Traffic Pattern Entry (Uncontrolled Airport) Tutorial - VFR (MSFS)

[petethecatable]

outstanding tutorial, clear and correct.

[pignouffle]

Alpha Juliett OCTOBER!!! haha :)

[FSX404]

@pignouffle

October, Oscar, OhmyGodImabbouttocrash....same thing, LOL

[playasonline]

Hey I'm a little confused here. After you flew over the field why did you make a right turn instead of a 90d left turn to join the downwind leg?

[FSX404]

@playasonline

Yep it is a right 270 degree turn,

You can make a left 90 degree turn, but you'll bee 500 feet too high, and you'll be at the threshold before you know it, you have about 2 seconds to do the landing checklist, and not to mention if there is other traffic you'll cause havoc, so unless you are very skilled, have experience and there is no other traffic, a 270 deg turn is recommended, if you are a student pilot it is mandatory.

[Hyesufu]

Your tutorials and videos r the best.. But was your plane tail about to touch ground too during that landing? Lol..

[FSX404]

@Hyesufu

Looks like it, it was a pretty nose high attitude touchdown, but then again even in real life I tend to have a nose high attitude a lot of the times (not as high as this though). I really bleed that airspeed out.

Never had a tail strike though, but that is something to keep in mind especially if you have passengers in the back, because the center of gravity shift with rear passengers.

[zuludelta100]

Great tutorial although how do I know I am 45 degrees when entering or is it by sight?

[FSX404]

@zuludelta100

You know by experience, VFR flying is not "exact science " flying. You're not going to get it 100% all the time, but you adjust as you go. That is why private pilots will have done over 100 landings during their training before getting their PPL.

[zuludelta100]

@FSX404

Thanks for your quick response, you are the best tutor on you tube by far, all the best with these tutorials and thanks for the effort you put in to help enthusiasts like me.

[Rynardts]

You are the man!

[Wookierabbit]

Bravo. Best MSFS tutorial I have thus seen on Youtube.

[FSX404]

Thanks

[KaboomTube]

What is the general rule for the distance away from the airport the TP has to be? 1NM, 10 NM... ?

[FSX404]

There is no exact set distance, for smller planes it is around 1/2 mile, foe a C-152, 172, 182 etc, your wing strud should be bisected in half by the runway, for twin airplanes and little larger planes its a little more (they usually have a TPA of 1500 feet AGL too, although this depends upon the airport).

Usually, as you turn from upwind leg on to crosswind, you should level the wings just so you can make sure the downwind is clear and then roll right into the turn on to downind.

[FSX404]

Although this is the general rule, there are airports with unconventional traffic patterns. Before you lan at an airport you are supposed to be falmiliar with all the airports procedures. I go into looking this up a little bit in my standard traffic pattern tutorial.

For US airports you can go to:

skyvector . com

and find all the information you would need.

I hope this helped.

[KaboomTube]

@FSX404 Hey thanks a lot! I've been struggling with VFR for a while now (mostly due to the fact that looking at stuff in the simulator isnt very multi-tasking productive, when in real life you can turn your head, and because my laptop runs FSX sort of slow). My biggest VFR issue now is: How far away from the runway (in a traffic pattern) to start the final leg? The 45 degree angle works for small slow planes, but I'm flying a 200 KTS Mooney Bravo, and 45 degrees doesn't work out too well.

[FSX404]

For the traffic pattern slow the Mooney down to 100 kts, fly the base at 90 and the final at 80 kts. That should work out pretty nice. For airspeed control in slow flight use your pitch, and use your power to adjust your rate of decent. I could probably fly a pattern in a Mooney in the next hour and post it just for you if you wish to see it.

[chtomek]

The introduction is perfect as much as needed. No longer than a couple of days ago I discovered that great website with sectional charts now I see it here as well :)

1. can we read from airport esentials traffic pattern speed?

2. which part of down wind leg should I aim when entering TP, somewhere in the middle?

Thanks, as always great stuff :)

[FSX404]

There are no assigned traffic airspeeds, the speed of 85-95 kts is only a recommndation for a C-172, because you are in a vicinity where other aircraft may be. This gives you enough time to do the proper pre-landing procedure (GUMPS) and get set for the final decent.

However, there are other speeds to be concerned about, under 10,000 feet you can go no faster than 250 kts, or if within 30 n-miles of class B it is 200 kts.

There are exceptions for these speeds.

[FSX404]

Exeption being if your minimum safe airspeed in your airplane is above 200 or 250, you are allowed to go faster, but remain at your airplanes minimun safe airspeed.

As far as where you aim for, you always want to enter the downwind on a 45 degree angle. Usually you fly 45 degrees to the middle of where the center of the runway is. I hope this makes sense, I think the graphics I put up are just about accurate.

[FSX404]

I'll try to put up a pattern entry for a controlled airport, they actually have "visual entry points", or tower checkpoints, where you have to be prior to entering a pattern, unless otherwise specified by the ATC.

These point are usually shown on a standard VFR chart.

Contact me if you want more precise instructions, because I understand that a picture (or diagram) is worth a thousand words.

[FSX404]

G - Gas (fuel selector valve on both)

U - Undercarriage (Landing Gear Down)

M - Mixture (Full Rich)

P - Power Setting (throttle for 85-95 kts)

S - Seatbelts On

[chtomek]

Thanks a lot for all your comments, for now these instrucions are just enough. I look forward to see patter entry for controlled air port.

[FSX404]

I hope it helped you out, I was worried the intro might be too long, but it really was essential to the type of flight I did.

There really was no way around it.

[CoenTunnel]

nice video....

looking forward to another one

thanks