Recent content by TortoiseEnthusiast

Some C172's have those big barn door flaps that extend all the way out to 40 degrees. That can be a handful in gusty winds, and it makes the go around more difficult too. I used 30 degrees for 90% of my landings in the 172. Basically anytime other than when I was either trying to land extra...

There's no displaced threshold on 14L at Crystal. There is 500ft of paved surface extending off the end of the runway but it's marked with yellow chevrons and is only useful as an emergency stopping area in the event of a runway overrun, so you shouldn't feel bad about not insisting on 14L.

It all comes down to the environment you're accustomed to. If you're training out of a towered field and all you've ever known is communicating with that tower, going to an uncontrolled field and broadcasting out into the CTAF void and getting no response (or worse, a whole bunch of responses at...

I'm not sure that's too odd. I did my PPL training at a relatively sleepy class delta with friendly controllers and working the radio there was pretty easy from day 1. It's also reassuring as a student to have them telling you exactly what to do as far as pattern entry and exit goes. Going into...

This is also a popular practice area for students at MIC and FCM, so get on flight following and keep a good traffic scan going. If approach isn't going to let you into the bravo they will usually give you a "descend and maintain 3500 or below" when you're ~10 minutes out from the 4000ft shelf...

I'm based at MIC and am quite familiar with the airspace in question here. When MSP is operating on 12L/12R (i.e. most of the time) they're not likely to be letting VFR aircraft into the bravo above FCM. If you're just going to clip the edge of a shelf on a descent or something like that just...