In this week's episode you'll get some great info on not only cross country flying, but also flight following with air traffic control! Many pilots request flight following, but really have no idea what is provided with the service. Why do we get it? Do we really need it?? All that and more in this week's episode of Behind The Prop!
Whether you're a student entering that exciting next phase of training, a new private pilot looking to head out and explore, or a seasoned pilot who has done it for years... the guys share some great tips that will help you become a better pilot on those long cross country trips!
Clear prop! Number two following twin traffic on 3 mile final. JB using runway 25 on a 4-mile final.
This is Behind the Prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot, Bobby Doss. and it's co-host: major airline captain Designated Pilot Examiner, Wally Mulhearn. Now let's go behind the prop!
What's up Wally. Hey bobby how are you. I'm great this is another show that came through a listener. We've gotten to give away a whole lot of mugs and ship a number of mugs around the country For these great show ideas. Someone sent us an email. I think he sent to me. But you can send us both an email. If you want Bobby@behindtheprop.com or include. Wally and include Wally wally@behindtheprop.com. We'd love to hear your feedback your thoughts on Maybe how you're sharing or using the podcast and your aviation goals and careers but this at this episode is all from a customer. Not even a customer. I guess he's a listener. Who asked us to talk about. Flight following and cross-country tips tricks best practices. So we've put together a shortlist of that Wally and I both spend a lot of time at this airport. It's David Wayne hooks and the Houston area and it's class dealt. Airspace has an FAA tower. Pretty busy could have three active runways For a little municipal airport like lots could be going on water runway. That is fairly used. It's used fairly regularly a small runway by thirty-six hundred feet and then a big runway. That's about seventy-three hundred feet With lots of jet traffic so and culmination of four flight schools with quite a few freelancers is what I would. I would think out there now so lots of busy. Airports most of our students probably file flight following. If you not been around aviation a longtime you might not even know what a flight following is but it's a great tool and based on this listener request, we're gonna talk about fly following Wally. Let's I guess what are you. What are your thoughts when we first started talking about flight following well You know every every two weeks. I get my paycheck in. There's a there's a section where some money goes away and it's called federal tax so Where's that money going. What am I getting for that money. My tax money. Well one thing is we have a the the best air traffic control system in the world. I believe right here in the good old US of A and We had the ability to use that and that system You know if you're going to fly cross country flight from from wherever to wherever you have the ability to ask air traffic control for flight following and Even if you're you know your VFR pilot you are A student pilot a private pilot. That is non instrument rated. And you're gonna it's gonna feel like you are on an IFR flight plan All you need to do is coming up the controlling agency at some places you can do it right from the ground you can say you know hooks ground. I'm flying VFR from here to a little rock Arkansas. We would like VFR flight following and there brought probably gonna give you an altitude or they're gonna ask you an altitude and you tell them what altitude you're going at and They will probably come back and assigned you a squawk code and assigned you departure control frequency and Soon as you leave the delta airspace. they'll hand you off to departure control or approach control and you'll call them up and they'll basically watch you the hallway and time permitting. They'll point out traffic to you. and It's it's just a great tool you are on Somebody's radar literally on. Somebody's radar screen. They're watching you the hallway. If you were to have a problem all it is key of the microphone. Call them up and say hey were. We've experienced this problem. we're on fire. We've lost an engine or whatever and they're going to they're basically going to follow you till they lose radar contact which is going to be pretty close to the ground and if you are in dire emergency situation help is going to be on the way fairly quickly. And they're going to be a pinpoint location fairly accurately You know back in the old days we and we still cover it on on check rides. We are required to finding flight plans. How to file a flight plan VFR flight plan that is and How you open and close a flight plan and we we talk about that but the fact of the matter is most people nowadays do not file VFR flight plans and let's just take an example of a flight from say here up to little rock.
