VFR Mag

THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN VIRTUAL AIRLINES
AUGUST 2016
VATSIM
Celebrates
15 YEARS
10 TIPS
VFR FLYING
Dovetail Games Signs Deal with Boeing

5 Route around big cities whenever possible. Traffic is usually lighter, smog isn’t as much of a problem, fuel, ramp and parking prices generally
are lower in the boonies, and you’re less likely to receive vectors away from your course line or altitude restrictions to deal with.
6 Be smart about descents, and don’t automatically start down at 500 fpm (as I did for years). In winter, you may want to stay high as long
as possible to maximize the effects of tailwinds. Similarly, hot surface temps in summer may dictate the same technique to avoid the heat and
convective turbulence down low. If there are gathering clouds ahead, you may want to descend early to make certain you don’t get trapped on
top.
7 Temper your judgment about flying in high-mountain terrain at all, if you can avoid it. Yes, it’s beautiful, especially with popcorn cumulus
floating by, but there may be little margin for error if you accidently enter a cloud. A while back, two good friends, both excellent IFR-rated
pilots, flew a new Caravan straight into the side of a hill near Palm Springs, apparently another CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) accident.
A 180-degree turn won’t necessarily solve your problem—it may make it worse if clouds have closed in behind you—but it’s a far safer bet than
continuing without a clearance or any idea where the tall rocks live.
8 Avoid flying at any limit speed. Vne is the obvious worst one, but there are a dozen others. Vle, max landing gear extension speed, is often
specified to save the gear doors. Violate it consistently, and those doors may eventually fail. It’s the same with flap extension speed, Vfe. If you
use gear and flaps to decelerate, do so only well within the specified limit speeds.
10 Tips
VFR Flying
9 Even if you’re not IFR rated, consider carrying a set of low-altitude en route charts for the trips you make most often. A low-altitude chart
can provide you with IFR MEAs, an instant measure of safe altitude along established routes. You’ll also have an easy reference to leg distances
between VORs and airports (sometimes). IFR charts also provide sector frequencies in case you need help and there’s no one awake on 122.8
mHz.
10 Everyone knows you should scan the airspace around you for other traffic, but the most neglected quadrant of see-and-be-seen is directly
behind you. Studies of mid-air collisions have shown that the most likely risk is from the rear. That’s especially true during descents when a
following aircraft overruns preceding traffic. If you’re descending, try throwing in some slight turns occasionally and check six for what might
be gaining on you.
1 Despite the near-universal adoption of GPS for enroute navigation, resist the temptation to simply dial up the identifier of your
destination and fly direct. Consider instead putting together a flight plan that includes slight deviations to stay near highways,
airports or flat terrain. You’d be amazed how far you can deviate from a Great Circle route without adding significantly to total
distance.
2 Think twice about cruise altitude. On short trips, the tendency is often to level at 4,000 to 7,000 AGL. Higher is nearly always
better, for several reasons. Fuel burn is less, the airplane may actually be faster up high, and range will be extended. Most general
aviation airplanes can reach 8,000 to 10,000 feet in only five to seven minutes more, and they’ll be above much of the other traffic,
benefit from longer radio range, usually operate above the convection layer in smoother air and have a larger pad of sky beneath
them in the event of a problem.
3 While it’s true you don’t always have to fill the tanks, and tankering six hours of fuel for a one-hour flight is excessive—you have
to burn fuel to carry fuel—remember the catch phrase of many fighter pilots: The only time you can have too much fuel is when
you’re on fire. You may never know what circumstances will dictate the need for more fuel, but if you don’t have any extra, it won’t
matter. It’s nearly always a good idea to carry as much fuel as possible, cabin payload and CG permitting, of course.
4 It’s only good sense to use flight following whenever you can, especially around heavily congested airspace. The FF controller
has some very sophisticated radar at his disposal, very likely more exotic than the TIS/TCAS you have on your panel (if you’re that
lucky). Flight following can be especially valuable if your trip is a long one, over water or remote terrain. If you have a problem,
you won’t need to scramble to find the proper frequency. (Out in the boonies, I keep one radio set on 122.8 mHz anyway, in case I
or someone else needs help.) A flight-following controller can also keep you clear of restricted or prohibited zones and advise when
they’re “hot.” Also, each subsequent controller will automatically update the altimeter setting with every handoff.

VFR Flight planning with VATSIM
VFR flight planning can sometimes be much less involved
than IFR flight planning, depending on a couple aspects.
