Flying the Pattern and Simple VFR

[Guest markstaf]

Question 1: Is it possible to request from the tower to do touch and go's and remain in the pattern. If so, what is the exact phrase am I supposed to say.Question 2: The first two flights that I tried to fly using the VoxATC, I created them in FS9 Flight Planner. VFR from KSEE (Gillespie, San Diego), to KCRQ (Carlsbad) and KSDM (Brown Field, San Diego). On both flights, Approach took me 20-30nm out to sea before having me turn around for runway approach. I am flying a Cessna 172. I don't need that much room to approach and it took a long time. Can I just do a simple VFR flight, take off, request transition through airspace and contact the tower and request to land or do touch and gos when I get there? If so, how? What do I need to do so that approach does not take me to BFE before having me land or start heading towards my destination.I think this software is really cool and hats off to the developer for the awesome work. But it would be nice to use this software for doing simple fly around for awhile without having to submit a flight plan.

[zfehr 1]

Hi Markstaf,Let me try to answer these:>Question 1: Is it possible to request from the tower to do>touch and go's and remain in the pattern. If so, what is the>exact phrase am I supposed to say.In its present version no, I know this is something being worked on by Tegwyn and should be in the next version.>Question 2: The first two flights that I tried to fly using>the VoxATC, I created them in FS9 Flight Planner. VFR from>KSEE (Gillespie, San Diego), to KCRQ (Carlsbad) and KSDM>(Brown Field, San Diego). On both flights, Approach took me>20-30nm out to sea before having me turn around for runway>approach. I am flying a Cessna 172. I don't need that much>room to approach and it took a long time. Can I just do a>simple VFR flight, take off, request transition through>airspace and contact the tower and request to land or do touch>and gos when I get there? If so, how? What do I need to do>so that approach does not take me to BFE before having me land>or start heading towards my destination.The vectors to approach will take you out for about a 20 mile intercept course towards the landing runway, while this is good for large jets it is not realistic for smaller GA aircraft or even most of the corporate aircraft and if the terrain is high around the airport it will ultimately lead to destruction. Upon your first contact with approach you can request any of the landing options using the option menu (press the zero key not from the keypad, followed by the number corresponding to your desired landing runway and approach). If in instrument conditions ask for the full ILS or VORDME approach and you can fly the charted approach instead of following the vectors (even altitude assignments for that matter although you might get squawked at a little). If you are flying VFR you can request an approach but if you find it is taking you too far away you can just switch to the tower frequency and ask for landing instructions using the proper verbage. If you use the latter method you are on your own though as the prompter will still be stuck on the flight plan, but the program will respond properly as long as you use the right verbage. I know the next version will have a great deal of improvements for VFR flight... just don't know when we're gonna get our hands on it ;).Have fun flyin' and hope this helped out,Zane

[Guest markstaf]

Thank you Zane for the detailed response.I did try using the options menu on one of the flights but approach said "Unable to do that at this time" or something to that affect. I also tried tuning to the tower but I don't know the proper verbage and it could not understand what I was asking. Where is a good reference for proper ATC communication verbage? I just started Ground School (for real) and we have not gotten to the ATC stuff yet.Thanks again.

[zfehr 1]

The VoxATC help which you will find under the start menu in the VoxATC folder has a detailed section that goes over all of the ATC communications and proper verbage, you might want to print it out and keep it handy while you are learning how to use VoxATC. This will help you out with your real world training also.Hope this helps,Zane