Arkansas offhand. I don't even know how far it is. But I’m going to say it's two hundred and fifty miles. Let's say it's a two-and-a-half-hour flight in a hundred-knot airplane. If I were to file VFR flight plan, I could take off from this airport. And I could Activate my flight plan and let's say Thirty minutes out. I had an emergency. And I landed on a field and crashed. Well I’m still not even doing too little rock for another two hours so Before anybody even knows that. I'm late it's going to be another two hours as I sit in that field Probably and quite honestly. I do not know what the processes with the FAA for looking for overdue airplanes but they probably give it a grace period and then they're probably going to call the little rock airport and say. Hey did this airplane. Land at your airport and They're going to say no and then they're probably going to Call the departing airport and say. Hey did this airplane depart so it could be several hours down the road before they even realize that you're missing and and start looking for you at that point and then on top of that. They don't know where you went down. They know you went down between Houston and little rock Arkansas. Two hundred and fifty miles so That's a big batch. That's a big patch a big patch and lots of lots of woods. Lots of water. Lots of places that you probably don't wanna you don't wanna be so I you know VFR flight following is a great thing the other thing it does. Is it basically gets you used to dealing with the air Traffic control system. Because they're going to hand you off from sector sector leaving here, you're gonna talk to Houston approach. And then they're probably going to hand you off to four Two Houston center. And then they're probably gonna hand you off to I'm guessing fort worth center. And then for centers probably gonna hand you off to a little rock approach to little rock tower and so forth so A couple of things first of all you you. You don't have to know any other frequencies because they're going to give it to you and but the other thing is you're you know if you plan to work towards an instrument rating you're getting used to working in the system the difference as you're going to be at altitudes plus five hundred feet and when you're flying IFR you just going to be at at Four thousand five thousand six thousand so Really not a whole lot of difference than than operating in an IFR situation as a student at the school a few years ago. We did a lot of flight. Followings working on my private cross-country stuff and my instrument rating is we would take our long cross. Countries shoot approaches a different airport and I think the the radio while they they're difficult for a lot of people and we had a good show a few weeks ago and radio. Communications go back and listen to that struggle. The radios the the radios have not been a problem for me necessarily. But I think flying with radios became a problem early on when I was new to flying and we have a really good quote unquote mission. Here where you can fly to Galveston through the I ten corridor which means you really flying right through downtown Houston and you do get handed off at least once as you make that track. So it's really good for a young pilot. Experience leaving a towered airport getting handed off to approach changing still probably either center or the west side of town and then being transition to Galveston’s tower as well so you're going to get a few switches Not a whole not too quick. They're not to back-to-back but they're probably all ten twelve minutes apart Gives you a lot of opportunity and a lot's going on there during that fly following as you said. I think as I became an instrument rated pilot, I was shocked how similar life following was to an. I am not necessarily flight plan but the experience for the pilot flying the aircraft. Obviously, you can't be in the clouds and he can't do IFR rules type things but the communication and the system's very very similar now And while while in that aircraft I’ve been given a lot of advisories which are very appreciative. That I-10 corridor pretty narrow so there's normally planes flying both directions through that corridor. There's normally helicopters the Houston police departments out there flying around in the helicopter I've had to be diverted around a blimp that was at the soccer game. One time downtown. there's some active TFRs down there occasionally because of the baseball games or the soccer games going on so lots of good experiences that you get to participate in with flight following And the radio's is something that you'll get stronger with as well if you're doing it And they might terminate radio or radar services sooner than maybe on an IFR flight plan.
