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 wi