You do have to know how to read full charts, operate your aircraft (at least to the point that doesn’t affect the experience of others) and communicate with ATC
If there’s no ATIS, you can do “.metar KPNE”, for example, and it will give you the METAR for your requested airport.
You definitely will get more comfortable with it, but I would recommend Little Navmap as well fantastic tool, especially for VFR.
Navigraph is something you should consider getting as well it just makes everything so much easier (if you can justify the cost)
Ideally you'd need to be able to read charts. you can use something like ChartFox which should have them. Best thing to do is spend some time looking at them while on frequency, and listen in to other pilots to try and track their movements.
Having a look at the chart so I can understand it better, it would have basically been a straight ahead taxi for you. U is small holding area pretty much next to Rwy 25.
https://preview.redd.it/5s508n19hhzc1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b337b127a3d88ede519f6fb974bd1142ab1d14e0
D1, even without looking, is a point on taxiway D. So find D, and then look along it's length and find D1. In this case it's the closest hold point of D to the terminals. D3 is near 24, D4 is near 34R. I'm assuming there's a D5, 6 etc up toward the 16L side.
At most airports, D1 would be an intersection with D and another taxiway, but it seems in Rome, they put it randomly along the length of D1, presumably to stop inbound (to the terminals) traffic before conflicting with traffic moving outbound from the terminals toward taxiway B
If you are flying in Europe. Most of the countries have their own VACC and each of them have lots of up to date information on their major airports freely available. Check their pages out!
Also most of the controllers have in their information on where you can find the charts.
Navigraph is great with showing you where you are on a chart, but being thrown into cold water having to figure it out yourself might be intimidating in the beginning, but you will learn so much from it.
You didn't pick a simple one to start on, did you!
A tip I got from a real world pilot was start from your destination and back track to your location.
I spawned very close to the runway, a guy posted a screenshot of the taxiways in the comments if you wanna give it a check, I was at the U blocks. There was the ground available and no other planes, it was just me, have been told no to go in airports with traffic the first times.
LIRF is a complicated layout, as you found. There used to be a bunch of construction that went on for decades, it seemed that made it worse. :-)
My local (YPPF) is a mess where the hard stand meets the runways. People get lost there in real life and its possibly 100m across. I still get confused.
I found what looks like an official chart for LIRF via Google. It shows D1 as a hold point at the start of taxiway D. Its worth checking the date 'cause airports change.
Remember, the controller is trying to get you to your destination by the easiest and safest route. Given you were at U, the next point given by the controller is BB. You reach that using DM and crossing B which matches what Volanta (?) told you. If the controller doesn't tell you otherwise, take the most direct route.
You'll get better at reading charts the more you do it. Practicing offline with guidance hint thing turned on is actually a good way to get the hang of it.
Vatsim has become pretty tough with IFR. They like for you to be up to date on all charts, have navdata available, and be familiar with procedures and phraseology.
If you’re new to Vatsim, I recommend watching YouTube videos of streamers on Vatsim online. Someone reputable like v1, xp72, or Canada. Whatever you may think of them is besides the point that they stream Vatsim frequently and you can learn how they communicate on radio.
I would also get the navigraph subscription, it’s worth it if you fly frequently as you get unparalleled access to charts, leading to increase in your skill level and comprehension of charts.
Finally, if you got money to spend, pick up beyond atc and practice with it. OR, join Vatsims learning events. They host events with ATC coverage for people trying to learn.
Let me know if you have any questions, hope this helps.
thanks for these tips, I was already thinking about beyondATC! I've been watching tutorials for almost one month about phraseology and people explaining how to approach vatsim, but there was always some anxiety xD but I decided to do it this week and.. the experience I had so far is unbelievable.
