Do commercial airline pilots fly IFR or VFR, also do they use SIDS/STARS for landing procedures?STEVE

Commercial airline pilots fly as they are told to.Most commonly airline operations will require pilots to fly through Class A airspace, thus requiring an IFR flight plan for at least that section of the flight. You can depart VFR, call for an IFR clearance once airborne approaching the class A bounderary and you can also depart IFR and cancel IFR when clear of the last class A airspace. all this does hold with it the weather should be VFR permitting, thus VMC. I heard some pilots do cancel IFR sometimes, but I'd say 99% of commercial AIRLINE operations are done IFR.Cheers

When approaching a runway that is only capable of a VFR landing, im not so good at landing, i always end up approaching at the slightest of angle thus coming off the runway on touch down at some point, is there no way of lining up the aircraft as it does automatically using an ILS landing?STEVE

ne1?

The only way, to handfly and get right on the centerline is to practice, and make sure you practice crosswind crab approaches. Bob K.

The flight dynamics are so true to the real aircraft (in my view) that it is almost required to have rudder peddals to fly a cross wind approach.

I thought airlines operating under part 121 (the part which airliners operate in) couldn't be VFR?

Actually, they can be whatever their ops specs allow. Many commuters will do VFR.

Loganair (British Airways company) used to and still maybe do operate some flights VFR.

I know that only some smaller planes have done VFR passenger carry flights, planes are then something like Twin Otter or Islander. I have never heard somebody flying VFR with a 737 :-)

I imagine it's hard to see the little town and the railraod intersecting from the west at 35,000 feet in a 737.

I'm not so sure SIDS or STARS are used very much. Most of the listening I do here in Phoenix (KPHX) the controllers give specific turns, headings and speed directions which don't seem to coincide with what I see published in the U.S. Terminal Procedures book. Of course I may be way off, but it also might depend on the flight plan and traffic conditions.Perhaps someone who knows for sure can comment?

I would fly IFR in FS if the default flight rules were much more realistic. In real life, you probably won't have as much trouble as the FS one and the won't circle you around the whole airport tons of times without clearing you to land. I only use VFR in FS because the IFR in FS is poorly done.Nick B.Continental Airlines 737NG Pilothttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg--AMD Athlon XP 3200+ @ 2.2 Ghz (Equal to 2.8 ghz)400W Power supply3x 80 mm Case FansSoyo VIA KT600 Dragon PlusnVidia GeForce FX 5200 128 mb2 x 512 PC400100 GB Western DigitalMicrosoft Sidewinder Precision 2

Some SIDs are vector departures where the departure controller will give you vectors to your first waypoint to clear any conflicting traffic. Some SIDs are pilot nav, and if conditions permit the controller may not need to contact you at all for vectors. It all depends on what is filed, current traffic conditions, etc., etc. Most ATC utilize a STAR as long as they can, but once you have all those aircraft stacked in the terminal approach area, all bets are off. They'll vector you, slow you down or speed you up, or descend you as necessary to keep you separated from traffic. Even though you have filed a STAR, there's no 100% garauntee that you'll be flying it all the way through to the last waypoint. ATC has the last call on that. I was on a NWA flight from KIND-KMSP one day a few years ago. I checked before I left for the airport to see our routing, IND..BVT..BAE.EAU6.KMSP. Once in the air I noticed we didn't make that turn towards Chicago, and we certainly didn't overfly it on our way to the Badger VOR near Milwaukee. I asked the pilot later why we didn't pass over Chicago and he told me we simply got direct straight to Minneapolis once we were airborne and with Chicago Center, didn't fly a STAR either. This was more of a convenience thing though, as we were about 30 minutes late out of IND and it got us there right on time instead of having to take the northerly track that was filed.

Isn't commuter operations under Part 135, not 121? My understanding is that those small commuter planes under VFR might be operating under 135....those airline operations under 121 I don't think are aloud to be under IFR. Again, my take on the situation.