But there's really no downside to requesting of a fly following when we kick the show off. You mentioned that really anybody can get. There's no special requirement to request a fly following But there are few ways you can request a flight following so we do it very often on the ground. I call to two hooks ground is hooks. Ground skyline one four nine two uniform at united. I have sierra. I'm ready to taxi. I wanna fly following to Austin executive airport. And I wanna fly over there at a certain altitude. I normally give them out to that. I wanna fly at. They read back a squawk code. Give me my departure frequency. It's very similar to an IFR flight plan. And they've they validate that the read back is correct just like you would if it was a flight plan so on the ground is one way. Some airports don't have a tower or ground frequencies but you can always request them in the air as well and normally the fastest way to do that is to find out. Who's what the what the the radio channel is for that airport To find Austin approach or like you said fort worth center whatever's probably listed there on the chart this call him up tell number. I have a request. And they'll they'll ask you what your request is and you give them where you are basically at ten miles southeast of Austin executive airport with like a fly following back to David Wayne hooks. They'll give you the squawk code very similar to a pop up IFR flight Re following requests flight plan requests But very very valuable tool. These shouldn't be intimidated by. I say this often. Atc personnel air traffic control. Personnel are service oriented. They want to help us and they want us to be safe and they want us to get to where we're going so I why you might hear of the one or two bad. Atc people out there who are probably just having a bad day in her little grumpy for the most part. Everybody I’ve ever worked with or talked to a very helpful person for me in the fight systems for sure the other the other thing that you can do is if you are working toward an instrument rating you can ask them for an instrument approach under. VFR conditions. Obviously can't file IFR but You can if you're going into, I'll just go use little rock. We're going in a little rock. You could call up little rock approach and ask them for You know if you forgot what runway. They're using. I don't even know what runways they have up there but Figure out what runway they're using and what approach will be appropriate. You got to ask him for a vector to RNAV approach or an ILS approach VOR whatever they happen to have up there and Really this smell and tastes exactly like an IFR flight plan really, He may say something to the effect of maintained VFR what you're gonna do anyway but It's just good good practice. We were talking about this recently It was a completely different topic but as applicable here. Now you know. Should you shoot an approach when it's VFR and I think we both agree that it's a great best practice as a pilot. If I’m coming into this airport there's either one end of the runway has a RNAV approach one in has a localizer approach As a pilot with four hundred hours. I'm tuned. I'm always tuned to one of those when I’m coming back here for no other reason than to keep my situational awareness extremely sharp but also kind of practicing with the tools that I would use if there was a little bit of cloud cover or a little bit of Less than vmc will call it right. Right this is a great opportunity for pilots. All alone foggles off. People fly looking out the windows but to go ahead and fly the approach with with the the right people helping you on. The radio's just let them know you're doing it as a practice and they'll they'll be happy to help you as well. Another thing that. I encourage new instrument. Pilots to do is to fly Approaches in VFR conditions the vmc. Conditions I should say And just give yourself a visual picture of what one dot off. The localizer might look like at five miles out What a dot low on the glide slope might look like it five miles out. I think I mean one of the things that I see a lot in in my opinion is over correcting and So you know if you're five miles out and you're dot off the localize. You're you're not really that far off.
Say probably looks like most approaches. Exactly you're not that far off. But what what I see Maybe younger pilots doing is way over correcting making a huge course correction or heading correction. I should say to grab that Localizer which is only a dot off. Where really it just. It's just maybe a little tap on the rudder just a little bit of turn not much turn at all so by doing these in in visual conditions I think it helps you memorize what it looks like yet definitely does build confidence for sure because that deflections nothing in the grand scheme of things right. We talked about some of the other values as if as if we were having an emergency. Obviously, they would know better where we're at I think one of the other values. They're they're constantly watching you. We know that but there are also constantly. Diverting you in diverting sounds like. They're turning me away from something but they're helping me get to the place that I’m trying to go and not. Every plane has fancy equipment so most of us are used to following a magenta line on the gps or Foreflight or something like that. But if you don't have those tools the winds could be blowing you off. Course and what I learned much later after I flew nicer aircraft and went back to older aircraft was without those magenta lines. You're flying a heading. That doesn't necessarily correlate to where you're trying to go depending on the winds and what. I was taught well real early on was there. They're correcting for win for you. So they have an idea of what the wind is. They have an idea of what your track is. And they'll tell you to turn ten degrees to the right to a heading of two seven zero maybe to stay on course or to get to your destination or for direct or they might say that for traffic but they're taking into consideration that that is with the wind correction and if you're not heading in the right direction, they're going to keep turning you can and what happens. I've seen when I’ve been safety pilot for people and they're they're assuming that that's track that's not track that's heading so whatever your DG says is what you should be flying on Based on what. They're telling you if you keep trying to correct to track, they're going to keep turning you and you're just gonna keep flying the same track so confuses