How far is your practice area ....

~10 miles... Just NW of Krum, TX.

Whatcha trying to find out?
 
When I was training it was about 10 miles away. In fact pretty close to being over my house!
 
AggieMike88 said:
~10 miles... Just NW of Krum, TX.

Whatcha trying to find out?
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~~~~~~. Well, the area that we've been using here at alpine is about 13-15 miles and I was wondering if that seemed too far. There is another area that's closer but much more constrained by ridges/mountains.
 
I flew 20nm to the practice area. 10nm to an airport where I could practice take-offs/landings (to appease the home drome neighbors).

It seems far now. But didn't then, when flying was new and stressful and everything seemed to happen so fast. In fact, I think I enjoyed having the "break" from maneuvers to sort out things like pattern entry and situational awareness at the landing airport. Similarly, to get set up for pattern work at the towered airport 10nm away.

That same practice area is 7nm from my current base and it seems much too far!
 
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Where I used to fly in PA, it was about 7-10 miles away. Kind of outlined by some mountain ridges in Altoona PA (AOO).

When I was doing some multi-engine training down in Texas out of GKY, we flew maybe 25-30 miles south to get away from the DFW Bravo area.
 
GKY? There is a pilot here that got his multi there. He joked that it was so busy/crazy there that some of the students said that stood for "go kill yourself". I've only flown into Meacham and Addison so I'm not real familiar with the other airports in DFW.
 
20 miles north or south, but the south has higher terrain, hundreds of very large wind turbines and a bunch of 1000' radio towers so we usually go north.
 
eMKay said:
20 miles north or south, but the south has higher terrain, hundreds of very large wind turbines and a bunch of 1000' radio towers so we usually go north.
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~~~~~~. Yeah, north sounds friendlier
 
Jeanie said:
GKY? There is a pilot here that got his multi there. He joked that it was so busy/crazy there that some of the students said that stood for "go kill yourself". I've only flown into Meacham and Addison so I'm not real familiar with the other airports in DFW.
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I honestly hated it there. Skymates and ATP are two "big" schools there. and Skymates planes are horribly maintained. After having to cancel 3 flights in a row due to mechanical issues, I no longer felt safe and no longer trusted them.

Their idea of safe was very complacent and not my idea. I've had a tire blow out on me in a friends plane very shortly after touch down, and it wasnt fun. I kept on the runway and all, but still. One day I was at Skymates inspecting a plane, and I was NOT happy with the way the tires looked. One tire looked brand new, and the other looked like it was about to blow. The tire that DID blow out on me looked better than this tire did. (And it was a soft touch down). I am only assuming the other tire blew out... Why would you replace one and not both when it is in that condition? I went in to complain about it, and there wasnt a mechanic on duty to replace it, and they told me "Just go. It'll be fine. the instructors have been flying on it like that all day" That was enough for me. I don't remember what I said, but it wasnt friendly. Just becuase it was fine before doesnt mean it will be fine for me.


It was crazy busy there.

Most of them seemed to be foreign students that could barely speak english. Some of them only understood aviation terms. They knew "cleared to land" or "left closed traffic" or something, but if you asked them to do something with plain english, they wouldnt listen because they didnt understand. An example being, A Tower Operator asking them to do a 360 on downwind for spacing. The tower guy ended up having to work with everyone else because this foreign student couldnt understand english.

But long story short, I got my multi in a Seminole with Skymates and really havent been back.
 
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Yep, that's pretty much what Cade said. Scary.
But he went to ATP. Got finished in something like 5.6 hrs. Doesn't seem enough to really get it but I don't nuthin about multi engine training except that at this DA here no one would want to do the engine out exercises.
 
Jeanie said:
Yep, that's pretty much what Cade said. Scary.
But he went to ATP. Got finished in something like 5.6 hrs. Doesn't seem enough to really get it but I don't nuthin about multi engine training except that at this DA here no one would want to do the engine out exercises.
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I passed my Multi checkride with exactly 6 hours. No way do I feel safe and competent to just go out solo, but, I have it... When I can afford multi-time again, i'm definitely going to go with an instructor for a while.
 