First step in preparing a VFR flight plan you need to
understand a couple things. First thing you need to ask
yourself, the airport I am going to depart from VMC (Visual
Metrological Conditions) also the same for the airport
I am arriving at. Weather plays a key role in VFR flying.
Now if you ever find yourself flying and the weather
changes you may change your flight plan from VFR to
IFR as long as you communicate with ATC. Consult an
airspace/weather minimums chart for the specific VFR
weather minimums for the airspace you are flying within.
Weather minimums are usually expressed in clearance
from clouds and visibility. At no time may a VFR aircraft
fly into a cloud for any reason. You may go below, above
or beside the cloud. Let’s look at some of the weather
limitations for the United States. When flying VFR below
10,000ft AMSL visibility must be at least 3sm, or if you
are fling VFR above 10,000ft AMSL visibility must be at
least 5sm. You must stay 500ft below, 1,000ft above,
and 2,000ft aside, any clouds. Now since there are no
instruments in your aircraft that tells you this information
you will have to use sound judgments to abide by these
rules. VFR operations are the basic procedures used by
all pilots. It is expected that pilots will operate utilizing
VFR procedures until they have sufficient knowledge and
expertise in the use of instruments only techniques.
VFR refers to a minimum weather condition that must be
present in order to operate under visual conditions. In
the United States, those weather conditions vary depending
on the type of airspace involved and pertain to
visibility requirements and distance to be kept away from
clouds:
Class........Flight Visibility.....Distance from Clouds
Class B.....3 statute miles.....clear of clouds
Class C.....3 statute miles.....500’ below/1000’ above/2000’
laterally
Class D.....3 statute miles.....500’ below/1000’ above/2000’
laterally
Class E.....less than 10,000’ MSL
..............3 statute miles.....500’ below/1000’ above/2000’
laterally
Class E.....at or above 10,000’ MSL
..............5 statute miles.....1000’ below/1000’ above/1 statute
mile laterally.
Don’t forget to plan proper fuel to use. A nice little tool
to use for fuel planning you can find at http://fuelplanner.
com/. This will help you to plan accordingly. Declaring a
fuel emergency in VATSIM is really an admission of poor
flight planning and should be avoided. Next we will select a
runway to use. It is very important to make sure the length
of the runway will support your aircraft. Another key fact
in selecting the runway has to do with wind direction. You
always want to take off into the wind. This will provide
your aircraft with more lift and a shorter takeoff roll out.
Now that we are ready to taxi to the numbers and takeoff
we need to contact the controller, or use 122.8 unicom to
state our intentions, and our squawk code on our transponder
should be set to 1200. This will let the controller know
that we are a VFR aircraft. VFR flights should contact
controllers when in their airspace near airports, especially
when departing or planning to land. VFR flights should
contact approach controllers between 20-30 NM from their
airspace and state intentions. Towered airports without
approach controllers should be contacted about 20 NM out.
Class B airspace requires a specific permission/clearance to
enter while Class C/D airport only require that radio communications
are established. Class E and G airports do not
have controllers so no controller contact is required. The
communication component can be met by tuning the COM
radio to 122.8 which is the UNICOM frequency (in the
United States). This channel is used for pilots to announce
traffic movements “in the blind”, meaning that pilots are not
expected to reply to UNICOM broadcasts, the broadcasts
are intended to be informative and because of its use over a
wide geographical area, there are certain conventions that
should be followed:
UNICOM transmissions should be in text.
UNICOM messages should be as short as possible “arriving runway
12”, “entering downwind 9L”, “clear of 9L”, etc
UNICOM transmissions should follow a specific format:
/location/message/location example: KMIA traffic departing 9R
KMIA
This leaves no doubt as to what airport is involved
The limitation of a UNICOM transmission is that there is no assurance
that other pilots in the vicinity are tuned to UNICOM or
paying attention to it. There is no easy remedy for this other than
for pilots to maintain their vigilance and be pessimistic; assuming
that the transmissions have not been received. Broadcasting one’s
intentions on UNICOM is not the same as having clearance or authorization
to conduct a maneuver or activity and does not relieve
a pilot of the responsibility to see and avoid other aircraft.
For the most part, when flying VFR, separation of your aircraft
from all other aircraft is solely the pilot’s responsibility. Pilots are
responsible to maintain visual separation until flight paths (altitudes
and/or courses) diverge for any traffic in the area. Normally
though, one aircraft keeps a safe distance from another. One of
the closest spots VFR aircraft come to each other is in airport patterns.