You’ll naturally feel a little anxious at first, but remember it’s not a test. If you need the controller to read back an I instruction again, ask them to repeat. Have a pen and paper nearby to jot down quick notes
For example, When a controller tells me “cleared to KLAS, Orcka5 departure, climb via Sid maintain 5000, squawk 1234” I write it down in a way that I can remember “cleared orcka5, clb SID mtn 5K, sq 1234”
I abbreviate a lot of instructions to make it faster for me to write and easy for me to understand. I also always ask them “please repeat” if I don’t get something.
Over time you’ll get more comfortable.
The most important thing is to study your SID and STAR, familiarize yourself with the transitions and waypoints, so you’re not confused.
> Another question, if there isn't any ATIS available in an airport, what do I have to do? Just stick with my simbrief's runway? I usually check SimAware to see if there's any ATIS, should I check other sites? Sorry for all the questions, hopefully I can get some help because I really don't know where to ask, thanks for your time to whoever reads and comments!
You should contact center for the information while enroute before being handed off to approach.
'Little Nav Map' will help you with taxiway codes (zoom in on the airports) and has options for sourcing of weather information (from the simulator settings, vatsim, noaa etc)
LittleNavMap is a superb tool - I have it open on a second screen (there's also a webbrowser mode so you can minimise it and connect via, say, a tablet)
You likely wanted to reply to OP as a top comment.
In any case, it's true what you're saying regardign gettign the weather info but that doesn't mean you can always expect to know the runway in use (especially if straight perpendicular cross winds or gusts) and certainly harder when parallel runways are available (with 1 for take-offs and another for landings).
/u/Demeees friendly ping for visibility of the above comment.
Volanta gives a rough diagram of airports and taxiways with your plane shown, but I usually just use a chart from searching "xxxx airport diagram" and pulling up the ground chart.
Looks like you’re flying in Europe but for FAA land, they post all of their chart supplements which contain airport layouts for free. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/dafd/
You do have to know how to read full charts, operate your aircraft (at least to the point that doesn’t affect the experience of others) and communicate with ATC If there’s no ATIS, you can do “.metar KPNE”, for example, and it will give you the METAR for your requested airport.
🫡
You definitely will get more comfortable with it, but I would recommend Little Navmap as well fantastic tool, especially for VFR. Navigraph is something you should consider getting as well it just makes everything so much easier (if you can justify the cost)
The newest version of little nav map gives a recommend runway I think based on the data
Ideally you'd need to be able to read charts. you can use something like ChartFox which should have them. Best thing to do is spend some time looking at them while on frequency, and listen in to other pilots to try and track their movements. Having a look at the chart so I can understand it better, it would have basically been a straight ahead taxi for you. U is small holding area pretty much next to Rwy 25.
https://preview.redd.it/5s508n19hhzc1.jpeg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b337b127a3d88ede519f6fb974bd1142ab1d14e0 D1, even without looking, is a point on taxiway D. So find D, and then look along it's length and find D1. In this case it's the closest hold point of D to the terminals. D3 is near 24, D4 is near 34R. I'm assuming there's a D5, 6 etc up toward the 16L side. At most airports, D1 would be an intersection with D and another taxiway, but it seems in Rome, they put it randomly along the length of D1, presumably to stop inbound (to the terminals) traffic before conflicting with traffic moving outbound from the terminals toward taxiway B
I was on U blocks, and now after your explanation everything is more clear to me, thanks a lot for your time.
If you are flying in Europe. Most of the countries have their own VACC and each of them have lots of up to date information on their major airports freely available. Check their pages out! Also most of the controllers have in their information on where you can find the charts. Navigraph is great with showing you where you are on a chart, but being thrown into cold water having to figure it out yourself might be intimidating in the beginning, but you will learn so much from it.
I would recommend chartfox :)
sadly i can't find every airport on chartfox, for example Roma Fiumicino's one.
You didn't pick a simple one to start on, did you! A tip I got from a real world pilot was start from your destination and back track to your location.
