PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Flying in the USA?
View Single Post
Old 12th October 2008 | 20:03
  #12 (permalink)  
Contacttower
Fly Conventional Gear
 
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,600
Likes: 0
From: Winchester
I'll have a go expanding a little on what has already been written....

RT:

Quite fast paced in Florida with Orlando and Daytona Beach frequencies often being almost constant talk with a huge variation in the standard of RT and basic English which can be quite frustrating sometimes.

There is no concept of QFE just the "altimeter setting" for each airport in inches of mercury (29.92 is standard and equals 1013 millibars) which gives height above mean sea level. No flight levels until 18,000ft so one doesn't have to worry about transition layers/levels etc.

'Flight following' which is generally given by approach and center frequencies to aircraft enroute is roughly equivalent to the UK radar information service. With traffic information as well as information pertinent to the safe conduct of flight being provided.

There isn't really an equivalent to A/G or AFIS frequencies; airports are either controlled or have CTAF (common traffic advisory frequency) on which aircraft simply transmit their intentions to each other with no ground station being involved. Those airports that are controlled though usually have a full complement of frequencies ie ATIS, ground and tower and those in class C or B airspace will have their own approach frequency as well.

It's a common practice to add the type of aircraft to your tail number (registration) so if you are a PA28-161 and have N81344 as a tail number for example you would call up as "Warrior 81344" and once the controller has shortened the callsign it would be "Warrior 344" (drop the first two digits).

To be honest I'm not really a fan of Florida RT; there are an awful lot of aircraft over that state and often it seems the controllers are completely run off their feet. Radio discipline is quite sloppy and the American pilots seem to have the bizarre habit of suffixing their calls with "sir" instead of their callsign.


Airspace:

In Florida and in fact most of the US everywhere is class E above 1200ft AGL which means VFR traffic and IFR traffic mix quite a lot. Because of this it is recommended to always be in contact with ATC and above 3000ft one should always fly the correct semi circular altitude for track. IFR traffic must be on a flight plan or pop up clearance and be in contact with ATC at all times.

Uncontrolled airports are class G up to 700ft AGL (above that airspace is class E again). They don't have ATZs as such but the area of class G around them (usually with a radius of 6NM) could be considered as being roughly equivalent to an ATZ.

The next level up is the class D airport; the airspace is usually arranged as a circle of about 5NM radius around the main runway up to about 2500ft (although often lower if there is a higher class of airspace above).

Then there is class C around busier airports which usually consists of an inner ring of 5NM from the surface up to 4000ft and an outer ring extending to 10NM from 1200ft to 4000ft. The rules of transiting class D and C are essentially the same....in order to enter you just need to have established two way communication; no clearance as such is issued (although ATC may tell you to keep to clear of airspace if its very busy).

Class B which around major airports like Orlando International, Miami, Tampa etc is essentially the same rules as D in the UK.


Weather:

As several have already commented is covered by phoning 1-800 WX BRIEF before flying. The the 'briefer' as the operator is called is able to provide all weather and NOTAMs as well as file both VFR and IFR flight plans.

There is also the national weather website which has most weather info on it AWC - Aviation Weather Center.

Enroute one can contact local Flight Service Stations which again can provide most weather. There is also 'Flight Watch' (which is available in theory at least everywhere in the USA on 122.0MHz) and 'Hazardous Weather Information' (often transmitted on various VOR frequencies) which again are there to provide weather information (and collect it from aircraft in the case of Flight Watch) to enroute aircraft.


Not a huge amount to say about the other three points....all airports worth visiting have a FBO (fixed base operator) which will provide fuel, computer, phone, lounge and snacks.

No PPR as such so as long as an airport isn't notamed as being shut one can assume it is open.

No landing fees except Miami International which I think has a seasonal landing fee.

Last edited by Contacttower; 13th October 2008 at 12:38.
Contacttower is offline  
Reply