Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:


"Chuck Forsberg" wrote in message
news

If practicing an approach under the hood in VFR wx to
an uncontrolled airport, give your position in terms
that VFR only pilots can understand. Many VFR pilots
don't know what an outer markers or intersections are,
let alone their locations. Same goes for the IFR missed
approach procedure.


Advisory Circular 90-42F "Traffic Advisory Practices at Airports Without
Operating Control Towers" provides examples of self-announce
phraseologies for various situations. It provides the following for
practice instrument approaches:

"STRAWN TRAFFIC, CESSNA TWO ONE FOUR THREE QUEBEC
(NAME-FINAL APPROACH FIX) INBOUND DESCENDING
THROUGH (ALTITUDE) PRACTICE (TYPE) APPROACH RUNWAY
THREE FIVE STRAWN"


How does that help a VFR pilot who not only has no approach plates but
doesn't even know what the final approach fix is?



It doesn't. I'm just the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger.

I wasn't shooting. You'd know if I was shooting. :-)


I usually state where I am in relatio to the field, so many miles at a
given
direction along with altitude and then mention that I'm on a practice
approach.



As do most. Personally, I prefer to hear reports over a known fix or
landmark or a DME distance. That way I know it's an accurate report and not
a semi-wild-ass-guess. I think you'd be surprised how inaccurate some
reports are.

I usually give the distance from the GPS, but, yes, I've heard some
really flakey reports. I was flying into AOO this summer and reported
10 miles out. A split second later a Piper Lance (as I recall) reported
10 miles out from a different direction. Since I was flying an Arrow, I
assumed he was faster than me and would get there slightly ahead of me.
I was on the downwind side of the active runway so I entered the
pattern abeam the field. I still couldn't pick him up and assumed he
was coming across the runway into the pattern so I was slightly
concerned about meeting him head-on. I called entering downwind abeam
the runway and had my landing light on so he could see me better. He
then called entering downwind abeam also. I was about to break off and
climb out when I picked him up. He was still two miles from the field
opposite the field from me and wasn't even close to the upwind leg let
alone across the field for downwind. And unless he was throttled way
back, he must have been closer to 13-15 miles out on his initial call-up.


Matt