Flight simulator - Contacting the airport

Author

Contacting the airport

Cannoncocker1ea

2005-01-30, 10:05 pm

Flying VFR, is there a way to contact the tower without waiting for the airport
to show up on the "Select an airport from the following list."

I have the tower's frequency (from Map View), key it in but hear nothing and
can't radio my landing intention until it shows up on the list.

For example, I can tune into DFW's ATIS 100 miles out and know that I'll be
landing either going north or south, and adjust for that. But they are landing
four ILS runways, and I don't know to which I'll be directed to until I can
contact the tower via the list.

It gets a little frustrating going through the "Airports closer to you" and
"Airports farther from you" crap until DFW pops up on the list. I know where I
want to go.

I'm probably just missing something.

Thanks

Cannon

Jarod (the puppy)

2005-01-31, 3:59 am

"C" == "Cannoncocker1ea" writes:

C> Flying VFR, is there a way to contact the tower without waiting
C> for the airport to show up on the "Select an airport from the
C> following list."
C>
C> I have the tower's frequency (from Map View), key it in but hear
C> nothing and can't radio my landing intention until it shows up on
C> the list.
C>
C> For example, I can tune into DFW's ATIS 100 miles out and know
C> that I'll be landing either going north or south, and adjust for
C> that. But they are landing four ILS runways, and I don't know to
C> which I'll be directed to until I can contact the tower via the
C> list.
C>
C> It gets a little frustrating going through the "Airports closer to
C> you" and "Airports farther from you" crap until DFW pops up on the
C> list. I know where I want to go.
C>
C> I'm probably just missing something.

Nah.

Not really. ;-)

The "mechanics" of contacting the tower is as you discribed.

But what you can do is set the airport's tower frequency on COM-2 and
press the RX-BOTH button.

(I'm saying Com-2 with the understanding you are using Com-1)

You can't talk to them because of the way the ATC works.

But things like ATIS, etc, how I discribed it works.

Oh, the distance from the ATIS is also a factor. You can't hear
"station-x's" ATIS from 100 miles. You have to be within
"reasonable" distance.

But the exact meaning of "reasonable" is a bit beyond me.

I would guess big airport ATIS have a longer range than regional
airports.

--
========
Thanks.....

Jarod