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Did my first flight on PE today, and it went very well - mostly thanks to all the information here. I was mortified when I realised on arrival at KPHX that my P3D scenery's taxiways didn't exactly match the real-world ones and caused me to take the wrong runway exit, but the controller was very nice about it (and it should be sorted now after I got Flightbeam's KPHX - always wanted to pick that up!).

One thing I did have some difficulty with was to figure out which departing runway was the active one - I ended up asking Clearance what the active departing rwy is. Is this the correct procedure? ATIS listed almost all of them as active departing, so it wasn't much help.

Oh, one more thing. When center assigns you a STAR and landing runway and then hands you off to approach, do you check in with something like "Phoenix Approach, United 123 at FL320 for FL240" or do you check in with the already assigned STAR, such as "Phoenix Approach, United 123 at FL320 for FL240 on the EUGUL6 for runway 7R" ? Do you need to confirm it again when handed off to approach - what is the best practice here?

Thank you all for your help so far, and thank you to the controllers earlier today who were extremely professional (that's what I really like about PE).

I ended up asking Clearance what the active departing rwy is. Is this the correct procedure? ATIS listed almost all of them as active departing, so it wasn't much help.

I wouldn’t say anything wrong with it but there will be times the Clearance controller has no idea. I can’t imagine why you can’t program your SID in your FMC during taxi. Or is there another reason you are asking?

Oh, one more thing. When center assigns you a STAR and landing runway and then hands you off to approach, do you check in with something like "Phoenix Approach, United 123 at FL320 for FL240" or do you check in with the already assigned STAR, such as "Phoenix Approach, United 123 at FL320 for FL240 on the EUGUL6 for runway 7R" ? Do you need to confirm it again when handed off to approach - what is the best practice here?

No need to confirm the directional OPS/runway assignment with the next controller. That is an advisory to you.
In addition to descent information, if you were issued “climb via SID” or “Descend via (arrival name)”, you need to tell that to the next controller what you are issued (altitude and speed wise).

Kyle.Sanders wrote:I wouldn’t say anything wrong with it but there will be times the Clearance controller has no idea. I can’t imagine why you can’t program your SID in your FMC during taxi. Or is there another reason you are asking?

Nope that was pretty much the reason for asking In P3D it doesn't matter really, the PMDG 737's FMC behaves pretty well and can take a runway in the dep/arr page without issues. The Zibo 737 in XP11 however sometimes needs the legs page to be checked real carefully after making a change in dep/arr (it tends to insert the whole departure twice sometimes), was just concerned I'd be holding up ground ops if I checked that while I'm supposed to be taxiing.

Kyle.Sanders wrote:In addition to descent information, if you were issued “climb via SID” or “Descend via (arrival name)”, you need to tell that to the next controller what you are issued (altitude and speed wise).

Ah right, that was it - I needed to confirm that I'm descending via the STAR. Makes sense now, thanks!

Just to be safe and consistent, I would always leave it to ground (not Clearance) for runway assignment questions, as Clearance may be able to tell you, or might not. Ground always will.
If you are not ready for taxi, I would say something like:
“John Wayne Ground, N123AB, east signature with bravo. What runway can we expect for departure? Will be ready in a min.”
That will tell him your position (important for runway assignment), go ahead and knock out what weather info you have, and letting him know you aren’t ready for taxi just yet.

Kyle.Sanders wrote:Just to be safe and consistent, I would always leave it to ground (not Clearance) for runway assignment questions, as Clearance may be able to tell you, or might not. Ground always will.
If you are not ready for taxi, I would say something like:
“John Wayne Ground, N123AB, east signature with bravo. What runway can we expect for departure? Will be ready in a min.”
That will tell him your position (important for runway assignment), go ahead and knock out what weather info you have, and letting him know you aren’t ready for taxi just yet.

Perfect, thanks!

At a busy enough airport, just monitoring ground or tower, or watching other aircraft should make it pretty clear which runway(s) is/are in use. That’s one of the differences with PE vs RW, you can feel pretty lonely at what would otherwise be a bustling airport.

Had a semi-interesting experience today (offline, not whilst on PE) where I had to return to the departing airport about 10mins into the flight due to an hydraulics issue on the 737-800 (after going through the appropriate QRH). If it were online, I assume you'd handle it the same as any real emergency (or in this case, a pan-pan) and request to return to the airport? Luckily it doesn't happen often, my failures are set to the lowest rate just next to being completely turned off, so it'd be a rare event - but still. I never manually fail instruments or systems.

reanopp wrote:Had a semi-interesting experience today (offline, not whilst on PE) where I had to return to the departing airport about 10mins into the flight due to an hydraulics issue on the 737-800 (after going through the appropriate QRH). If it were online, I assume you'd handle it the same as any real emergency (or in this case, a pan-pan) and request to return to the airport? Luckily it doesn't happen often, my failures are set to the lowest rate just next to being completely turned off, so it'd be a rare event - but still. I never manually fail instruments or systems.

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