OnCourse Software

I don't fly VFR very often, but thought I'd sort of got the hang of it nevertheless (I usually choose the 'free flight' option). But once I get the 'radio service terminated' message, I always have trouble getting back in touch with ATC. My usual procedure (bit lazy perhaps, but the PF3 manual (yes, I did read the VFR section before coming here ) does allow for this - "... at this point you can either continue your flight without further ATC contact until you arrive at your destination") is to tune to my destination airport ground or tower frequency and contact them once I have landed (is there a better option?). But there's never any response. I guess I must be hitting the wrong hotkey (the same as I would use at departure)?

I should add that I fly in VR (Oculus headset) and some aircraft are anything but user-friendly when it comes to tuning the radios - can be very frustrating - so in VFR I try to have as few manual frequency changes as possible.

That said, how do I contact ground or tower after landing? (My usual IFR flights are fine of course, as the VCP does the tuning). Do I have to reinitiate a radio service?

Thanks, as ever. (The log will show what I did, or tried to do)

Perhaps you didn't read down enough ?

Quote:

If you don't know the frequency to tune to
simply tune to the default FSS frequency of 122.20 and hit Hotkey #5 to
request it. Then you can tune to it and make contact with the local Radar
Control. You'll remain with that Radar Control whilst you remain in their area,
but once you fly beyond that they will terminate their service in the same way
as Departure did and again it will be up to you what you do at that point.
When you get close to your destination you have a couple of options.

If you're already in touch with Radar Control then you simply have to hit Hotkey #1
which will trigger a handoff to Approach. If you're not currently tuned to
Radar Control then you can follow the instructions mentioned earlier to obtain
the correct frequency. In both cases you can also choose to tune directly to
Approach and contact them to advise of your landing intentions.

Yes, I did read that, I read the whole section on VFR. More than once. Sorry Dave, not sure what that part of text is supposed to explain about my 'problem': I know the frequencies I need to tune to, the arrival airport ground (or tower) frequency, but there's no ATC response on those frequencies after I land.

Do you perhaps mean that for some reason in PF3 I cannot contact ground or tower at all, even on the ground, without having contacted approach first? The user manual says "... at this point you can either continue your flight without further ATC contact until you arrive at your destination", so I don't interpret it that way.

martinlest wrote: *

Fri Feb 16, 2024 5:59 pm

That said, how do I contact ground or tower after landing?

You should contact Approach when you near the destination airport, whether or not you have been getting enroute flight-following services. Once you are in contact with Approach, you will be asked to report when you have the airport in sight (Hotkey 8). When you report the field in sight, if the airport is controlled, you will be handed to Tower (VCP should tune the frequency) and Tower will tell you to report entering the pattern for the active runway (Hotkeys 2, 3, 4). After landing you will be told to contact Ground.

If the destination airport is uncontrolled, when you report the field in sight, Approach will terminate services and tell you to switch to advisory frequency (i.e., Unicom). In PF3 the use of an advisory frequency is optional. You can simply land on the runway of your choice and taxi at your discretion, or you can look up the Unicom frequency for the airport and manually tune it and use the hotkeys to announce your intentions to local traffic.

Thank you very much Dan for that clarification. I am going to copy and paste it into my procedure guide.

martinlest wrote: *

Fri Feb 16, 2024 11:26 pm

Thank you very much Dan for that clarification. I am going to copy and paste it into my procedure guide.

And I'll update the User Guide to remove any ambiguity