Make sure to leave enough distance such that you can make
a safe landing behind another aircraft, giving them enough time to
land and clear the runway before you land.
Enroute VFR flights can request Flight Following, where a radar
controller provides traffic advisories. VATSIM VFR pilots are
encouraged to request and use Flight Following when flying
cross-country flights on the network. It adds that next level of
realism for everyone. Basic radar services for VFR aircraft shall
include:
•Safety alerts.
•Traffic advisories.
•Limited radar vectoring when requested by the pilot.
•Sequencing at locations where procedures have been established.
A VFR aircraft departing an airport located in class C airspace,
normally of lower traffic density and complexity than class B,
would be entitled to radar advisory service until at least 20 miles
after departure because controllers are prohibited from terminating
radar service within the class C outer area without pilot
request. The same services as described above will be available for
the VFR pilot if the controller’s workload permits.
An inbound aircraft may request radar services by stating:
•Pilot: “So Cal Approach, Cessna 12345 with request”
•ATC: “Cessna 12345, So Cal Approach, Go ahead”
•Pilot: “So Cal Approach, Cessna 12345 VFR over the seal beach
VOR at 6500 enroute to long beach, requesting traffic advisories”
•ATC: “Cessna 12345, So Cal Approach, traffic is a beech airliner
at your 12 o’clock 5 miles north bound, indicating 3500.”
•Pilot: “Cessna 12345 has the traffic in sight”
The controller may issue other advisories if he or she is not busy
with other IFR traffic. If the controller is too busy for you they
will say.
•ATC: “Cessna 12345, So Cal Approach, Unable at this time”
Radar traffic information service (commonly known as VFR
flight following) is a service provided by air traffic control (ATC)
and available to all VFR pilots. It can enhance your flying safety.
While receiving flight following,
you’ll be in radio contact with a radar controller at a Terminal Radar
Approach Control (TRACON) or Air Route Traffic Control Center
(ARTCC). You may receive traffic advisories, enroute safety alerts, and
limited vectoring on a workload permitting basis.
An example call would sound like this:
•Pilot: “LA Center, Mooney 12345 with requests”
•ATC: “Money 12345 LA Center go ahead”
•Pilot: “LA Center, Mooney 12345 is type m20/p 12 miles south of the
twenty nine palms VOR level 7500 enroute to Henderson request Flight
Following”
•ATC: “Mooney 12345, squawk 7312, ident”
•Pilot: “Squawking 7312 and ident, Mooney 12345”
•ATC: “Mooney 12345, Radar contact 12 miles south of the TNP VOR
at 6500. Traffic 2 o’clock 12 miles southbound is a Cessna 172 indicating
4500”
•Pilot: “Mooney 12345, looking for traffic”
While flying VFR with Radar service you will be treated much like an
IFR flight except, you must fly at VFR cruising altitudes and it’s courteous
to inform ATC of any deviation from your intended route.
Handoffs - When you receive instructions to change to a new frequency,
read back the new frequency to the controller before you change the
frequency selector. This will allow the controller to correct you if you
didn’t hear the new frequency correctly. If you switch frequencies and
are unable to make contact with anyone, you can use your frequency
log to find the last known channel on which you were talking to ATC.
If you don’t have flip-flop radios, or if the flip-flop display dies on you,
your frequency log could save the day. When checking in on the new
frequency, make sure to state your altitude so that the controller can
verify your aircraft’s mode C readout on the radar screen.
For example:
•Pilot: “Los Angeles Center, Cherokee 12345, VFR at one zero thousand
five hundred. “
Once we are in the air now we are going to fly our route or navigation.
There are four ways we can navigate using Visual flight rules. Dead
reckoning, Pilotage, Radio navigation, and GPS navigation. It is your
choice on which one you want to use.
The most basic of all VFR navigation is Pilotage. Pilotage means look
out the cockpit window and see with your eyes where you are. VFR
maps are marked with lots of symbols that help find things on the
ground and matching them with the map. In FS the terrain and ground
objects are not exactly just like real life, even with some of the photo-real
scenery. But they are getting closer. You can still fly Pilotage flights
by following major landmarks such as rivers, canyons, shorelines, and
roads (IFR = I Fly by Roadways).
Pilotage is free flight in its most pure, going where the landscape takes
you to see what wonders lie ahead. This does not relieve the pilot from
knowing how much gas to take on board and monitoring it while up
boring holes in the sky. You are welcome to fly Pilotage flights in VAT-
SIM. In the route section of the flight plan put a statement that lets the
controllers know what you’re up to like “Hong Kong Harbor Patrol”, or
“South down the Rhine River”.

