.com/airport/EGSS/Londo ... ed-Airport, http://skyvector.com/airport/EGLC/London-City-Airport), but didn't see anything resembling CTAF frequencies, so I'm just going to stick with 122.80. (Yes, I'm sure there's an equivalent of the A/FD for Europe.... but since 99.9% of my flying experience has been in the U.S., I've never looked into this).

Also, I'm not sure about the range of 122.80 on PE network (?), but I'm hoping that if anyone does join, they'll be able to hear progress of other folks when they are relatively near.

Oh, and thanks for "putting up" with this post. Based on the last couple of short-notice fly-ins that I've started, I'll only pull one or two people away from the coverage area (at most!) anyway. Tell you what, if it gets above 5 pilots you can dock me a week off my PE subscription

Incidentally, I was actually going to start it at 2am EST (instead of 1am EST), to reduce the chance of pulling people out of the coverage area. But I'm getting old and I need as much beauty sleep as I can get. I might have been better off, though, as I might have caught the odd Euro flyer in my net while they are eating their Marmite on toast for breakfast. Oh well. Like I said, probably zero turnout other than me anyway.

[Keith Smith]

Cyrus, the CTAF would be the tower frequency. If those towers aren't open 24/7, then when the tower is closed, pilots use the CTAF. In the US, the CTAF is the tower freq. At airports that have multiple towers, only one of them will be the CTAF, and it's the one listed on the sectional chart.

Ranges on PE are based on the altitudes of the transmitting parties and the facility type. If it's ATC, then we account for whether it's a tower, approach or center and boost the signal accordingly. For pilot to pilot comms, there is no such boost...it's purely altitude based. So, just like real life, if you're 50nm apart and both at sea level, you won't hear the other guy, but once you get to 1000ft or so, the range is quite a bit longer. A lot of work was put into the radio system.

Have you considered doing this early in the morning before opening? That would be a win for you and for the European pilots. It would probably exclude the Pacific pilots, though. Good luck, have fun!

[Cyrus]

Cyrus, the CTAF would be the tower frequency. If those towers aren't open 24/7, then when the tower is closed, pilots use the CTAF.

Ahh, I see, thanks. Embarrassed to admit I did not know that (yet obviously not that embarrassed, since I clearly have no issue with making a reference to my embarrassment by way of this particular parenthetical addendum).

Have you considered doing this early in the morning before opening? That would be a win for you and for the European pilots.

Yes. In fact, I was very tempted to do it this time. But my "golden hours" are after everyone has gone to bed, i.e. around 10pm EST. My house gets up pretty early, so morning flights are rarely an option for me (due to "noise pollution" ).

Yes, I know... I need a basement with a man cave in my house.

[hoser70]

Get that man cave bud! I would have joined but 2200 PDT = 0100 EDT for me and me sleepy sleepy at 0100 ha!

[Acroshaw]

I'd happily tag along for a uk flight, I live in Southampton, nice busy airspace all around !!!

[Cyrus]

Get that man cave bud! I would have joined but 2200 PDT = 0100 EDT for me and me sleepy sleepy at 0100 ha!

Dude, we're in the same time zone! We could have shared the pain . Seriously though, I totally understand. We all have very different lives and commitments, so it is what it is.

I'm actually about to propose another one for this Friday night (for around the same time)... but this one will be a little different in concept

[Cyrus]

I'd happily tag along for a uk flight, I live in Southampton, nice busy airspace all around !!!

Great! Two questions then...

1. Would you be interested in a morning flight (your time), starting at around 6:00am GMT Saturday morning (10:00pm PDT Friday), with a duration of about 1.5 hrs?

2. Are you willing to fly a plane capable of cruising at 350 kts GS (at ~20k feet)?

If it's a yes to both, stay tuned... I'm planning something that might turn out to be kinda fun.

(hint: imagine something like this... as a race!)