If you get a "Traffic Alert", then this means that something is very close. I had a "Traffic Alert, traffic less than quater of a mile same altitude, manouvring" once, which scared the sh*t out of me. Saw this Cessna coming straight for me off my left, and he obviously hadn't seen me either. Still made for a great 'Vomit Comit' experience.
As mentioned before if under VFR FF the controllers may suggest stuff, like "VFR decent approved" or they might not. If not, and you want to start your descent [for example], just tell them "Socal NXXXX starting VFR descent" or something.
Finally, if you're taking off from a Class C airport [Santa Barbara / John Wayne spring to mind] you need to get ATC clearance before entering the Class C airspace. This is accomplished on the ground by talking to ground / clearance delivery, and requesting "Class C services" or "VFR flight following" before you take off..."Ground NXXXX at transient parking request taxy to 19R and VFR flight follwing to Fullerton" for example. Ground or CD will issue the sqwark and departure frequence while on the tarmac, and any other pertinent clearance info such as "After take off turn left to 170°". What happens now is that you line up and take off, when safe turn onto your assigned heading or whatever, then the tower will tell you to "contact departure", so you change freq to the one they gave you on the ground.....similar to flying in Class D in the UK..... When you get a "resume own navigation" from ATC this means you're free to resume your own navigation to the destination, make heading changes etc. Until that time you'd fly your last assigned clearance [if they gave you one in the first place].
Seems daunting but in reality it is very easy, and its a pleasure flying in the US.....Oh yea, and if you go to Palm Springs, they have free mouth wash in the toilets !
Cheers
EA