Controlling your aircraft is a skill
1. Keep your aircraft under control
FAA RULES
AND
REGULATIONS
By USN0014 Jerry Robinson
One of the most important aspects of flight is control of your aircraft. You may think that an over speed is a small thing but in reality
it shows others that you do not have complete control of your aircraft. It further shows that you have poor piloting skills and in
the real world that is a killer.
There are several ways to show complete control of your aircraft. One is to have no over speeds throughout the flight. Another is to
have landings that reflect your skills and that are consistent. A third is to have very few or no pauses during a flight. Anything short
of these shows a lack of control.
We talked about landings and rates in the last issue and now let us look at control and how not to have over speeds. The first thing
to remember with any aircraft is never climb at the max speed for the aircraft or for flight simulator or for the rules you must follow
at any VA. 250kts under 10,000 is a big one and one most pilots break. Easy to fix. Slow down! Do not climb at more than 240kts
under A/P. Stay at 220kts or less on descent under A/P and with speed brakes on. If weather is an issue turn it off in the climb and
descent or slow down more to compensate for it. Here is the short of it. If you have full control at all times you will not have over
speeds.
So, Keep it simple and keep it under speed!
FARs part91 Section 117 talks about the golden rule of 250kts max below 10,000ft.
a) Unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator, no person may operate an aircraft below 10,000 feet MSL at an indicated airspeed
of more than 250 knots (288 m.p.h.).
(b) Unless otherwise authorized or required by ATC, no person may operate an aircraft at or below 2,500 feet
above the surface within 4 nautical miles of the primary airport of a Class C or Class D airspace area at an
indicated airspeed of more than 200 knots (230 mph.). This paragraph (b) does not apply to any operations
within a Class B airspace area. Such operations shall comply with paragraph (a) of this section.
(c) No person may operate an aircraft in the airspace underlying a Class B airspace area designated for an
airport or in a VFR corridor designated through such a Class B airspace area, at an indicated airspeed of more
than 200 knots (230 mph).
JULY Monthly Stats
Flights Flown: 409
Flight Hours: 811.32
Total Pax: 781,310
Avg Landing Rate: -208fpm
Flight Miles: 290,590nm
Fuel used: 6,947,930
JULY Highlights
FLYUAA becomes a partner with VATSIM. The new website design
is re-launched. Facebook, and Twit-ter lands at FlyUAA. It has been
another awesome month with our flight hours are well over 500hrs for
the month. Each month we are growing. However, I would like for
us to start looking at our landing rates. If you have noticed, we have
been in the top 10 at VA Central. One of the governing factors that
determines our ranking is based on Active pilots flying, and landing
rates. Also another great stat that we have achieved is being in the top
10 VA’s on the VA List. Every month we have to remember logging
in at www.va-list.com and voting for our VA. We are getting noticed
and to let you in on a little secret some of the bigger VA’s are starting
to worry what FlyUAA is doing. Thank you for your hard work and all
the special features that we have in our VA is because we listen to our
pilots and we make dreams become reality. Next month you will start
to see a little more changes coming. Some new tours and awards are
coming. Also if you have not seen it we now have the best intro video
out on the market thanks to Brett for all his hard work. Until next
time let’s all get out and return to the flight deck and have fun flying.
Don’t forget we have some Friday night group flights going on too.
Tom West
FlyUAA CEO

Dovetail Games
Signs Deal
with Boeing
Officially licensed content coming soon to Microsoft Flight Simulator X:
Steam Edition.
Dovetail Games has announced it has entered into a licensing agreement with Boeing
to bring officially licensed add-ons to FSX: Steam Edition.
Paul Jackson, CEO of Dovetail Games said: “We recognize that an important part of
creating highly authentic flight simulation experiences is the addition of officially
licensed content. We are therefore delighted to be working in partnership with
Boeing, a highly respected pioneer in the aviation world, to deliver a wide range of
content for FSX: Steam Edition over the coming months.”
As a result of this agreement, the FSX: Steam Edition community can expect to see
licensed Boeing add-ons, as well as content representing aircraft from its subsidiaries,
McDonnell Douglas, North American Aviation and Rockwell International in
the FSX: Steam Edition store in the coming months.

THANK YOU FOR FLYING
SEE YOU SOON