the system but they are helping all along the way and they'll turn you around other aircraft and other things as well In Houston way down south. There's a set of towers. We call them the Missouri city towers. I think they're twenty-seven hundred feet in the air. Yeah, yeah, It's almost half a mile at their way up there. And there's some airspace shelves. You're worrying about as well and so they really make sure. People are aware of those towers the familiar with the area and that they're diverting them around those towers so very helpful another value to a flight following for sure. Yeah, and another thing is if you are really did get into a An emergency situation. It's again. A lot of us on the equipment we have in the airport airplane. We have a nearest But no we can push a button and it will tell us where the nearest airport is. And which again may be behind us which we talked about this on a previous episode But you know if you have a problem and you say You know Center up Cessna one-two-three. We've got a fire on board You know where is the nearest airport and With a touch of a key they'll be able to tell you Such and such an airport is eleven. O'clock seven miles. And I’ll probably even tell you it's got a forty-seven-foot-long run. you know and they can probably help you with heading right away. Yeah, yeah and they'll they'll work with you. They will definitely work with their air. Traffic controllers are adrenaline junkies. Just a little bit like pilots is so you you tell them something like that and they get pretty excited so all also far flight following. Let's talk a little bit about best practices related to cross country flying which was one of the the requests from the listeners. Well obviously, the best. The first one is if you're going to fly cross country Requests the flight following. That's a no brainer Other things that. I think I’ve gotten better at and I’m sure there's a million ideas out their cross-country tips and tricks but I. I think I understand weather so much more today than I ever did. Even as a private pilot maybe even as an early instrument rated pilot And how bad it can change from one side of a of a row to the others. We were joking about earlier. You know at some point. There's always good weather just on the other side of bad bad weather I've made unfortunately trips where I didn't do. The quite quite the right amount of weather planning where it looks beautiful here and got up in the air and flew thirty miles and kind of ran into a virtual brick wall of clouds.
That I wasn't able to go through or get through To do whatever. I was doing on that given day so weather I think is key. There are tons of tools out there and as a flight school owner I think about winds and solo. Student pilots. Twenty-four hours a day. And so I’m I’m also thinking when I’m thinking weather, I’m thinking wind. So what are the winds. Going to be at the destination where my students are going to solo Is it beyond our own company. Minimums is a be on their own personal minimum. Should they be flying that type. And what's it gonna be when they get back here Often this is southern. Texas flat hot most of the time the winds normally pick up throughout the day. Someone leaving at 10 AM and it's kind of come back at 2pm. Could be a rough rough crosswind when they get back right. And there's ways to check in and look at that forecast so I'd say whether planning all up but it's not just clouds. It's also winds precipitation. dew point spread. I think that's one that not many pilots know about right but if if the dew points spread is forecasted to come closer and closer and closer. The air's going to become saturated and then we're going to have some level of fog or some level of moisture in the air that's visible. That's probably going to be bad for a private or a student pilot right What else what would you say. from a point of cross-country best practices. We talked a little bit about checkpoints. Yeah, I would say picking checkpoints I've I’ve see so many people that will pick a checkpoint on a cross country. Because you know on a check ride, we're going to we're going to fly the first few checkpoints of your Cross country and we have a lot of Around here on the sectional. A lot of It's the way it's depicted on the section it says pumping station and I’ll ask him in the briefing room. I said well. What was the pumping station. Looks like look like and I. sometimes I’ll get why I don't know but my CFI said I’d be able to see it and say well if you don't know what it looks like are you going to know So that you know unless you're familiar with that may not be a great thing One of the things to me that that don't make good checkpoints are First of all smaller very much smaller bodies of water little ponds that may be depicted on a sectional because if it's in the middle of summer and we're having a drought that pond may not be there If we've had a lot of rain and things flooded that pond may look may look like a lake so so people like ten ponds. Yeah, yeah so. Be careful about that now. Sure the big lakes that we have around here Should be there Another thing that I believe doesn't make a very good checkpoint is Private airports they look really good on the sectional. Because there's a big circle with an RR around it and it you know usually even have a name to and you're thinking okay. This is Fred’s airport but Fred's airport is just Grass in his backyard and The lanes no lights on the runway. Right right may may be difficult to see Unless you're familiar with it if you are familiar with that particular airport and you know to look for. That's a different thing Another thing that. I see that applicants will use for checkpoints are Long things in other words power lines and railroad long road railroad tracks from a time standpoint. They they make an okay checkpoint but from an accuracy standpoint. They don't make a very good checkpoint. Because if I’m if I’m flying eastbound and I’m looking for a major highway be twenty thirty well up to eighty theoretically eighty degrees off my heading and I will eventually hit that road and but so-so intersections work better than just roads itself or railroad tracks or or Power lines or you know so look for a bend looks for something very distinct that you can find if you're gonna use something like that And you know rivers a bend in a river. usually works pretty good bit again. Be careful with rivers because sometimes they dry up and they don't look exactly look like what you think they might look like on the sectional.
