Never again on PE - share your mistakes

[Brandon Grchan]

Had my first experience with lost comms last night. You can hear it at 20:7:00 to 20:7:30. Had a great flight in my new Carenado C185F from CMA to 3L2 - Sky Ranch. All was going well, other than a bit of an icing issue, until I was told to go to LAS approach. Even though I can hear myself read back 125.02, I wrote down 125.20 in a bit of a dyslexic moment. I switched and called approach, but no response. Tried again and still no response. I switched back to LA Center and asked for confirmation for the approach frequency, but no response. I waited a few seconds and switched back to 125.20 and called for approach again and of course no response. Switched back to Center and called again, but no response. In listening to the recording, it sounds like I got walked on when I called back to Center. I should have stayed on the Center frequency a little longer and probably would have heard his call back. At that point, I was less than 20 mile out of 3L2 so I squawked 7600 and proceeded to Unicom frequency and landed. In retrospect, I should have looked in my Flight Guide to get the Approach frequency. I knew I was still connected to PE because I showed up on the live map, but I wasn't getting through on the radio. I've invested a lot in real world aviation tools over the years. I guess I should be better at using them in situations like this.

in a situation like this I would find the first available approach freq on a sectional and call them.

[Steven Winslow]

Exactly right, Brandon. I had my VFR sectional, Low En Route chart and my Flight Guide all at my side. I had the tools, but I didn't use them. I figured I was so close and there was no traffic that I just went lost comms and landed. Had I been in contact with LAS, I would have cancelled IFR and landed uneventfully. And yet again another learning experience.

[arb65912]

It was not a disaster but I also learned something.

I was on Flight Following, when I reported airport in sight, I was told to squawk VFR and frequency change approved.

I did , I was a bit surprised that I was not told to contact Tower but I dialed Tower frequency anyway and announced:" Palomar traffic,N5067Q right base Rwy xx, Palomar"
I was surprised to hear Tower Controller.

I landed and we talk a bit about it.

I have learned that after I was told to squawk VFR and frequency change approved, it meant only cancellation of the flight following.
After that, what I was going to do was my choice, I could fly VFR somewhere else, contact Tower or whatever but my my flight following terminated.

I did partially right, I dialed Tower frequency but I announced my intentions with " Palomar traffic ......."
Next time I will do the same but will start my announcement with " Palomar Tower ..."

[NM Doug]

Gotcha!

That's what I felt during my recent flight from KHHR to KONT. I was flying VFR with flight following, and I had briefly looked at the flyways to figure out how to get there.

Departed 25, "straight out departure approved," ... waiting for tower to send me over to departure, which they do eventually, and then SoCal departure:

"...radar contact 3 miles southwest of the Los Angeles VOR. Turn left heading 080 expedite - vectors out of the class bravo airspace"

Kind of rattled after that. I flew east, following the moving map of SkyCharts X-Plane along the flyway, which showed me clear of the bravo to the south, but Socal said I had drifted north into class bravo again (!)

... After landing, I teleported back to KHHR, took a moment to actually look at the bravo boundaries, set the VORs to show me the critical boundaries, and flew it again. Legally, just for a change of pace.

Doug

[arb65912]

Hi Doug, nice experience. I have a question though. I was looking for a while at the Los Angeles TAC but could not find any flyways there. Where are they?

I was looking at Los Angeles TAC and I was thinking about how I would fly your route based ONLY on visual references, no navaids.

I would take off , runway heading, then I would turn about 10 deg left and climb to 2700', then after reaching the shore I would turn left and follow the coastline climbing to let's say 5500' until I had KTOA in sight, then I would fly over KTOA and turn left to 071 heading and fly toward KLGB.
After passing KLGB , I would fly heading 066 toward PRADO DAM VPLPD and KAJO basically following the route and staying North of it ( to stay clear of class C and class B ) descending gradually to let's say 3500'.

From that point I would turn toward KONT and follow ATC instructons if any or start descent to TPA at KONT.

I wonder if that would be one of the proper ways of flying that route, please chime in.

Cheers, Andrzej

http://skyvector.com/?ll=33.90402593130 ... :A.K2.KONT

[NM Doug]

Hi Andrzej -

I like your suggestion of flying a route like this VFR with pilotage* using readily visible landmarks like the coastline and the airports - even in my low-resolution setup, those are certainly visible and reliable. I find trying to use highways a little trickier.

I don't think your altitudes work for your suggested course, though, unless you do get cleared into the class bravo, because the floor of the bravo is 5000 over KTOA. The flyways can (in principle...I didn't do so well ) help VFR pilots get around while staying outside of the bravo. They are printed on the back side (!) of the paper terminal area charts, with altitudes, directions, and points when to change altitude printed in the wide blue arrows. The SkyCharts app has them for the iPad, but I don't know offhand where to find them online! I'm attaching a screenshot from the iPad.

Yours,
Doug

*I can't believe I only just now noticed that PilotEdge is a pun on pilotage

[arb65912]

Thank you, Doug. Of course, I did not realize that class B floor at KTOA is 5000, then I would use 3500' instead.
I asked about VFR flyways because I have never seen them on Skyvector, on LAX TAC , there is description for LAX SFRA and Transition Routes but not VFR flyways.

I am surprised I could not find them on Skyvector, I thought that all navigation data could be found there.
I think, I have Skycharts app on Ipad but as far as I remember it refreshes not too fast.
I will check it out anyway.

Thank you for the reply.

Cheers, Andrzej

[NM Doug]

Indeed, Skycharts doesn't seem to refresh quickly....and that probably contributed to my drifting north into the bravo that second time, because the portion of the flyway just to the north of KLGB is right on the southern edge of the bravo! The fault was still mine, of course, for trusting the wrong source of information!

Doug

[arb65912]

Moving map is a great source of information of course and I do have it open also when flying on PE.
On the other hand, I am really trying hard to get my location and navigation by using available navigation instruments in the plane and visual references on the ground.
Looking at that moving map is very tempting but many times I resist.
I am doing it ( trying not to look at the moving map) on purpose, I want to be able to navigate in case GPS goes to hell.

Cheers, Andrzej

[Keith Smith]

Flyway charts are typically on the back side of TAC charts. Skyvector doesn't provide that info for some reason.

However, there isn't any information on the flyway chart that doesn't exist on the TAC. It's just a simplified depiction making it easier visualize paths that will circumvent certain types of airspace.