Recommended/Supported Training Areas ?

[ebouchard566]

Are there any recommended training areas advertised and "supported" by PilotEdge staff and regurlaly used by other pilots ?

I would like to simulate coming in and out (and using) training areas to enhanced all the flight exercises.

[Keith Smith]

In the real world, training areas are heavily used for practice of basic maneuvers.

Most people (for better or worse) are not using sims to practice steep turns, slow flight, etc (I actually think there's value in doing them in the sim, but the prevailing thinking is that the sim isn't useful for any skills that are focused on flight control manipulation because of the difference in control loads between sims and real aircraft).

For that reason, training areas tend to get no traffic on PE. People are here to practice everything except air work, by and large. So, you'll find people in the pattern, doing XC flights, IFR flights, etc, but very few ppl in a training area.

Training areas usually have a self-announce frequency, they are NOT managed by ATC. So, when you ask if there is an area "supported" by PilotEdge ATC, I'm not sure what that would entail. It's "supported' in the sense that the discrete radio freq associated with that area will work....but that is because we have modeled aircraft-to-aircraft VHF/UHF comms, not because we specifically added anything for the training areas themselves.

[Scott Medeiros]

Here is a document http://scauwg.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... asEd64.pdf highlighting the practice areas in the SOCAL area. As Keith stated, each practice area has it's own discrete VHF frequency, so check your current sectional for the most up to date information.

I do see benefits of practicing maneuvers in the sim. For example, you can crank up the simulator winds and practice ground reference maneuvers. The affects of the wind speed and direction on your aircraft are the same as real life. However, as Keith pointed out, the manipulation maneuvers such as stalls and slow flight don't really correlate to the real thing.

You can choose any training area you'd like of course, but while controlling I've had aircraft head to the El Toro, Blockhouse, and/or John Wayne training areas. Although the chances of actually meeting someone there is slim due to the reasons stated by Keith.

UPDATE: Current PDF http://scauwg.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... -15-19.pdf of training areas from the SOCAL Airspace Users Working Group's website. I feel the first link has more info, but this one is most current.

[RogerW]

Interesting reading. Didn't know documents like that even existed.
Some of it sounded kinda scary actually

[ebouchard566]

Here is a document http://scauwg.org/wp-content/uploads/20 ... asEd64.pdf highlighting the practice areas in the SOCAL area. As Keith stated, each practice area has it's own discrete VHF frequency, so check your current sectional for the most up to date information...

Thanks Scott for you reply. This is very good information. I generally agree with what Keith is saying. Especially about the "flight control manipulation" part. I guess the purpose of my post would be to encourage vPilots (like myself) with PilotEdge to fly in a same area and train on radio communications with a view to deconflict airspace usage without ATC (but between pilots). As a brand new PPL pilot (I still consider myself a student-pilot), I sometimes still find intimidating to fly to a training area where there are several other student pilots training in there. That forces me to constantly look around, listen to the radio and enforce situational awareness while training on flying skills like "flight control manipulation" but more importantly, procedures. I seriously think there would be great value if PilotEdge would somehow "create the opportunities" to do just that. Training on all the matters I just mentioned at once in easy (or easier), all of them at the same time is another ball game.

Another thing to consider is that working in a training area is more than stalls and slow fight which is not that "real" in a simulator. I see a great opportunity to PilotEdge and the simulators to promote "procedural" training in training areas like precautionary & forced landings and diversions which all involved a lot of radio communications. That being said, I'd recommend to foresee how PilotEdge could promote "active" training areas in a similar way it is done with "Focus fields".