Recommended flights

[Charlie Packman]

Hello,

I am wanting to start flying over in the USA. I am from the UK myself so I currently fly around Europe. I've got 90+ hours already existing from flights conducted on the network. I understand the procedures are slightly different over in the USA which I don't think will be that much of an issue for me. I'm asking around as I want to know if anybody has got some flights which they recommend for beginners flying in the USA.

Thanks.

[Russell DeSpain]

That really all depends what you'd like to do or accomplish. If you like flying with ATC, I would suggest looking on VATSPY or Vattastic to see which facilities are online and setting up a flight that way. If you like to fly low and slow, you can pick a certain geographic region of the country you'd like to fly as well and work with any ATC that are available. It really all depends on you.

[Josh Glottmann]

Hey Charlie, welcome to the other side of the pond!
I'd suggest approaching this as a new pilot in general. Start at a less busy controlled field and fly to another less busy field. If it's possible, try to find a place that has ATC along the route. What I would recommend doing is finding one Center that just got online and finding two Class C/D fields to fly at (take a look at skyvector.com for info on these). Then hop in your plane, maybe listen a few minutes, and then go.

There was a topic on the VATSIM forums recently about the differences between EU and US procedures. I suggest you take a look at it; it covers a majority of the differences. Let us know if you have any questions/clarifications. Click

[Charlie Packman]

Do you know of any regions which are quite quiet in terms of traffic? I don't really want to be enclosed in a busy airspace on my first go!

[Richard Sill]

Hi Charlie,

Our Deputy Air Traffic Manager, Stu Limont, is a real world controller at London Center (sorry Centre). He controls and flies in the U.S. on VATSIM quite frequently.

Feel free to drop him a note at zme-datm@vatusa.net

Regards,

Richard Sill
Air Traffic Manager
Memphis ARTCC

[Don Desfosse]

Depends on time of day of course -- outside our "peak time" pretty much everywhere is quiet.  And even during peak time, the major metropolitan areas are likely to be busy; anywhere else not as much (for example, within Atlanta Center, you can often find both Atlanta (KATL) and Birmingham (KBHM) online.  Atlanta is inside Class B airspace and generally busier.  Birmingham in inside Class C airspace and (usually) not nearly as busy.  Same for generally all of our Class C and Class D airspaces/airports.

[Matt Bozwood-Davies]

Charlie Packman, that name rings a bell and goes back a few years!

As Don said, look at Class C and D airports. Common flights, you could do MCO to MIA, that's flown a lot on the network, shuttle between neighbouring ARTCCs usually provides a good flight. And as long as you read charts, normally you won't encounter any issues.

Our Deputy Air Traffic Manager, Stu Limont, is a real world controller at London Center (sorry Centre).

Isn't it London Control?

[Charlie Packman]

How could I ever forget you Matthew.

I will defiantly give this flight a go. I've got charts so I can always refer to them. Thanks for the info. Will I be hearing your voice on the frequency then?!

[Matthew Bartels]

3 key differences between US and EU flying.

First, Transition Level/Altitude are fixed at FL180/18000

Second, the pilot is responsible for filing SIDS/STARS in the flight plan instead of them being assigned by ATC.

 third, Tower will tell you to contact departure, you don't just switch over once airborne.