Wish I had the confidence to fly VFR

[John McMurdo]

When I started simming,  I would always just fly VFR in my little cessna- I put off learning how to use nav aids and GPS and compile IFR plans until later, since it all seemed a bit daunting at the time. After watching a few video tutorials though,  I realised it was not that daunting at all and soon picked it up.  I never trusted my own navigation skills to fly VFR on VATSIM,  I always relied on the FMC to do the work for me.  I have often made it from EGSS to EGSU just following the M11 motorway north,  an easy enough route,  but I still don't have the confidence to fly the route online for fear of getting lost.  On a couple of occasions I did try flying further north,  I ended up deviating from my planned route a little, but eventually made it to Brough by just heading north where I decided to land.  I usually get to where I want to go,  but not always via the planned route.

[Alistair Thomson]

5 hours ago, John McMurdo said:

just following the M11 motorway north

There are official VFR routes (eg VFR% entry-exit lanes to a control zone) which follow roads! And some VFR pilots like to say they fly IFR - I Follow Roads! :)

[Andrew McCabe]

Have you ever considered signing up with one of the approved training organisations on Vatsim and doing your P1 ?   The P1 covers most aspects of the RW PPL including flight planning and navigation .

[John McMurdo]

1 hour ago, Andrew McCabe said:

Have you ever considered signing up with one of the approved training organisations on Vatsim and doing your P1 ?   The P1 covers most aspects of the RW PPL including flight planning and navigation .

Yes,  I really wanted to do my P1 but since I run Linux and the software required for doing practicals is only available for windows I am unable.  I tried to get it to run in wine but I have never got wine to work reliably with any windows software.

[Andrew McCabe]

Ahh, that is a bind.  I assume it's the shared cockpit software that's the issue ? Have you tried reaching out to any of the developers of the shared cockpit software to see if they can help ?  

[John McMurdo]

10 minutes ago, Andrew McCabe said:

Ahh, that is a bind.  I assume it's the shared cockpit software that's the issue ? Have you tried reaching out to any of the developers of the shared cockpit software to see if they can help ?  

I think the software is called smartcars and as I understand it is a kind of logging program which records data about ones flight, and it is from that data that one is marked as a pass or fail.  I have not reached out to the developers,  I did make a post on the VATSIM UK forum on the subject but no one had any answers.

Edited April 28, 2022 at 12:24 PM by John McMurdo

[Magnus Meese]

UK oriented:

In a nutshell, stay outside controlled airspace until cleared in (when ATC online), it is your responsibility to obtain clearance, don't wait for a contact me. Remember airports may have a controlled ATZ in class G which is just silly but these also requires clearance (or if AFIS like Duxford, two-way radio comms established). Use chartfox.org for detailed VFR charts for licensed aerodromes, tools like littlenavmap (free) and SkyDemon (payware) will give you an EFB with live navigation making it easier to navigate all types of airspaces both enroute and on departure and arrival.

Look out for and avoid other traffic both inside and outside controlled airspace, you will be given traffic info but are expected to not bump into them by flying your aircraft in a safe manner to avoid them. You might be given more restrictive instructions against IFR traffic, and while separation between IFR and VFR is not required in class D airspace we still want to provide IFR traffic with a bit of a buffer against VFRs for convenience. Instructions like "remain N/E/S/W of point/airport/centerline" is often used, as an example. If you hear the words "Avoiding action", follow the instruction immediately with your eyes peeled outside, someone is about to smack into you.

Remain clear of cloud, obstacles, and terrain.

You can navigate however you like. Paper map and pen, in-sim GPS, external tools like littlenavmap, IFR tools like navaids and fixes, or by local knowledge alone if you know the area well. The "visual" requirement is in avoiding traffic and terrain, how you ensure you get from A to B without infringing airspaces is you own business. If you plan to cross controlled airspace enroute, plan a backup route around in case it is very busy.

If you are getting a service from ATC, follow instructions no matter the airspace. They are for your safety as well as everyone else. If unable, say so, maybe offer a why or an alternate but it's key to never accept anything you cannot do, just like in IFR.

Found this after a quick web search. Only spent a minute jumping through this video so don't hold any inaccuracies against me, but it seems like he's doing a good job of tutorialising VFR in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwE3vRSsi5Y