New User Questions: SoCal App/Dep?

[Mark Hargrove]

...because all that affects is the name you call them on the radio.

Which only seems fair, given all the names they call us. Usually, with the PTT switch off....

-M.

[HRutila]

...because all that affects is the name you call them on the radio.

Which only seems fair, given all the names they call us. Usually, with the PTT switch off....

-M.

Indeed.

[Keith Smith]

So I'm a really new user of Pilot Edge for the primary purpose of working on improving ATC communications and Instruments. I'm a new PP with about 85 hours. I live in Northern Utah and all my training has been in the Bravo airspace mostly along the Wasatch front. My question concerns the use of SoCal Approach/Departure and so forth; in the KSLC Bravo, Salt Lake Approach/Departure controls traffic (unless you fly under the floor) so in my mind, SoCal acts like SLC Control but over the whole Southern CA area because of it's size and concentration of airports/fields. So what is the proper use of SoCal in our PilotEdge flying?

Good discussion so far. If it helps, there's zero procedural difference between talking to Socal Approach and Salt Lake Approach. Those are both TRACONs which cover a number of airports. For example, based on the listed dep/app freqs, Salt Lake TRACON also covers Ogden (KOGD). The nature of the services provided by TRACONs don't really vary from place to place.

Yes, SoCal is a large TRACON covering a wider area than most, but the fundamentals don't change. When you go to conduct a VFR flight in any given airspace, your job as the pilot is to find out which facility and frequency provides radar service for your current point in space and give them a call. Zero consideration needs to be given to Socal as a unique facility.