Well, I've had exactly two flights in PE, both VFR in the A2A Piper Cherokee, the most realistic trainer aircraft model I've ever found in FS. I would like to preface this story by declaring my complete unfamiliarity with socal airspace, and busy airspace in general. I earned my private pilot's license in Grand Forks, ND, and never had to deal with anything above class D. I've also had a considerable amount of FSEconomy driven VFR flying on VATSIM in the pacific northwest, which is commonly slow and uncontrolled. Anyway, enough excuses
My first flight was a few touch and goes at Van Nuys, which I arbitrarily chose due the IMC on the coast the last bunch of days. I have an aunt in Santa Monica, so I think I'll base from there eventually, but for now I had to pick somewhere else to start. I remember old scenarios at Van Nuys from FS for Win98, so I loaded up the sim, called up ground and did a bit of pattern work, and was highly impressed with the whole PE system. Kudos to the controller that night. That dude was busy.
For my second flight I decided to fire up the FSEconomy and find a PA28/A nearby. I found one at Palm Springs, and there happened to be a few passengers looking to go from Banning Muni (KBNG, about 18nm west of KPSP) to KVNY. I planned my first socal xcountry with active sky next weather forecasts, and planned the route -- KBNG RAL V186 KVNY. The flight planned showed 64 minutes enroute, and the weather for the whole route looked good. I first requested traffic advisories at KPSP to KBNG and moved the aircraft to Banning.
Once at Banning, I filed a new VFR flight plan and ran to the store for a redbull. When I got back I gassed up about 3 1/2 hours of fuel and took off from Banning Muni among a small army of twin prop drone arrivals. Climbing straight out of the traffic pattern I honed in on and flew direct the Riverside VOR. Once established I switched to the Homeland VOR (HDF) to get a DME readout as I planned to call Socal Approach and request traffic advisories. For some reason the DME wasn't displaying anything so I called up and gave my estimated position from HDF. Socal made radar contact with my target and I continued on course.
At cruise altitude of 6500 my DME was still not registering any data, and I began to wonder what was up. I checked several different VOR's in the area -- same results. So google was my next choice. The A2A PA28 apparently has some weird bug that causes the DME to stop working for no good reason and I began to troubleshoot it and became increasingly nervous that I would screw everything up once I neared Van Nuys. During the troubleshooting I moved away from my cruise altitude several times +/- 500ft. I was glad the controller was busy and was probably paying no attention to me at all. I thought about calling approach to amend my flight plan to change my equipment suffix. Finally I found a away around the DME issue after about 30nm of cruise. I was now about 30nm from Van Nuys and began to wonder exactly how the whole class C transition through Burbank works..... Because I had no idea...
Slight to moderate panic began to set in as traffic in the area increased and I was completely unsure if I was supposed to call Burbank and request a transition through their airspace on my way to Van Nuys, or call Van Nuys and tell them I was inbound, or just stay with Socal approach and await instructions. I was losing all hope in my radio skills around 22nm and approach still hadn't said a peep to me. I was nearing Burbank class C, although I was above it, I needed to descend through it on my way to Van Nuys. Then Socal called, had me switch frequencies, which I did and was instructed to remain south of Burbank until the tower advised me otherwise. I read back the instruction and turned southwest to stay south of the field and started my descent. But now I wasn't sure if that meant I could enter the class C or not.... I was recording the flight with FRAPS, and at this point I said out loud, "God, I'm really bad at this.. I don't know how to fly in the big city."
At about 12nm, and passing Burbank I was now unsure if I was supposed to wait for a handoff or just contact the tower. I knew I definitely did not want to enter the class D without calling the tower and at about 11nm I switched frequencies and called the tower, reported my position and landing intentions. Local control gave me a pattern entry and I turned 45 into the downwind 16L and continued my decent. I figured I must be on the right track, although it didn't occur to me until a few moments later that I had called in VFR looking to land (Class D transition), but was still squawking a Socal radar squawk code. As I pondered that for a moment the tower called me and told me that he had just spoken to approach. Apparently approach wasn't very thrilled that I had jumped frequencies without being radar terminated. I apologized and slunk into my computer chair. Derp.
Anyway, I landed, taxied, and then wrote this. My inexperience with class C airspace, radar serviced VFR flight and a malfunctioning DME all lead to a bit of CRM issues for me and a healthy dose of embarrassment. I'm not sure how many times I had to answer the mode C + two-way radio communication question while I was a student pilot, but apparently in practice I still didn't get it. I suppose in the end it wasn't that big of a mistake, but it still made me realize I have quite a bit of radio practice to work on, and has made me more excited to keep flying in PE. That simple xcountry was one of the most immersive flights I think I've ever had in 18 years of flight simming. Thanks to the controllers for being understanding and may I be a bit more prepared for my next flight.
Oh, and my three passengers didn't seem to notice and/or mind and still forked over the $2400 they owed me for the flight
