I would like to talk to you about Civilian Airspace Categories.

(in Simpleplanes, Everywhere is class G, and i'm gonna show you why)

Airspaces are areas in the sky used to mark areas such as Airports and airport approach and departure headings, Altitudes, and every Area above the country that controls these Airspaces.

Airspaces have different sizes and shapes according to their types and class.

Airspaces have different requirements both from the pilot and the aircraft in order to Enter, or fly in some of them.
There are Four types of Arispaces:
Controlled, Uncontrolled, Special Use, Other Airspace.

In my Communications Tutorial All communication was done in Controlled airspace simulation.
These Classes of airspaces, are Tower controlled, with ALL Communication relayed through an Air Traffic Control (ATCT), or any Control Tower.
(minimum aircraft to aircraft communication in the air.)

Today I will be focusing on Uncontrolled Airspaces.
These Classes of Airspace have No tower, and all communication is done between Aircraft, and and whoever is on the radio frequency.
Some Controlled airspaces have a Tower that closes at night, so at night they become Class G Airspace.

However, Every airspace has its own Specific set of Radio Frequencies that all aircraft flying through should switch their Radios to in order to communicate.
When entering an Uncontrolled airspace it is Important to radio the fact that you just entered the area, and other aircraft flying can and will respond to you with their location and heading if they're in the area.

AIRCRAFT FLYING ONLY IN CLASS G, ARE NOT REQUIRED TO HAVE A RADIO ON BOARD!!!

(hmmm.. kind'a like the chat in Simpleplanes MP... you can type what you want, but no guarantee of response)

There are 2 Uncontrolled Classes:
- Class F Airspace - Rarely used worldwide
- Class G Airspace - Most common worldwide

Because Class F is rarely used, I will be talking about Class G.

Class G Airspace is the airspace that fills the "gaps" between different Controlled airspaces, Meaning: When your flying between airports, below 5000 feet MSL than you're probably flying in G airspace..
Class G starts from Ground altitude and a MAX ceiling of 14,500 feet (4,400 m) MSL. #(there are Controlled airspaces above, but not in simpleplanes)#
And also because Aircraft that are Equipped to fly ONLY in Class G Airspace, are FORBIDDEN from entering Clouds, or fly in bad weather (i.e. Gliders, hot air baloons)

(hmmm... simpleplanes doesn't really have Bad weather... you can always fly)

Now you might think that all this sounds perfect...
And yeah, it's the best Airspace to fly if you want to do some Practice maneuvers as a student, or low flying on your day off........

Until someone Else is flying 1 mile to your left heading straight for you...
And it's G airspace, so no matter what you call on the Radio, the guy doesn't have one of those...

From this point your flying just became an emergency situation.
If you see it in time, your good...

(true story from my training)

(sounds like every day in simpleplanes MP)

So, how do you communicate in an Airspace when you don't know what's flying around?

Going back to those 4 Steps of Communication:

1- Who are you talking to:# i.e other aircraft/open radio

2- You:# your Aircraft's name

3-Where are you:# your Distance from Landmarks/other aircraft/Airport, Speed, Altitude & Heading

4-What do you want:# in this case Where are you going? what do you want to say?, Your not asking for permission.

Using the Same Simulated Flight plan I Used in my Communication Tutorial
(too lazy to make a new one)

Starting at Wright Apron B:

Because your not waiting for any Clearance or anything like that, Radio in Class G can be a little different.

Your first call as Hawk3 will be:

"1-Wright Traffic, 2-Hawk3, 3-at Wright airport, 4-Taxiing Delta to Takeoff Runway36"

............... ummm.... nobody's flying......

well you did your part, you let the Airspace know your gonna takeoff ;)

But it's important to call again When entering the Runway.

"Wright Traffic, Hawk3, Taking off Wright Runway36, Heading to Yeager"

you hear:

"Wright traffic, N827GX, 20 miles southwest of Wright Airport, Heading to land at Wright runway36, Hawk3 have a safe flight"

well, he's 20 miles out, and your already rolling, so you can call back:

#"N827GX, thanks bud, have a good one"#

Good, your on your way, and your probably gonna hear:

"Wright traffic, N827GX, On final approach Wright runway36"

well, next area where someone is probably flying is Yeager.

But you just remembered that you and the pilot of N827GX both have Buggies parked at wright, and stunt driving sounds like fun.....

"Wright Traffic, Hawk3, about 30 miles North of Wright airport, at 10,000 feet going 250 mph , Turning Heading South to Wright airport"

if no response

at 10 miles:

"Wright Traffic, Hawk3, about 10 miles North of Wright airport, at 5000 feet going 250 mph , Approaching to land at Wright Runway18"

what's the point in going around back to RWY36...

"Hawk3, this is Red Monkey, I'm taking off Runway36"

"Red Monkey, Hawk3, I'll join Right pattern to Runway 36, have a safe flight"

next will be Calling when your turning Final

"Wright Traffic, Hawk3, Turning Right Final, Runway36"

and then, if anybody is at the airport you can say where your going, but you don't have to...

as you can see, Simpleplanes Class G communication is basically telling people where you are and what your doing to maintain safety when there's no Tower to communi;)

FREE EXTRA INFO
:
I would like to Explain what are AGL and MSL altitudes:
-A.G.L. = Above Ground Level, meaning that when your altimeter is reading 100 Meters AGL, Your are flying 100 Meters above the ground.
If your reading 0 Meters AGL, congrats! you either landed with no landing gear or you crashed.
If you are flying at 300 Meters AGL above the sea, you might be flying 10 Meters MSL!

-M.S.L = Mean Sea Level, Now if you are reading 100 Meters MSL, your flying 100 Meters above Sea Level.
unlike real flying tho, you CAN build things in SP that can go -50 Meters Below Sea level...
If your flying IRL at -50 Meters MSL ....... well there are 4 options:
1- They'll write about your flight in tomorrows Newspapers...
2- You really need to wake up from this dream.. or maybe 5 more minutes...
3- You forgot to setup your Altimeter to the airports altitude you took off from..... well now that was stupid of you now wasn't it... :P
4- You are flying low over the dead sea... or another places that is lower than sea level.

Simpleplanes Altimeter is set to Meters above MSL
Commercial Pilots IRL use Feet (ft) above both MSL or AGL.
(or according to what is used in different countries and installed in the aircraft)

Check out my other information posts:
Navigation/Position Lights

Runway Numbers.... What How and why

Traffic Patterns... Left, Right, up and down

Airport Lights basics

Radio calls, how to Communicate as a Pilot in command.

Thanks KingHandspider on his awesome:
Airfield Charts and data

If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

I will probably do another more in depth look at Controlled airspaces.

Any other Aviation Lessons you'd like me to make?
Post them in the Comments.

I NEED IDEAS PEOPLE!!!

JK, hope you liked it :)