What would you say towns. A good one. Yeah, it's big enough. I would say a town is is very good. Just be careful. you know. A lot of times towns are close together. And you might think that you're at town a but you're really a town be so so be careful about that and I mean there's the old the old Story about flying down low and look in the name of the town on the water tower and sometimes that works sometimes. It doesn't but if you go to this school don't do that. Yeah yeah of course. I mean sometimes the water tower. Just say go lions and you happen to know the mascot of the local high school. It may not do you any good. I think the other best practice for cross country that I don't hear enough about is having a really good back-up plan. We often a student pilot. Were so anxious. We wanna go. We're trying to find every reason to go to complete this. Cross country sang it closer to check ride and we. We know the days calm. We know the airplanes available. We wanna go and we. We don't think about coming back. What what. What do I do if I hear a little something. That's a little odd. Would've the plane's non-performing the I wanna perform. We talked a little bit about on being on one magneto. How would I address that. You know I think having a backup plan and a no-go strategy is so much more valuable to the big picture of your aviation career than just checking that one milestone off the list We say it often. But it's so true and you'll believe me when you get the four hundred plus hours. It's so much better to be down here. Wishing I was up there then being up there wishing I was down here It's a lot easier to make that no go decision than to make that. How do I get on the ground decision for sure. So so always have a backup plan. I would create multiple backup plans What would keep me from going from my first. Stop to the next stop Is it a fuel thing. Is that an alternator thing. What I’m always now trying to find a reason not to go and while it might sound counterintuitive. I think that makes me a much better safer pilot than the one person out there that might be always finding the reason why they can get off the ground and go I just don't think that's the right mindset for sure right any other cross country. Best practices are tips Wally. The us share One thing I would say When a lot of the applicants that I work with Like to plan their cross country's at at and actually fairly low altitudes hmm good point and Going up higher is not a bad thing. obviously, We've got oxygen requirements if we get a too high but You know a two and a half hour. Cross country flight Down at thirty-Five hundred feet You know if you could go up to seventy-five hundred feet and ninety-five hundred feet and and I might be something to consider I know a lot of the dual cross countries that get done around here. I mean we don't. We don't get very high. Were on an airplane. That's limited performance and a lot of times. It's hot airplane doesn't really climb so we stay down low and but why not get up to ninety-five hundred feet for for a couple of things first of all your your glide range is a lot more if you lose an engine at ninety-five hundred feet you probably have You know fifteen to twenty minutes before before you you you know land with an engine out. You got plenty of time It's cooler up there. And if you have a tailwind it's probably probably more of a talent up there so And you can see further. You can just see farther. I mean up at a higher altitude. Obviously so don't be afraid to get up there to a higher altitude. I remember when I took my first. My private checkride. The guy said something. I I. I was ignorant. I asked him if he flew GA think he said high and fast. That's that's so cool. You can fly high and fast. I'm not. I'm not high and fast guy but in essence I was. I think I was so much taught to fly at twenty-five hundred feet that I never really thought flying high was was good but now if I fly to Austin, I’m at I’m at eighty-five hundred feet all the time one for the temperature. I love being in the cooler air. But I think I understand the I understand the value of altitude so much better now than I did before all about glide ratio and getting somewhere and being able to find a better place to land so great tip obviously with that we will wrap up today's podcast. Thanks for listening. Please share the show with your friends and other aviators out there as always fly safe and stay behind the prop.
Thanks for checking out the behind. The prop podcast be sure to click. Subscribe check out online at behind the prop dot com behind the prop is recorded in Houston Texas creator and host is bobby doss co-host. Is Wally Mulhearn. The show for entertainment purposes only is not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember fly safe.