Best way to prepare for a flight to a new area.

[Matthew]

The best way to prepare for a flight to a new area:

Is the weather good?
Is the airplane good?
Is the fuel level good?
Am I good?
Fly to a new area.

—

Seriously, though, sometimes there can be some complicated airspace so study the charts and plan a way through or around it.

This isn’t much different from the long cross country we all did.

 

[ateamer]

One thing I do is look at the airport on Google Earth from overhead and side angles, and see what there is nearby that could be mistaken for the aiport.

 

[Lucky man]

Great question

I'd suggest the following:
1. Sit down with a CFI and come up with a weather flow to check the weather before every flight. Print it out on a sheet of paper and do it before every flight.
2. Get foreflight and learn how to us it well enough so you can put in your flight and then fly your flight in foreflight. You can also review the airport you will flying into and see a cross section of your flight. You can also look in the comments about the airport and see what other pilots say. Foreflight is pretty cool.
3. Look in the AFD and call the airport manager. We did this for a recent flight and it really helped us plan when we flew into a small lake to fly fish
4. Look up where you are going on Youtube and see how other people do the flight.
5. Ask other pilots if they have made the flight and get their tips.
4. Us flight following, so if you are going to make a mistake (like go into class B airspace of the coast at SFO, like I did) on the flight they will let you know and help you. My CFI does this anytime he flies somewhere new.
5. Take a CFI with you the first time you go somewhere new. It's fun to fly with a buddy and I'm flying up to Columbia (O22) in the morning with one of my CFI's to get lunch and put a new registration sticker on a car we keep at the airport.

I'm sure there are more tips and great job asking the question

 

[Lucky man]

One other thing, my very first flight instructor is still an active duty fighter pilot and he like to have a sheet of paper for each flight that showed:

He'd draw a line down the middle of the sheet
On the left side top he'd have his departure airport
Atis
CTAF
Ground
Tower
Runway sketch & length
Runway pattern (RP 32)
Arrow with expected departure/arrival path
All this in a 2x2 box

He'd then do the same thing for the enroute airports and finish with the destination airport

In his plane he'd also monitor the fuel on this sheet of paper

He liked doing this because he could quickly figure out his options if there was a problem.

He also started using Foreflight while he was teaching me and really thought it was great.

The cool thing is you will eventually have a book of flights you can refer back to

 

[Justin M]

I was mainly trying to figure out how others prepare for flights into new areas and in areas with more congested airspace, my question was worded weirdly sorry.

Your question is a good one.

Keep asking questions, keep learning , keep growing.

There is a lot to learn from others who have more experience to enhance your skills beyond what your instructors taught in those first hours of flying.

Seeing what others do will polish and improve on those initial cross countries. A lot of people here on the forum are brilliant (not me, but others) and are happy to share their experiences. Don't let those who forget that you have a license to learn daunt you.

Like @Domenick , I created an excel to print out a navigation plan (two things I enjoy, excel and flight planning). At the top, I have a few items that I frequently need: the VOR frequencies and radials near my destination (the plane I fly has no GPS), extra items beyond "SAFETY" when briefing a passenger (what to expecting on landing: nose high, stall horn so they aren't startled on landing).

One note I added is to remember to smile when walking into the FBO. When I'm concentrating on doing something I've never done before, my resting face reflects my focus instead of the fun I'm having.

I love flying to new airports. I hope you have a ton of fun doing it.

 

[Zeldman]

I did multi comm before single comm, and when getting weather to prepare for the oral, the examiner asked me why I was checking the weather.

I strained my little pea brain to come up with a decent explanation of why I needed to check weather. He stops me midway through and tells me, ''You are going to be a commercial pilot. No need to check weather because you are going anyway''...

I laughed, but after I started my first 135 job I realized he was right.

 

[William Pete Hodges]

If you are new to flight planning I highly recommend SkyVector. It is an on-line flight planner with a lot of capabilities and it is free. You register for an account then open it on your computer. It doesn't work as well from tablets or phones, but it does work with most functions. I use Snip to copy and print my route pages into a trip book. It is easy to adjust your route to avoid special use airspace or terrain. And easy to pick out unique VFR visual checkpoints on the chart. It creates a useful flight plan log and I have used it for years.

 

[William Pete Hodges]

SkyVector also allows you to save your routes for future use and save flight characteristics of multiple airplanes. It is a good tool and it is free.