New to PE

[CaptainC]

I have a son that is 10 1/2 -- and absolutely OBSESSED with flying.

He has flown Microsoft Flight simulator for the past 15 months -- on a very regular basis.

Started flying RedBird flight sims almost a year ago.

Progressed up to a 737-800 full motion sim for a day at a great flight school in FL this past summer.

Then -- on to the real planes. We live in the Baltimore / DC area --and have been flying a Cessna 172 out of a local airport with an incredible flight instrutor. My son did all of the radio communication for the local airport -- and hit the first communication with live ATC in Potomac. That was incredible! Of course, he had great guidance and support (a few practices before each call) of the instructor before pressing "the button."

NOW -- he has a serious bug -- and dying for PE (once I found it online).

We did the recommended practice flight up. He did okay -- but really need him to get more comfortable and lots of practice (kid goes to sleep at night with KBWI TOWER scanner on -- volume turned down to a pleasant "slight background noise" at night).

We found the training sessions -- with video and documents to read. We're starting there -- but any other recommendations? Any airports where he can get some "gentle" practice after doing a ton of reading and watching videos? He does an amazing job handling the plane -- but really want him to work on this next.

[Mark Hargrove]

Except for crazy evenings like Sunday night was (because of the 2nd year "birthday" celebration for PE), it's usually pretty calm on the PE network. Your son can fly out of pretty much any airport without very much contention. PE is a great environment for training, especially for communications practice. Don't worry about being perfect -- the controllers are very patient and will very gently correct any procedural errors. The overall philosophy here isn't to "be right", it's to "get it right" through practice. Have you son make his way through the VFR ratings -- there are short tutorials in the pilot training section and full tutorials available on YouTube. There are hours and hours of recorded communications traffic from the PE network for him to listen to if he wants to. There are several excellent seminars on YouTube that Keith has done covering just about all aspects of operating both VFR and IFR within controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

If he's really serious about "real" flying, I believe that PE is the best simulation experience that it's possible to find.

-M.

[Keith Smith]

As long as you're there to provide the safety net on the radio, this might work. I'll drop you a PM with some details tomorrow.

[CaptainC]

He is so excited about PE, he could barely stand it. I have no doubt he will have his solo by 16.

We lost communication and didnt know it on PE last night - so nobody was responding (of course). We had other issues - so I rebooted - and we started the same PE flight. I need to get a better sound system for him before he does this with PE again. We could hear - but it wasn't clear. The controller told him the last time he landed - he did so without any clearance. He responded that he will get it right this time (since we could hear). OOPS!!! They were patient and kind.

We will start going through the videos and do lots of practicing together before pulling PE in again. We were reading the manuscript provided on the first Visual category. Lots of great material. I can pretend to be the controller before he does a real person again.

There is so much great material on the site!!! We did the two week trial - the year membership is coming for sure!!!!

Thanks again!!

[CaptainC]

Should also say - I WILL ALWAYS be there with him when he is communicating on PE. But - I need to get a better way to hear what's being said. We were having a hard hearing. Maybe ill look into getting two headsets before we go live with PE again.

I can not wait to tell his instructor about this!!! I wonder how many flight schools know about PE??? Seems like a perfect training and practice area for future pilots - and those wishing to keep their skills up to par that don't fly as often.

[Pieces]

Hello CaptainC, not sure if you've seen this yet but you can listen to PE traffic live using the app here: http://www.pilotedge.net/pages/pilotedge-receiver

[Kevin_atc]

Hello CaptainC, not sure if you've seen this yet but you can listen to PE traffic live using the app here: http://www.pilotedge.net/pages/pilotedge-receiver

That's a great suggestion from Pieces. If you have another computer or laptop, you could very easily plug in simple earbuds and listen even in just one ear. Or, if you only have the one computer, you could route the PE client to your son's headset when you start the client, then change the computer sound device to something that goes into your ear. For example, if your son is using a USB headset, open the PE client with the default sound device as the headset then once you're up and running, any changes to the windows default sound won't affect PE therefore you could plug in some earbuds to the computer, swap the sound device and you should be golden.

Easiest way would be with a laptop though. A mobile (android and iOS) app is in the works for the near future, too, which would be the simplest solution.

[CaptainC]

THAT IS FANTASTIC!!! We do have extra PCs I can use. The URL is fantastic. I wanted some way for him to listen to the traffic on PE for a while as well (before connecting and trying again). The communication on the scanner for KBWI ground and tower is *starting* to make sense. We keep looking things up as we hear new terms. The quickness is crazy - but we will get there.

When pilots of the commercial fly - do they write the letters for the taxi info down on a paper while ATC is giving directions on where to taxi? Sometimes - they are quite involved. Just curious.

Thanks again!!!

[djrisc]

Another great resource you can utilize is the training videos that Keith has created, along with the amazing seminars that Keith has held on both VFR and IFR. I learned massive amounts from these and I think it helped me gain a lot of confidence on PE.

Training videos can be found in this thread post: (They're also individually in the training ratings pages.)

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2321

The seminars (along with a ton of other great content) can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pilotedgeATC

and since I'm linking videos anyway, here's Keith's YouTube feed which is also awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/user/coma13794

Enjoy!

[Keith Smith]

for getting the feel of communications on the network, nothing beats the daily recordings.

the recordings have silences removed and move along fairly quickly.

http://pilotedge.net/audio