aplund

"Radar sector" is a term I haven't heard used before. Is this synonymous with "centre" frequency?

I'm not sure what gave you the impression that I wasn't briefed properly? We brief every flight exhaustively. My question was in relation to a generic set of rules. It's all well and good to teach people to "say this" or "do this", but without the why and the context then your learning (from my experience as a student and a (non-aviation) teacher) is less rounded. I'm not expecting my instructors to have all the answers to this. It seems to involve knowing the history and specific information not contained in ERSA or any other document. There is generally limited time for briefings, so I try and keep focused on the current flight. I sometimes ask more generic questions, but as then answers (as seen in the length of response to this thread) can be rather long winded and takes up valuable time. This forum is a great resource and I thought I'd put the question here. I think someone implied this from what I said about being told that as we descended into Class G due to the cloud that "control services terminated". This seems to be common terminology. It just makes me think of a quite popular movie, but that's just my lack of exposure to these terms. I wasn't insinuating that the approach controller was in a foul mood. Just finally, did a navigation exercise through YBSU yesterday. It all proceeded exactly as expected. However, we were told to join a right base for runway 18. After the read-back I set our heading appropriately and began a decent to circuit altitude. My instructor jumped straight on the radio to request a visual approach (as I think he thought I forgot this part). I thought that the circuit joining instructions were sufficient for this, but anyway, as you guys say I'm still learning this stuff. But it turns out that I was right and the response from the tower was "As per Class D procedures...".

Well, what actually happened is a bit different to what was described here. It is company policy to get the code on the ground at YBAF from BN CTR. Which we did. Then when outside YBAF control zone we requested clearance from Brisbane Approach. After a few minutes of this, to maintain VMC, we had to descend into Class G as we couldn't keep under the 1000' vertical class C cloud clearance. So the approach controller "terminated" our service (this always seems like an odd word to use here, but I guess I understand), and told us to contact the tower directly before entering the control zone. Having a look at the airspace, I think we could have flown under the 1500' class C control area and perhaps just called the tower directly, but I'm not sure about this.

That's what has happened. I'm pretty early on in this, as I've only done two navs and will be doing my third soon. For the basic handling and circuits, I was just told "do this", or "say this" and over the course of a dozen flights, you just get into a routine. This seems to be what is happening for the navs. But I have two concerns with this approach. I don't like learning things without understanding the "whys" behind them and I do want to cover the future situations of knowing what happens when you are dropped into a completely different location. This is a real possibility as my work tends to want to move me round a bit.

I have the VFRG. Which section tells who in particular to call and what to say to them?

I've done a couple of navs. But I'm still all at sea as to how the control of airspace actually works. It seems like there is so many special cases and it is hard to think if generic rules to cover most cases. CTAF calls I think I'm fine with. But things like requesting clearance for class c and class d airspace confused me greatly. At Archerfield we just call the tower from class g and all is good. But for gold coast you don't. In fact you don't call approach even, its Brisbane centre, on a different frequency from that at Archerfield. But you don't tell them everything, you give most of the information to approach. Gah! I'm desperately trying to find out where all these rules are written down. ERSA has some information about frequencies, but where is the proper procedure for doing the example I have given above. I'm told the VFRG has it, but when I look up clearances in that, it doesn't mention anything about who you contact and what your meant to say to each person. Is there a resource out there that helps me find the information?

Are the line levels and impedance of aviation headset speakers and microphones compatible with consumer electronics? My headset is a million times better than any other setup I have. Particularly I'm wanting to use it for skype meetings as I have a lot of them for work and my colleagues complain about the audio on my end when using the inbuilt speakers and mic on my computer. In the past, I learnt the hard way to not mix mic inputs with line outputs, even though a "straight through" setup was reccomended to me (was amateur radio and not aviation equipment). Is it possible to find a set of straight through plugs from the dual GA setup to a 3.5mm set of plugs for a laptop?

I'm currently in a self-sponsored PPL program at YBAF. I started at the beginning of November 2015. I've finished the basic handling and the solo circuits and training area solo. I'm currently into the navigation part of the course. When I told my family, friends and work colleagues that I was going to do a PPL course, the most common response was"why the hell would you do that?" And to be honest, the thought crosses my mind sometimes as well. I cannot help but think about a promise I made myself as a teenager. My family would often drive past YCAB as we lived that way and I distinctly remember being transfixed on the departing and arriving aircraft. I promised myself that I would learn to fly, and part of why I'm doing this is in an attempt to fulfil that promise. I have always had interests in tech and engineering. Aviation has always been a part of that, though at times a very small part. Learning the details of hows and the whys has always been of interest to me. The last part is just the shear thrill of it all. My wife doesn't understand this part at all; maybe it's a male thing, I'm not sure. Though just half way through the course, with about 22 hours up, I've had some fantastic times. The turning point that pushed me over the edge to sign up was reading the book "Take Your Wings and Fly" by Jason Smart. This book is a journal format of his experience in obtaining a PPL in the UK. I found it a totally enthralling read and couldn't put the book (or rather, kindle) down. I'm am aware of how fortunate I am to be able to undertake this. I'm an academic at UQ and I'm employed to do research in quantum computing. This pays well but isn't that secure as it is always under short term contracts. Though to date, I've been paid to do my research continuously for 7 years now which is pretty good. But in the background there is always the concern of not getting the next position. I'm not pursuing a career change, as many people think I'm doing. I absolutely love my current job. Though, one of the feeling you get during the course is the eye-watering costs involved in general aviation and that you really should go down a commercial path to make it "worth it". I managed to get two undergraduate degrees, one with honours and complete a PhD for about the same dollar value as this PPL program will take!! Admittedly university fees were lower when I started 17 years ago than today, so the comparison is not that fair, but it's at least an order-of-magnitude comparison. The school I'm at is the AAA. I'd really like to get involved with more events through the RQAC, though the current issues I have is time management (work, two children, completing the PPL, etc.) and managing the costs involved. My next lesson is another navigation exercise, YBAF-YTFD-YWCK-YBAF. Will clearly involve a diversion of some sort, so lots of fun. I've had a poke around this forum, and there are lots of great discussions here. Thank you to the people who run this site. I personally think it looks fantastic!