First flight

[Kerbo]

Howdy folks!

I recently took my first flight on PilotEdge and must say it was a thrill. What a great service! The 2 week free trial is an awesome thing and I'm currently taking advantage of that while under negotiations with the Minister of Finance (wife) on this additional hobby expense. The only thing that surprised me was how nervous I was. Once it was time to make that first radio call the adrenaline kicked in and the controller (who was awesome by the way) could probably hear the tremble in my voice. Almost everything I knew about flying an airplane went straight out the window. In spite of all the fumbling I somehow made it from L52 to KSBP without major incident and am now hooked.

A chronicle of my fledgling voyage and some of the mistakes I made can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeC-plMoILI

[Ryan B]

Excellent. It's a wonderful service and I'll continue to use this while I wait to get back into real flying (and hopefully during!)

[pilot7369]

Welcome on board Kerbo! Pilotedge really is a great service, and by the way, great job on youre first flight. It really wasnt' bad as you made it sound.

[Kerbo]

Thanks for the kind words Carl.

[RonCraighead]

I know what you mean about the Radio. I'm a real world VFR pilot, and use radios all the time in the military. But this was oddly daunting.

I also didn't realize that flying a sim to test standards was so challenging, that I would have to re-learn how to use a radio stack, etc...

I'm hooked too! I'll do a bigger writeup soon.

Ron

[stevekirks]

I know what you mean about the Radio. I'm a real world VFR pilot, and use radios all the time in the military. But this was oddly daunting.

So you fly out of Gillespie? Is the pattern as challenging as the NOTAMs/Pilot Guide make it out to be?

[RonCraighead]

It can be busy. If you get there and there is a split tower, you have to talk to one tower or the other depending on the runway you're using. Just contact the tower at 120.7 and they will re-direct you. It's a training airport, and in spite of my student errors, I only got barked at once... But I really screwed up, so I had it coming.

One time it was busy, and I heard the tower clear a guy to land on taxiway Delta

Other than that, the secret there is to read the A\FD and Notams, take a few notes ahead of time, and bingo... If you need help, ask.

Montgomery can be a zoo. I spent about 15 minutes waiting for takeoff clearance once. The controllers were juggling cats, and tend not to be as laid back as Gillespie. Ramona is probably the best training airport in San Diego. Great runway and tower, moderate traffic, and if you lose an engine you've got a TON of survivable landing options. I've had two engine issues over Gillespie, and my landing options were slim...

RC