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Hello everyone! I'm back with another installment of Flap's Flap. It
was a really good holiday season, but now that it is all over, we
find ourselves with more spare time on our hands without having to
go out to dinners, to spend more time in front of our beloved sims
weather it be FS2004 or FSX, we are journeying into the virtual
skies more often now. Whether it be a nice simple VFR flight to take
in some flight seeing or a more complex IFR flight with an advanced
aircraft such as the Boeing 747 or Eaglesoft Citation X, our trips
can be pure nirvana to whatever aspect we choose to fly.I have recently reached an impasse with the Flight Simulator series. To me, I have found the one perfect version I have been looking for, FSX, with its no more 99,000 feet limitation that we have grown to "settle" for in the previous version, they have reinstated the vehicle traffic on the roads, not just little dots of moving light, but 3D cars and trucks and what about those active jet docks? That is a really great touch. But to make it even more As Real As it Gets, you may remember my last article, where I touched base on flying more realistically and what we can do to improve our realism in virtual flight. I'm going to continue expanding here with a few more pointers that I have picked up from watching the King School videos. VATSIM may appreciate these tips I'm about to forward to you, or they may not - I'm not sure if they'll understand the terminology that will be applied for the first person who attempts to try it, so please, don't get upset with me if they say "What the heck are you talking about?" I plan on submitting a NOTAM to them so that they will know about this article before it is released, so that they may be aware of some of the new "lingo" from the online pilots that will be joining their community.
The first thing that I'm going to hit on here is VFR flights. I for one have never really been a big fan of VFR flights, but until I have started to study all facets of aviation to "properly" perform in Flight Simulator, I now love them. One thing I found out while watching the King School's videos, did you realize that you do not necessarily have to have IFR clearance to fly in instrument conditions? You can request what is called a "special VFR" clearance from the control tower. What that means is, you will be allowed to take off under VFR rules, but be given a special squawk code to be able to separate you from the rest of the IFR aircraft in that tracking station. Don't ask me why anyone would want to do such a thing and risk life and limb over a difference of IFR or VFR clearance, but that's something that you folks might want to try to do out there if you don't want to stick to the IFR rules and regulations surrounding them.
Okay now, let's say we've loaded up Active Sky and have the FS Real Time set and we also downloaded the FS Live Traffic (for those who have these titles) and we're all set to perform our first realistic VFR flight. Do you know the proper cloud clearances?
What will you do if you come across a cloud bank? How do you know that you are at the proper cloud clearance?
This is the rule of VFR flight so that we can easily remember it for the Sim Challenged individual who just hops in and flies to wherever and however they fancy, though that is not the proper procedure on how to do such things. We know that there are different types of controlled air spaces, A, B, C, D, and E what does that involve? Well, if you were to look at the different airspaces you need to maintain certain distances for safety, so that aircraft who are operating under IFR rules can see you and also so that towers in your travel path can see you.
Class A airspace is from 18,000 feet to 60,000 feet. You must be flying in IFR unless otherwise cleared to VFR in Class A. In general:
Class B airspace is: Surface to 10,000 feet.
Class C airspace is: Surface to 4,000 feet.
Class D airspace is: Surface to 2,500 feet.
Class E is all other space not included. You don't have to contact anyone flying in class E airspace and is not required to, unless weather conditions call you to have instrument flight.
Class G is from the surface to 1,200 feet.
So what can we tell about this? If we were to say what airspace would contain most VFR flights, is from Class G up to Class A. That's quite a range now you will know when to contact Microsoft's controllers, and hopefully help you perform a better more realistic VFR flight. Next article, we will be discussing cloud clearances in VFR Flight.
By the way - be sure to look out for my new radio show of Flap's Flap, on 1380 AM (as well as streamed on the Internet) every Sunday morning at 10:30 am to- 11:00 am EST, where we discuss anything and everything to do with Flight Simulator. The station's web site address is http://www.wnri.com and click on the on air button. Email me any questions you may have, and I'll answer them live on the air!
John J. Thuot II
ragtopjohnny01@aol.com