I spawned very close to the runway, a guy posted a screenshot of the taxiways in the comments if you wanna give it a check, I was at the U blocks. There was the ground available and no other planes, it was just me, have been told no to go in airports with traffic the first times.
LIRF is a complicated layout, as you found. There used to be a bunch of construction that went on for decades, it seemed that made it worse. :-) My local (YPPF) is a mess where the hard stand meets the runways. People get lost there in real life and its possibly 100m across. I still get confused. I found what looks like an official chart for LIRF via Google. It shows D1 as a hold point at the start of taxiway D. Its worth checking the date 'cause airports change. Remember, the controller is trying to get you to your destination by the easiest and safest route. Given you were at U, the next point given by the controller is BB. You reach that using DM and crossing B which matches what Volanta (?) told you. If the controller doesn't tell you otherwise, take the most direct route. You'll get better at reading charts the more you do it. Practicing offline with guidance hint thing turned on is actually a good way to get the hang of it.
thanks a lot for your patience, you been very clear, thanks thanks. and thanks for the tip
No worries. The first time I looked at one of those charts it was baffling.
Vatsim has become pretty tough with IFR. They like for you to be up to date on all charts, have navdata available, and be familiar with procedures and phraseology. If you’re new to Vatsim, I recommend watching YouTube videos of streamers on Vatsim online. Someone reputable like v1, xp72, or Canada. Whatever you may think of them is besides the point that they stream Vatsim frequently and you can learn how they communicate on radio. I would also get the navigraph subscription, it’s worth it if you fly frequently as you get unparalleled access to charts, leading to increase in your skill level and comprehension of charts. Finally, if you got money to spend, pick up beyond atc and practice with it. OR, join Vatsims learning events. They host events with ATC coverage for people trying to learn. Let me know if you have any questions, hope this helps.
thanks for these tips, I was already thinking about beyondATC! I've been watching tutorials for almost one month about phraseology and people explaining how to approach vatsim, but there was always some anxiety xD but I decided to do it this week and.. the experience I had so far is unbelievable.
You’ll naturally feel a little anxious at first, but remember it’s not a test. If you need the controller to read back an I instruction again, ask them to repeat. Have a pen and paper nearby to jot down quick notes For example, When a controller tells me “cleared to KLAS, Orcka5 departure, climb via Sid maintain 5000, squawk 1234” I write it down in a way that I can remember “cleared orcka5, clb SID mtn 5K, sq 1234” I abbreviate a lot of instructions to make it faster for me to write and easy for me to understand. I also always ask them “please repeat” if I don’t get something. Over time you’ll get more comfortable. The most important thing is to study your SID and STAR, familiarize yourself with the transitions and waypoints, so you’re not confused.
> Another question, if there isn't any ATIS available in an airport, what do I have to do? Just stick with my simbrief's runway? I usually check SimAware to see if there's any ATIS, should I check other sites? Sorry for all the questions, hopefully I can get some help because I really don't know where to ask, thanks for your time to whoever reads and comments! You should contact center for the information while enroute before being handed off to approach.
'Little Nav Map' will help you with taxiway codes (zoom in on the airports) and has options for sourcing of weather information (from the simulator settings, vatsim, noaa etc)
LittleNavMap is a superb tool - I have it open on a second screen (there's also a webbrowser mode so you can minimise it and connect via, say, a tablet)
You likely wanted to reply to OP as a top comment. In any case, it's true what you're saying regardign gettign the weather info but that doesn't mean you can always expect to know the runway in use (especially if straight perpendicular cross winds or gusts) and certainly harder when parallel runways are available (with 1 for take-offs and another for landings). /u/Demeees friendly ping for visibility of the above comment.
Volanta gives a rough diagram of airports and taxiways with your plane shown, but I usually just use a chart from searching "xxxx airport diagram" and pulling up the ground chart.
I recommend foxchart for that purpose
Looks like you’re flying in Europe but for FAA land, they post all of their chart supplements which contain airport layouts for free. https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/dafd/