Jeanie said:
~~~~~~. Well, the area that we've been using here at alpine is about 13-15 miles and I was wondering if that seemed too far. There is another area that's closer but much more constrained by ridges/mountains.
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I like to be at least that (13-15 miles) away from KBED... just keeps me away from arriving/departing traffic.
 
Airwork I'll do as close as 5-7 miles to the southwest. The ground reference area is closer to 18-20 miles. Actually, I am trying to mix things up more and more, and work with scenario stuff, so it's not 100% predictable. Also, a good stretch of 15-20 miles is good to help the student with fundamentals like straight and level. It's surprising how many students I've seen with 20+ hours are still really not that good at the basics. Make 'em hold their altitudes and headings as tight as possible.

Ryan
 
Wherever I want it to be. Gets rural in a hurry to the S and E of the airport.
 
6 to 10 south of the airport over Plymouth harbor and Plymouth Nuclear. It also makes it about 6 miles east of Plymouth Airport. There's a number of good reference points (the plant being one of them).
 
I fly about 30 miles northwest to get out of the MOAs so I can have the peace of mind knowing I won't end up accenting the front of a C5
 
If you stay low enough (but still high enough), you can be pretty close. I think at KAEG, our practice area was about 10 to the west. At KABQ, it was like 15 to the south. Here at KEXX, it seems to be pretty much "away from the airport."
 
Not too far away, but two flights ago my instructor had me do them OVER the airport (stalls, manuevers). I'm not sure why, my guess is to save time?

Normally we fly a while, if only to climb to about 3000' which takes forever in a 152 with lots of fuel on a hot day at cruise climb. But I'd say we're to our practice area in less than ten minutes, so not that bad. It has awesome reference points as well, three different peaks / mountain ranges.
 
Where I learned to fly (KHRO, Harrison, AR) it was 7 to 10 miles SE because that was the only relative flat, rural land in the area that afforded opportunities for a safe off-field landing should one experience an engine failure or other emergency.
 
Kimberly - were you out yesterday about noon in the 152?
I think we were coming down the taxiway when you were heading out.
N79021
 
Practice area for PPL training? Right outside the Class D to the South.
 
patrick wentworth said:
Kimberly - were you out yesterday about noon in the 152?
I think we were coming down the taxiway when you were heading out.
N79021
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You're in Santa Rosa? Yay more CA pilots.

I don't think I was there at that specific time though:

Did you see me (on the ground / preflight / gas) or hear me on the CTAF? Or both? If you are speaking of Saturday, I had a dual flight but not until 4:30pm and we flew Petaluma Airport to Healdsburg Airport to Santa Rosa Airport to Petaluma Airport. Sunday, I had a solo flight around 10:00am and stayed in the pattern for an hour doing shorts and softs.
 
Hi Jeannie. I go west of the airport about 10-15 miles. Memphis Class B is east, and the airport has an ILS from the north and VOR from the northwest and I don't want to worry about people practicing instrument approaches.
 
I head south of my current patch -- far enough away from any practice approach routes into KLNS.

In fact I think that's the key to finding relatively quiet airspace -- away from VORs and off approach and vectoring routes to busier airports.
 
flying from kpoc, closest one is the santa fe practice area about 5 miles west. also have used the long beach practice area and the lake matthews practice area.
 
KABQ has 2 practice areas: one is a rectangle stretching north-south from just outside of class C to about 25 miles away, and another at north-west, north of KAEG. The KAEG folks often go west about 10-15 miles along the freeway and practice there, outside of a designated training area.

I was always wondering what authority established these training areas. Publications at FBO are xerocopies of some ancient charts over which the area boundaries are plotted. Some of the charts show Albuquerque NDB, which was removed years back. I am certain that Kirtland command had input into this, since these areas come in publications of the base safety group. I have their "preventing midair collisions" brochure with the areas among other things (like the helicopter routes, F-16 patterns, aerial refueling zones and tracks, etc.). My understanding is that some guys at the airport and some military guys came together and created the training areas, but I am curious how this actually happened.
 
Jeanie said:
From the airport where you train?
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From PNE we go all the way to another state! Across the Delaware river to NJ that is...perhaps 10 miles. Just enough to be clear of the Class D and any approaches.

From LOM, about 10 miles NNW, up by the nuclear plant with cooling towers that you can see from 20-30 miles away. Great reference for lazy-8s.
 
My practice area is the sky. ;)

(The official ones are within similar distances as posted here, whatever "official" means about a practice area.)
 
dmccormack said:
No matter the distance, don't ever think you're somehow "protected" in "what everybody knows is the practice area!"

:no:
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I don't go to the practice area simply because.. it's the practice area..
 
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