Gateway Pilots

During the November 6 meeting, Steve Moore from St. Louis TRACON educated us in the most entertaining fashion. Not only did we learn a lot, we laughed even more. Here are a couple of tidbits that I picked up.

• Ask for VFR flight following, especially when fling over the river near Creve Coeur airport where, “you have company.” Not only does flight following enhance safety, it is a perfect example of your tax dollars at work. Since you paid for it, you might as well use it.
• When shooting practice IFR approaches, go ahead and file an IFR flight plan. You will get the full range of IFR services instead of “maintain VFR at or below 2600.” As a bonus, it’s less work for the controller because all of your info will already be in the system when you call on initial contact.
• Speaking of initial contact, when calling for VFR flight following, just give your identification on the initial call. E.g., “St. Louis Approach, November 7430 Juliet.” Then stop and wait for the controller to call you back. Any additional info on the initial contact will be lost because the controller is almost certainly busy with another task and not ready to process it.

Bonus: if you attended this meeting, you can get 1 WINGS credit for it.

Did you know that flight service has more than one phone number? Of course, we all know about 800-WX-BRIEF but were you aware they they recently added a phone number dedicated to IFR clearance delivery? Here are a few

Weather Briefing: 1-800-WX-BRIEF (1-800-992-7433)

Clearance Delivery: 1-888-766-826

NOTAMS: 1-877-4-US-NTMS (1-877-487-6867)

When you call the weather briefing number (800-WX-BRIEF), you need to press “1″ to speak to a briefer. You are then prompted for the two digit code for your state. How do you remember the code? Easy, just press the letters for the state abbreviation on the phone. For instance, Missouri is “MO” so you would press 6-6. If you are in Illinois, press “IL” which is 4-5.

You will find a complete list of phone numbers, codes, etc., on the Pilot Tips page of the AFSS Pilot Information Portal.

There is one more number that you might want to keep handy, the FAA’s FSS hotline. Call 888-FLT-SRVC (8880358-7782) to register complaints about Lockheed-Martin AFSS.