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Did I screw up re "resume own navigation" on my first flight


Ed Moore
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Ed Moore
Posted
Posted

Hey there,

 

New to VATSIM and probably don't have to describe to you lot the heart-pounding nerves of talking to lots of very professional sounding ATC for the first time!

 

I flew from East Midlands to Liverpool this evening in a TBM900 and was being handled by an excellent East Midlands Radar controller for some time.

 

He vectored me a little off my SID and then about 5-10 min after departure told me to "resume own navigation". As it was such a short sector I was basically just heading for my filed Liverpool STAR at that point. I was [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming I would hear from him again to vector me straight onto the ILS but as I got within a few NM of the end of the STAR I suddenly paniced and switched straight to Liverpool Tower who got me the rest of the way.

 

My question is, should I have expected to hear further from the Radar controller after "resume own navigation" and did I screw up by leaving his frequency without checking out?

 

Or did he intend for me to contact my destination?

 

Sorry for the newbie question...

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Andreas Fuchs
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Posted

Hi Ed and welcome to VATSIM!

 

I am glad that you dared to jump into the cold water and I can [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ure you that everyone had his or her heart pounding during their first online flight(s) or ATC-session(s). Those who did not have that sensation are probably troublemakers who did not care to read a single line of our docomeents to help understanding how it is done

 

So, you are from the "good group" of people

 

Re your question: "resume own navigation" normally means "proceed to the nearest point on your filed routing that lies ahead of you". It would have been better by the ATCO to tell you which point to go to and then to continue own nav, e.g. "proceed direct LISTO then flightplan route", or something similar. The precise phraseology can vary from region/country to region/country. Next time, if you are unsure what a controller wants you to do just ask either "say again" or "please clarify instruction".

 

Also, please do NOT change frequency without being asked to do so. For us ATCOs this can be a bit annoying, because presumably we have everything "under control". If you feel that you have been forgotten by your ATCO, just ask him " are we still under your control or should we change frequency?". In 90% of cases you will be told that you should remain on frequency, in about 10% of cases ATC will tell you to change to the next sector or to UNICOM 122.800.

 

If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask. Mind you, there are a lot of threads on this forum that will probably answer the majority of your questions, so I encourage you to first search this forum for answers.

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Ed Moore
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Thanks very much. Seems my instinctive sense of guilt on leaving the frequency was correct! I’ll know for next time.

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Trevor Hannant
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Posted

Hi Ed.

 

Generally in the UK when flying IFR, a "resume own navigation" call will include the point they want you to head to to pick up your flight planned route so something like:

 

"ABC123, resume own navigation direct LISTO".

 

In this case, you'd head direct to LISTO then onwards as filed/programmed from there. If the controller hasn't given you a point to resume from, just ask - a simple request for a direct to point will suffice as they've maybe just forgotten.

 

If you were VFR and he's got you heading off in a direction for safety/separation purposes and asks you to resume, you can then simply head to where you want to head to in line with your flight plan.

Trevor Hannant

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Ed Moore
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Thanks Trevor!

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Phillip Speer
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Hello Ed,

 

Welcome to VATSIM. I was controlling East Midlands Radar last night and your flying was great. I had no idea it was your first flight on the network.

 

After departure I gave you a heading to separate you from an inbound aircraft. Once clear I issued "resume own navigation direct NANTI" ( I will apologise here for a little slip as hadn't issued the STAR and NANTI is on the STAR though was in your flight plan). Thank you for planning a KEGUN STAR given the time of day (only available after 2000 local), although in the UK you don't need to file a STAR. The next instruction was going to hand you off to unicom as there was no area controller online at the time, however I had noticed you had left the frequency but you didn't miss much.

 

Well done on your first flight and hope to see you in UK airspace in the future.

 

Phillip

VATSIM UK Divisional Instructor

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Ed Moore
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Hi Philip, thanks for taking the time to explain, appreciated. I will pretend I had definitely noticed that time restriction re the STAR as opposed to say, picking one in a hurry from

Navigraph that looked vaguely like a good fit

 

See you again soon on the network I hope.

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